Ok, folks, near as I can tell, this is how things are shaping up nationwide for "opening day":
Pacific Northwest: they have been blitzed with a lot of early storms, and Crystal and Stephens are off to their earliest start in a while. Baker is (or was) skiing on a six foot plus base. So it looks like Washington is the hands-down winner for getting the season going this year.
In Montana and Idaho, the snow has been coming down as well and Big Mountain is slated to open on the 19th, six days ahead of schedule. Schweitzer- the other mountain I check regularly- has yet to make any announcements.
Central Rockies: limited snow and warm temps is a big change from the last two years. Both of those seasons, Alta was already approaching the 100 inch mark by Thanksgiving. Despite having 30 plus inches so far, there just hasn't been enough cold air and the snow is packing down while they can't run their snowguns enough to get their bases opened. Consequently, ski resorts in Utah at least are reporting delays in the opening, with Park City falling back to November 23rd at best and Alta proclaiming the season on hold until the next storm, which at this point looks like it's more than a week.
(apologies for skipping the midwest, though I think this weeks' lake effect snow is gonna play out well for the UP of Michigan, in particular Indianhead and Mount Bohemia (the original Moonshine Mountain))
Which brings us here to the Mid-Atlantic. Despite having one of the warmest autumns that I can remember, it appears the cold weather has chosen it's entry point wisely and everyone has the snowguns fired up, including Snowmakers in Covington.
So I'm betting that a) for the first time in years, we will see several resorts open on time for Thanksgiving and b) a number of resorts will be open before Utah.
Whoo hoo!
On a personal note, my trip to Utah isn't until March, so I see this weather pattern as potentially being great. These patterns tend to reverse themselves mid-winter, so hopefully what that means is plenty of great skiing here in the mid-atlantic through January or February and heavy snow out west starting sometime in the same period.
