Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, one of the world's 10 highest ski resorts, opened for the 2011-12 skio season today, just over three months since the last day of winter 2010-11 there in July.
The resort has won the annual battle to be "first in North America" which it usually wages against neighbouring Loveland, which plans to open tomorrow (October 14th).
Both resorts rely on their altitude to enable them to be some of the first to be cols enough to make snow each autumn, but this year there's been natural snowfall too in the past week and both have been pipped to the psost by another small ski area, Wolf Creek, which opened last Saturday in the south of Colorado having had over three feet of natural snowfall.
A second US resort also opened back then for the same reason - Las Vegas resort in Nevada didn't have as much snow but it had enough to open its terrain park. A fifth US choice is Timberline in Oregoon which is open nearly year round regardless of snowfall, although its currently only operational Fridays to Sundays.
In Europe there was also widespread snowfall earlier this week. Just over a dozen glacier ski areas are open and more than half of them in Austria which saw the lion's share of the new snow. Resorts there have reported up to four feet of snow in the past week - though more typically half that, but still plenty of powder. The Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun is the latest to re-open. It's not all good news however as Engelberg in Switzerland has delayed its planned opening, scheduled for last weekend, as the lift company says cover remains insufficient.