Published: January 31, 2008 11:36 am         

Winter in North Carolina: Snowy escapades at Blowing Rock

My wobbly knee style of skiing’s not pretty like the fast swoops of Red Cross trainees, Army Green Berets and Secret Service agents, but we trained on the same snowy slopes in North Carolina.

Well, sort of. All my training at the French Swiss Ski School at Appalachian Mountain was at the bottom, and the others progressed right to the top.

Two of the five beginners in my class in January headed for the lift chair within an hour to try the steep slopes. Our Swiss instructor Benjamin Marcellin clearly knew how to empower beginners and the skilled, but it didn’t seem meant for me.

"Perhaps with three group lessons," he said, "or a private session all day."

Not to worry if skiing points out your lack of grace when you visit North Carolina’s mountain towns of Beech, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk. Watching the others is perfectly good fun and choosing other snowy sports can fill many days with fun and success.

Tubing, for instance. I had trouble going up hill and down on my skis, but I was a whiz on the big black inner tube at Sugar Mountain – stayed in my own lane, didn’t crash into anybody, kept my balance on the conveyor belt hauling us back to the top and did it all over again.

Even appreciated the 10-year-old girl at the bottom who asked if I’d like some advice.

"'If you go on your belly instead of your fanny, you’ll go faster,'" she said. I kept right on sitting.

Next lesson I signed up for was snowshoeing. Never had tried that. Strapping these big contraptions on to my size 10 hiking boots was harder than walking on them.

Sugar is the mountain that offers this experience. My teacher and guide was a young fellow with his wrist in a cast.

"Snowboarding trick," he owned up.

Guess he felt grounded doing this sport while he healed, but he never frowned about my slower clomping and he didn’t act bored with my chatter, delighted as I was to have the capacity to actually do something on the ski slopes.

That’s where you hike in your snowshoes, up and down and at times, frighteningly, across the path of those fast skiers. I counted on them having mastered the stopping part of skiing better than I did in my one lesson.

I liked pretending I was a pioneer, trekking the frontier after a blizzard. Isn’t that who’s wearing showshoes in the movies?

Ice rinks in these mountain resorts let you do laps and spins, or reach for the wall as you slip. Snake Pond is the place I learned to skate when I was a little girl in New Jersey and I wanted to see what I still could do on these rinks, but opted instead for the new experiences.

Four days weren’t enough to try it all.

Best idea in this region is to flow from one interesting little community to the next, and enjoy all four mountains. Real skiers might consider getting a North Carolina Gold Card for access to Ski Beech, Appalachian Ski Mountain, Sugar Mountain Resort and Hawksnest Resort, plus three other ski spots elsewhere in the state.

Folks like me are better off choosing interesting accommodations in these little towns and villages, enjoying what the skiers probably consider the lesser sports and eating often.

Twenty percent of North Carolina’s certified chefs are right here, and in nearby Boone. I probably had more time and energy for fine dining than skiers do because I quit my snow games earlier and I wasn’t as tired.

They deserve bragging rights, however, and listening to their snowy slope exploits during wine and cheese hour in the mountain inns is the same kind of fun as listening to fishermen just off the trout stream or scuba divers emerging from Caribbean waters.

Finding great food and fine accommodations under the same roof in High Country, North Carolina is a good thing for cold winter nights. Nine degrees, big winds and falling snow was the scene the night traveling partner G.W. and I arrived at the Inn at Crestwood in Blowing Rock.

No four-wheel drive on our Toyota so we wanted to stay put. This family estate set in a mountain ridge became an inn with 34 rooms, four cottages and a spa in 2004 and the little boy who grew up here, Steve Moberg, is thrilled his family place can be shared.

We were thrilled, too, to find a restaurant at the Inn, and a good one. Executive Chef Dominic Geraghty’s warming soups: carrot with coriander, leeks and ginger for me, French onion for G.W., settled us down after the snowy drive

Classically trained in Great Britain, Geraghty pops out of the kitchen into the dining room with its broad views of Grandfather Mountain and the Beech, Hawksnest and Sugar ski resorts to see how you like your steak, or trout with raspberries and to recommend crème brulee and pear almond tarts.

"We make all our own sauces, pates and desserts," chef says. "I want your food to be attractive but not pretentious or intimidating."

Spinach mushroom quiche and breads made early the same day for breakfast, served in front of all those mountain views, kept me out of the spa to linger in the dining room because life was complete.

Almost. Leaning against one of the many stone fireplaces at Crestwood was an old wooden sled, the kind I rode as a kid on neighborhood sidewalks and hills in my hometown.

High Country’s sledding hill is for children only, so I couldn’t recreate my childhood Flexible Flyer sledding memory anywhere. Tubing was the closest thing for grownups.

Blueberry Villa is the other overnight option we checked out, just a little bit north of Banner Elk with access to all the slopes and different snowy views, plus luxurious furnishings and an across-the-backyard walk to the winery featuring North Carolina prize-winning red, white, rose and ice wines.

This very new eight-bedroom villa is set in a 25-year-old blueberry farm. The grape vines are younger, and a testing ground where chemical engineer and vintner Dr. Richard Wolfe leads the way for farmers to change their crops and build solid new agricultural operations.

All you have to do on a visit to Blueberry Villa is enjoy tasting the wines most any time, booking a reservation for a Monday or Tuesday wine dinner with dancing, gazing at the stars during a summer concert on the grounds or calming yourself in the Travertine marble Jacuzzi tub found in each room.

Round the corner from Blueberry Villa and Banner Elk Winery - which means many curves on these High Country North Carolina roads – is some fun shopping, definitely not a mall.

Mast General Store opened in 1883 and reserves a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Six more are open in North and South Carolina and Tennessee, but the original is in Valle Crucis in the old post office.

We bought an oil lamp because it seemed appropriate to the history of the place, but lots of modern stuff is there too. Banjo pickers and guitar players hang out around the pot–bellied stove and silk ties and hi-tech thermal undies hang on racks next to serious hiking boots and winter-weight work pants.

I don’t have fun in malls, but this place I liked. In fact, I also hung out at Fred’s General Mercantile in Beech with a deli and incredible breakfast biscuits as well.

Each of these little towns around and between the ski slopes and Christmas tree farms include downtowns with lively shops, galleries, performance centers and restaurants.

In Beech, population 380, the town clerk is also a chef, and can be hired to cook for you if you choose to rent a home instead of staying at an inn. For dinner out, Jackalope’s View at Archers Inn has a broad menu and panoramic views.

Blowing Rock expects you to discover fine dining based on the merits of the cooking and the look of the place. No neon lights here and no drive-throughs.

Locally grown seems to matter, too. My pork chop at Storie Street Grill grew up at nearby Hickory Nut Gap Farm. Don’t suppose local is the claim for the oysters in the shrimp and grits appetizer here and I don’t know the source of their citrus, but the lemon pie is refreshing after a day in the snow and a long, lingering dinner.

Lingering works in High Country, North Carolina.



Christine Tibbetts writes for The Tifton (Ga.) Gazette.