NO Adventure

I remember the first time I had heard of Cloudmont. I grew up fortunate enough to take snowboarding trips all around North America – Whistler, Park City, Vail. Weeks before one of these trips of my youth, when the internet was in its early days, I looked at a list of clickable states on a ski conditions site.

Alabama?

Of course I had to click.  I saw that there was one lonely “resort” by the name of Cloudmont. There were, of course, reviews of the resort online where anonymous smartass posters left knee-slappers like, “Forget the Alps, Cloudmont has the best powder!” As the southernmost skiing area in the U.S., Cloudmont boasts that you can golf and ski in the same day – which is unique, at least, if not desirable.

Watch these rednecks ski – I love how she stops.

The ski season is tentatively from xmas time to around March, depending on how cold it is. Ninety percent or more of the snow here is machine blown and as you can imagine, warm weather is a constant problem. The vertical drop from the peak to the bottom of the lift is nothing to write home about, but then again, this is the closest skiing/riding to New Orleans at just under 7 hours.

Worst night skiiers ever at Cloudmont:

This kid isn’t so terrible:

Years later, I actually visited the resort in the summer time while rock climbing in the area. It looked pretty much like I thought it would. BTW, there are chalets to rent at Cloudmont, but no restaurant. There is, however, a snack bar; yes – they have nachos.

If you are willing to drive a little further, I hear Ober Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains is more like a “real” ski resort, but gets stupid crowded during the holidays. Now, I’m not suggesting you go to either of these places as a ski/snowboard vacation, but they might be worth looking into if you were going camping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park or climbing up at Sand Rock in northern Alabama.

Some photos from Ober:

Whatever you choose to do, please help me in trying to convince the Cloudmont staff that they should sell t-shirts and stickers that read “SKI BAMA.”