It's Official! Snowmaking starts tonight!

When West Mountain starts the snow guns it means only one thing. Skiing is officially here and a long range forecast of cold weather assures piles of man made snow. Typically, this little mountain can cover top to bottom on 4 or 5 trails in about 4 days. The long range cold weather forecast insures that the money spent on snow making will not melt away.

This time of the the year is pretty much at the mercy of cold temps, early snow storms and the vagaries of weather patterns. It is shaping up to be as normal as Eastern, Western and European winters can be.

The Northeast: The biggies have opened around Thanksgiving with mostly man made snow but there have been a couple of early snow storms that left its mark in November. In NY: Whiteface, Gore have opened with limited skiing. In Vermont, Killington, Stowe, Bromeley, Stratton, Mt. Snow are also open but with out the natural snow, skiing will be limited to how fast snow making can cover trails before Christmas and the holidays. If it stays cold expect new trails opened daily.

Out West it's Vail, Aspen, Loveland. Arapahoe, Breckenridge, Copper and Telluride. Vail is hosting the World Cup at Beaver Creek and the downhill race this weekend on the Birds of Prey course. Still not a lot of natural snow yet and no big dumps in the forecast. However, they are getting those daily 4- 6" snowfalls overnight. It's piling up!

Farther west The Sierras and Lake Tahoe are waiting for El Nino and those wet Pacific storms to kick in. Squaw Valley and Heavenly are searching for snow. Sun Valley (my favorite) had to postpone a Thanksgiving opening due to the lack of the white stuff and cold temps to make snow.

Europe seems to getting it's share of early snow in the Alps. Val d'Isere, Zermatt and Cortina D'Ampezzo all getting the white stuff for great skiing around the holidays. Look for more snow in the Northern Alps.

If you live in the Albany,NY area check out West Mountain this weekend. Willard, Bousquets and Royal Mountain will be open too. Oak Mountain is open for tubing and will open after Christmas for skiing. Call Maple Ridge for their opening date.

Get those skis ready. Skiing is here.
See you on the hill.
The Ski Traveler