With many western areas opening this weekend, the early season is becoming more clearly defined now. Wolf Creek, Brian Head, Big Sky and Utah's Cottonwood Canyons have excellent conditions for so early in the year. In general, current Utah and Colorado conditions are as good as early December of a normal year, while only the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada (the big winners of the past 2 seasons) lag behind normal YTD snowfall. As major snowfall is not expected in the next week, I am hesitant to predict a strong holiday season except for those few areas enumerated above where a sufficient base already exists.
California: There was a substantial storm the last weekend of October. Total October snow: 47" Kirkwood, 44" upper and 9" lower Squaw, 34" Mammoth. The Sierra has had about 1.5 foot of snow so far in November, but it has been very cold with lots of snowmaking. Expect many more intermediate runs open for Thankgiving than normal, but still limited advanced terrain until the natural base build up more. Kirkwood, Mammoth, Sierra-at-Tahoe and Sugar Bowl are all 30-50% open. Heavenly has upper runs open in both states and may extend snowmaking down to both base areas by Thanksgiving if the weather remains cold. Southern California areas are open on snowmaking and Arizona will have skiing at Thankgiving on a 22-40 inch natural base: very unusual this early. See Current California Ski Conditions for more details on Southern California and Mammoth.
Pacific Northwest: The natural snow base is only about a foot, except perhaps in the Whistler alpine. Blackcomb is 15% open this weekend primarily on snowmaking. Timberline has skiing on its permanent snowfield.
Canadian Rockies and Interior B.C.: Lake Louise has opened a few snowmaking runs. Fernie is still installing its new quad, and from the pictures the snow cover is less than a foot with lots of shrubbery showing. I would avoid holiday bookings in the Banff and Okanagan regions where snow tends to accumulate gradually.
U. S. Northern Rockies: In early October Big Sky got a freak dump of over 3 feet. Several intermediate runs have been open since then on weekends. There has been some more snow in November, allowing 2 more chairs to open with 900 acres total terrain. This is an unusual start for Big Sky. Jackson has had only 41 inches snowfall so far. Grand Targhee is not open, but has a 25-49 inch base and should be OK by December. The areas near Canada are in worse shape with a less than one foot natural base. Sun Valley will open Thankgiving strictly on snowmaking.
Utah: Alta got 65 inches in October, plus 67 inches so far this month. All 4 Cottonwood areas are 70-80% open on 48-57 inch bases now. Brian Head in southern Utah is also open on 51 inch base, which means nearly full operation on this intermediate-oriented area. Park City and The Canyons are about 25% open on a 22 inch base. The Cottonwood areas will have an excellent holiday unless the snow shuts down completely. Snowfall will have to continue at least average for another month for the Park City group to be fully open for Christmas.
Northern and Central Colorado:October snowfall was less than a foot but there has been substantial new snow in November (Breckenridge 34", Vail 61", Winter Park 62.5"). Loveland and Summit County areas are 10-15% open on snowmaking. Steamboat is 35% open on 30-35 inches, while Vail and Winter Park are 25-30% open on 25 inches. The latter 3 high snow areas rate to reach full operation by Christmas with another month of normal snow.
Southern and Western Colorado: Wolf Creek's base depth is 52-65 inches after 7 feet new snow in November. They are in full operation with the best conditions in the West now. Elsewhere in the Southwest the base is around 3 feet, much more than normal. Ajax and Snowmass are 20% open and Purgatory will be over half open for Thanksgiving. Taos will open soon on 41-47 inches, as much snow as it had in February last year. Aside from Wolf Creek, above average snow will need to continue over the next month to open expert terrain by Christmas.
Northeast: There has not been significant natural snow. Worse, recent warm weather knocked out the few runs previously open by November 15. As of the 18th, Killington has 7 runs open and Sunday river 2 runs. As my report is an overview, I strongly recommend checking Scenes of Vermont Ski Page or New England Ski Guide's Weekend Forecast for up to date information in this region, where both weather and surface conditions can change so rapidly.