Skiing

Holiday Gift for Skiers – Snow!

By Heather Burke

December 16, 2013

1 minute to read

Snowstorm Electra delivered just what New England ski resorts had ordered the week before Christmas. Serious snow! Saturday night’s snowstorm brought over a foot of dense powder to ski resorts from Mass to Vermont, through New Hampshire and Maine. Ski areas received a huge boost to their snowmaking efforts as 12-16″ of natural snow blanketed their trails with a freebie from Mother Nature. Ski trail counts shot up on Sunday morning as ski areas dug out their ski lifts and dropped ropes on new ski terrain. Okemo Mountain Resort went from 67 trails to 91 overnight. The snowstorm was dubbed Electra by the Weather Channel in their annual A-Z winter storm naming.

On the ski leader boards, Okemo has the most open acreage in the East, with over 478 acres of skiing and riding on over 90 trails. Next up is Killington with 82 trails and 352 acres of ski terrain. Sunday River leads the Maine trail count with 67 tails and 331 acres including White Heat. Other big winners include Mount Snow with 46 trails and 415 acres, and Stowe with 80 trails and 345 acres of skiing. In Massachusetts, Wachusett is nearing 100% open with 18 of their 23 trails open already. Same goes for Butternut with 21 or 22 trails open.

You might recall we had a similar snow storm last year the week prior to Christmas. For comparison, last season at this time Sunday River had 51 trails open versus today’s 67. The take away: ski resorts are in even better shape as they enter the 2013 Christmas holiday season. Cold temperatures for continued snowmaking are in the forecast, with another snow event tomorrow, Tuesday. And winter doesn’t officially arrive until Saturday December 21.

Looks like skiers and snowboarders, along with ski resort operators, are getting that White Christmas they asked for ahead of schedule.