North America's Big Hitters Open This Weekend
North America's Big Hitters Open This Weekend
Published : 18-Nov-2010 12:44
Opening Day At Mammoth Mountain
Most of North America's biggest resorts will be open from this weekend ahead of the country's major Thanksgiving Holiday. The two biggest hitters, Vail and Whistler, along with resorts like Heavenly and Squaw Valley, will open in the next 24 hours, joining already-open Mammoth.
Both are reporting very good pre-season snow conditions, thanks perhaps to the much hyped La Nina, Pacific weather cycle which is expected to bring above average snowfall to Western North America this winter.
Whistler Mountain is opening six days earlier than planned on Friday, November 19 with Blackcomb Mountain following six days later on November 25th – a week today.
"Couple the great natural snow with the truly incredible snowmaking infrastructure, hosting the Games afforded us, we'll have a great opening weekend at Whistler," says Doug MacFarlane, mountain manager at Whistler Blackcomb. Whistler are being a little more coy than the Colorado resorts as to how much snow they've actually got. You can check whistlerblackcomb.com/whatsopen to see.
Vail is much more excited about its actual snowfall, with three feet (90cm) added to the base in the past week, "This opening scenario is probably better than we even dare to hope for and it doesn't happen very often," said Chris Jarnot, chief operating officer of Vail Mountain. "We've been blessed with some of the best early-season snow we've ever had, and our crews have worked incredibly hard to prepare as much terrain and as many lifts as possible. I know everyone in town and certainly everyone at Vail Resorts is excited to kick off Vail's winter season on Friday."
Vail joins resorts like Breckenridge and Copper that have been open for several weeks and have been reporting 'powder days' in the past few days thanks to all the fresh snow.
In California Mammoth has been open for skiing and boarding for a week and more than 2,000 p[eople turned up for opening day when there were six lifts running, including the Panorama Gondola.
In Tahoe, where over a foot of snow fell last week, Heavenly, Northstar and Squaw Valley all open this weekend
Tahoe Visitors Authority commented, "The early season vibe is buzzing with anticipation for another banner year with the predictions of a burly La Niña."
North of the border Sun Peaks in British Columbia also opens this weekend joining already open Banff and Lake Louise, which will host the opening Downhill World cup races shortly. However most other areas won't open until early December as Thanksgiving is of course not such a big deal there.
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