2004 – Issue 1 (February)

images/voice_uploads/p2coldmountain.gif By Nan Chase At the beginning of December last year, a few weeks before the public release of the film Cold Mountain, I was invited to a Miramax-sponsored press screening in Asheville, N.C. I expected glamor, glitz, klieg lights maybe. But this odd event took place at 10 o’clock one icy morning in a…

A major characteristic of southern Appalachian weather is the large amount of precipitation we receive. Certain locations record the second highest annual rainfall in North America (after the Pacific Northwest), and even fit the definition of a temperate rainforest. Rain is created as a result of the cooling of an air mass. For illustration, consider…

images/voice_uploads/p2cranberry.gif As West Virginia’s Cranberry Wilderness Area is a winter time haven for cross-country skiers and snowshoers, Charleston, West Virginia resident John Edwards wasn’t at all surprised that the outlines of snowshoes in the rock-hard snow were the first tracks he saw as he searched for a campsite high on Kennison Mountain. He chose to…