Sugar Mountain reports a big Opening Day | Weather

SUGAR MOUNTAIN, NC -  A foot of snow triggered by super storm Sandy piled up some history in the North Carolina mountains. Sugar Mountain opened today, and it's the earliest opening in the resorts history, by nearly a week.

There was a pretty good crowd when they opened two of the slopes Wednesday morning. 2 of 20 slopes are opened at Sugar Mountain, and with school systems out and classes canceled, that meant a lot of families could go skiing today.

Gunther Jochl runs Sugar Mountain, but never before on Halloween.

"We're skiing, can you believe it, it's like Christmas, unbelievable," Jochl told WBTV.  "We have anywhere from about 9 to 12 inches of natural and we made a bunch of snow on that."

And with all the natural and man made snow, and favorable conditions, it means and a jump start of anywhere from one to three weeks for one of the area's biggest industries.

Hundreds came out for Opening Day, they had to by gas to get to the resort, many rented skis and boots from Sugar Mountain or any of several other ski shops, and they had to eat, so it's a positive sign for the local economy.

"It's fantastic, we've never skied in October, skied at Halloween, so, it's history for Sugar Mountain," Jochl added. "We're seeing some cold weather again next week that probably will allow us to make some more snow and build on this base, and we'd like to build on the base and stay open.  Thanksgiving will be our first big holiday weekend and we'd like to have as much opened as possible."

Cataloochee in Maggie Valley also opened Wednesday, thanks to 8 inches of snow in that area. Crowds were also good at that resort.