Mentone, Alabama — Sweet home Alabama, where the sky was so grey this past weekend.
After not hearing anything about the operation for around a year, a surprising series of events occurred at Cloudmont Ski & Golf Resort. After not operating last year due to the owner facing a family illness, it didn’t seem likely that Cloudmont would operate this winter. While it did operate briefly during the 2022-23 season, they are considering this the first winter it has operated fully in five years. Volunteers, former workers at the ski resort, and the owner’s family put in a strong collective effort to get it open this past weekend.
It opened for the season on Saturday afternoon, but operating wasn’t an easy feat. Cloudmont was initially scheduled to open last Friday evening, but that was moved to the next day due to dangerous road conditions (they aren’t used to the snow down there like we are). Many traveled to see the snow and took the handle tow up the hill to ski the mix of man-made and natural snow.
The ski resort opened again for Sunday afternoon and the last two nights for night skiing. Clement crews plan to remain open each night for the next few days.
Today, Cloudmont announced that it plans to remain open throughout January. Snowmaking crews have continued to hammer the hill, and cold weather means they’ll continue to make it in the evenings for the days ahead.
“We are overwhelmed with the support of ski fans and passionate and willing volunteers are working so hard to re-open for this weekend,“ said Austin Jones, the son of the Cloudmont’s owner, to Chatanoogan.com. “The amount of people coming together to realize this opening from a grass-roots perspective just proves the strong community element we’ve always valued. It’s what Cloudmont was always about, showing people a good time and bringing folks together.”
Moving forward, the operation for Cloudmont remains uncertain due to our warming winters. However, it’s great that people are getting to Ski Bama once again.
Image/Video Credits: @kayla.onthe.coast, Fans of Cloudmont Ski Resort, DeKalb Tourism
