High Country ski season has strong start, helping mountain economy recover

Two months ago Beech Mountain was largely isolated as a result of outages caused by Helene. Now the surrounding roads have been mostly repaired and the economically important ski season is off to a strong start.

Beech Mountain didn’t get hit as hard by the storm as some of its neighbors, but the communication outages and road closures cut much of the area off from the rest of the world in Helene’s immediate aftermath.

That’s according to Talia Freeman, director of marketing for Beech Mountain Resort. 

Now she says the roads are open, the phones are working and the ski season is off to a good start.

“That week after Christmas is certainly our busiest week of the season," she says. "So right now, lodging is booked on the mountain for the most part, and it's looking like that's still going to align with last year's numbers.”

Freeman says the resort employs about 400 seasonal workers every winter.

A study released last year by a Colorado-based consulting group found that North Carolina’s ski industry provided an economic impact of over $244 million in the 2022-23 season. 

The report looked at six alpine ski resorts including three in the High Country: Appalachian Ski Mountain, Beech Mountain Resort and Sugar Mountain Resort.