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Cataloochee

Home / Ski Resorts / Cataloochee

Cataloochee is a ski area located in the state of North Carolina in USA. The resort is in the town of Maggie Valley, NC.

Season Passes

Cataloochee is a part of the INDY Ski Pass system. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the group.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Cataloochee around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Cataloochee Terrain Overview

Cataloochee has a total of 18 ski trails, which are serviced by 5 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Cataloochee is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 50 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 20 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.2 square kilometers.

Cataloochee's slopes see on average 50 inches (1.5 meters) of snowfall a year.

Trails
Total Runs
18
Ski Lift
Lifts
5
Skier
Skiable Acres
50(0 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
50"(1,524 cm)

Cataloochee Elevation

Cataloochee has a summit elevation of 5,400 feet, or 1,646 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 4,660 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 740 feet (226 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

Cataloochee's summit elevation is higher than average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are much higher than this one (some stretch to 12,000 feet!), but it is not small by any stretch of the imagination.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
5,400'(1,646 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
740'(226 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
4,660'(1,420 m)

Cataloochee Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
28.2out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Cataloochee is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area. It is in fact one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. This is due to it having 44% of its trails are rated as "beginner", and a vertical drop of only 740 feet.

 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Cataloochee has 50 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Since Cataloochee is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area, it has 44% of its trails are rated as "beginner-level". 39% trails are rated as intermediate.
Green Circle
Beginner
44%(22 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
39%(20 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
17%(9 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Cataloochee good for beginners?

Cataloochee is a very beginner-friendly course. In fact, it is one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. 44% of its trails are rated as "beginner".

Cataloochee Location

Cataloochee is located in the state of North Carolina, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Maggie Valley, NC.

Address:
Maggie Valley, NC 28785 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
cataloochee.com

GPS Coordinates:
35.63000, -83.09000

Getting to Cataloochee

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Cataloochee), its coordinates of 35.63000, -83.09000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Maggie Valley, NC to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Cataloochee.

NameCodeCityDistance
Charlotte Douglas International AirportCLTCharlotte, NC124 mi
Hartsfield-Jackson International AirportATLAtlanta, GA157 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Cataloochee.

NameCodeCityDistance
Asheville Regional AirportAVLAsheville, NC34 mi
McGhee Tyson AirportTYSKnoxville, TN52 mi
Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA AirportTRIBristol/Johnson/Kingsport, TN70 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Cataloochee, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Cataloochee.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Ober GatlinburgGalinburg, TN3,300 ft34%27 mi
Sapphire ValleyCashiers, NC3,450 ft15%35 mi
Wolf RidgeMars Hill, NC4,700 ft31%40 mi
Sugar MountainBanner Elk, NC5,300 ft33%77 mi
Beech MountainBanner Elk, NC5,505 ft38%79 mi
AppalachianBlowing Rock, NC4,000 ft34%88 mi

Cataloochee Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation5,400 ft
Base Elevation4,660 ft
Vertical Drop740 ft
Trails18
(44% Beginner,  39% Intermediate,  17% Expert)
Lifts5
Skiable Acres50
Avg. Annual Snowfall50 inches
Cataloochee Mountain Stats
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