Main reason the road's closed is weather. When I stopped on sat night (about 11:30 pm... nearly full moon) I glance over and was like "what's that?" then i walk over and i'm like "oh sh*t, it's snow!" That was on the north side of town. My two friends also commented a little later that the temp at the over look we hung out was noticeably warmer than where we had just seen the snow (i'm not sure the elevation change...).

And last night, as we were driving, there was a nice covering of ice on some of the rock faces that are right beside the road. And the rain today doesn't help things.

The stretch that is closed between 191 and 151 is out because of wash out. It was a very wet year for the area, so rock slides and missing roads are a problem on the parkway. It was only recently a section was reopened so you can get to Mount Mitchell from Asheville on the parkway. It was closed to motor and foot traffic and when they first opened it, 1/2 the road was still missing.