Talk about pent up demand. After two solid weeks of dumps and every uphiller in the Northeast sharing evidence of record snowpack on the Northern Spine of Vermont the stoke was high and so were the lines for first chairs on opening day. Don't let those photos fool you however, once everyone loaded and spread out it wasn't bad at all generally.
We had 18 ski areas in the Northeast open by Saturday, some for the season, and some just for a weekend taste. The biggest surprises came from Stowe who dispelled their past conservatism under the leadership of Mike Giorgio and dropped ropes on over 200 acres of terrain even though there wasn't a 10 foot base, and kudos to Hunter, Jiminy Peak, Wachusett, and Bolton Valley as well for pulling off early openings. By this coming Saturday we should be seeing somewhere around 30 ski areas operating in NY, MA, VT, NH, and ME, but there is not enough cold to the south of those states this week to make things rock and roll quite yet.
As far as the weather goes, this is going to be one hell of an active week. We have 4 different systems coming through by Sunday starting with a light system today, and then a warm up with a system on Wednesday and then Thursday that will bring wind to the region through Saturday morning along with a cool down and what looks like a pretty decent dose of lake effect and upsloping snow. This is ill timed for skiing and riding during the holiday unfortunately, but far from the worst we've seen. If you are traveling the only real concerns beyond the mountains is the lake effect in NY. Here's the bird's eye view through Sunday.
I'm going to dive into the details on each of these systems at an appropriate level given the distances from the events. If you are new to Snowology it's important to understand that we earn your trust and your subscriptions by being accurate from an appropriate distance rather than overpromising or teasing you with every 15 day out fantasy storm because you can't ski hype! We also know the Northeast better than anyone and we tie the weather back into the conditions and the operational challenges that you might experience.
