Colorado in snowier times...
"For the first time in 30 years, a lack of snow has not allowed us to open the back bowls in Vail as of January 6, 2012, and, for the first time since the late 1800s it did not snow at all in Tahoe in December," says Rob Katz, the Chief Executive of Vail Resorts which owns Colorado's Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Vail and Keystone as well as Heavenly and Northstar in Colorado.
In fact, much as in the Alps last winter, conditions on the slopes, at least in Vail's Colorado resorts is not that bad, it's the deep powder that is beloved by powder hounds that's most noticeably lacking.
Despite this Vail has managed to increase sales of lift passes and of ski lessons by a shade under 1%, but still increase them.
Alas this has not impressed the money markets and the company's shares have dropped by just over 15% in a little over a fortnight.
There are mixed messages on how the rest of the winter will play out in the Western US – Snowbird in Utah issued a 'powder alert' today having received 5 inches (12cm) of new snow but weather forecasts for California are not looking promising so far for the next few weeks.
Further north, and perhaps more surprisingly, further south, Western US states are having a good to excellent winter – resorts in Washington State, Oregon and Wyoming all have reasonable to good cover and in the south ski areas in Arizona and New Mexico are also 100% open.