Sugar Mountain Is The First Resort Open On The East Coast
Sugar Mountain is the first resort to drop its ropes on the East Coast. Ski season has arrived in North Carolina.
Sugar, the ski area with the most vertical drop in the Tar Heel State, had its opening day on November 11, 2025. It is the earliest opening day since the 2019-2020 season, when the ski area opened up on November 9.
This is not the earliest ever opening day: back in 2012, Sugar dropped its ropes on Halloween.
Sugar Mountain opened with five trails: Northridge, Switchback, Upper and Lower Flying Mile, and the Magic Carpet area. The Summit Express chairlift will run as well.
The early opening day is thanks to some frigid temperatures that came in over the weekend. Seven inches of fresh snowfall fell on the mountain. Temperatures have since eased up a little: The summit was 34 degrees as of noon on November 12.
Monday night, temperatures could dip into the single digits. The resort is expecting between 8” and 24” covering the slopes by the end of this weekend. A full day of skiing and riding starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. Those who buy half-day tickets will be able to ride from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Those looking for night riding and the twilight ticket – which allows riders to use the chairlift from noon to closing time around 10 p.m., will have to wait a few more weeks for that information.
Cataloochee, which is located in a different part of the state, over by Asheville, opened just a day later, on November 12, 2025.
Sugar’s last day of the 2024-2025 season was on March 29, 2025. Though it didn’t make it to April, the ski area outlasted all of its neighbors. That same snowmaking capability that allowed Sugar to become the first resort in the east to open this season, is the reason it was able to outlast its competition last season, as the hot North Carolina sun beat down on skiers and riders.
