Killington Open Now
At least four more ski areas have opened in the US over the past 48 hours on both Atlasntic and pacific coasts.
On Friday Boreal became the first ski area in California too open for Winter 2011-12, joining Timberline in Oregon, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Wolf Creek in Colorado and the opened-but-closed again-since Las Vegas Ski resort in Nevada.
More heavy snowfall was also reported in Colorado with resorts including Copper (which is due to open next weekend) , Vail and winter park all publishing reports of 20-30sm of fresh snow.
Resorts on the East of the country which often open by late October thanks to snowmaking efforts had been struggling to announce opening dates as warm temperatures were preventing much snow being made. However a cold snap over the weekend has brought an unusually early heavy snowfall across the region, again bringing typically 20cm of snow, and allowing Killington and Mount Snow as well as Sunday River in Maine to open a few runs each.
North of the border Nakiska near Calgary in Alberta was the first centre in the country to open, on Saturday. Mount Norquay. Lake Louise expects to open next Saturday.
In the Alps Cervinia, Laax and Engelberg have both opened but Les 2 Alpes has closed after it's 'one week only' October opening and won't reopen until December.