Mount Mitchell digs out from record 66 inches of snow

Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the Eastern U.S., took the brunt of the massive snowstorm that swept through Asheville and up the East Coast over the weekend.

With 5 more inches added by early Sunday, Mount Mitchell State Park has seen 66 inches of snowfall. That's  a record surpassing the 50 inches that fell in the Blizzard of 1993, according to the State Climate Office of North Carolina.

“I haven’t heard anywhere else in the nation getting close to those totals,” said meteorologist Jeffrey Taylor with the National Weather Service office in Greer, South Carolina. “Mount Mitchell just happened to be in the sweet spot of this storm."

Snow began to fall in advance of the massive storm with 0.6 inches recorded Wednesday.

Mount Mitchell saw 8.5 inches Thursday and 11 inches Friday. On Saturday, the park was walloped with 41 inches.

“That’s a huge amount,” Taylor said. “That”s getting close to the 50 inches in 24 hours during the superstorm of 1993.”

Rangers dealt with white-out conditions, trying to plow the road up to the station beneath the 6,684-foot peak. “Friday we got hammered. It was brutal,” said Bryan Wilder, park superintendent. “We had 4 or 5 inches an hour, and you really couldn’t tell if you were on the road or  not.”

Crews are using heavy equipment to push the snow from the road and down slopes where they can.

With the wind blowing snowbanks, “we have about six feet of snowpack, give or take,” Wilder said.

Snowplows struggle to keep up with falling snow