It’s a good start to the season in many parts of North America. Last weekend around 50 ski areas were open – a very high number as it wasn’t even mid-November, and many were reporting their earliest opening for several years, some for decades.
This week around 100 centres are open, many targeting Thanksgiving as a key US holiday coming up later this week.
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The Northwest and California have seen the biggest snowfalls, with several resorts including, Squaw, Lake Louise and Whistler (pictured top, video above) reporting 50-200cm of fresh snow. Whistler and Squaw are two of the resorts opening this weekend.
Mammoth and Whistler have had huge snowfalls, both reporting around two metres/six feet of new snow at their summits.
The Midwest has had cold temperatures allowing the dozens of small centres there to open thanks to their snowmaking.
Dozens of ski areas have opened in the last week, or will open shortly, in New England and the Northeast too where there are mixed conditions with resorts largely relying on snowmaking but getting a little fresh natural snow at times too. Killington is pictured above.
It’s not quite the perfect start to the season everywhere though – some ski areas in Colorado and Utah as well as New Mexico, including Monarch and Alta, announced they were delaying (or at lest “reviewing”) their opening dates due to unseasonably warm temperatures there. But things have improved a lot this weekend with many of these areas blanketed by 30cm of fresh snow in the past few days.