We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Thanks to all those that have supported Mountain Escapes over the past 30 years. We appreciate your business!

Best snow of the week: this season thus far has produced some of the best early season conditions in years. Most areas have alot of terrain already open and more to open in the next few days. The important thing now is get consistent snow every few days. The amounts for each snowfall doesn’t matter as much as the frequency.

Trip Tip: Avoiding the Weekend and Holiday Crowds: Skiing on the actual holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years) is less busy and most folks leave by early afternoon so stay late! New Years is the exception when skiing early is best since a lot of folks sleep in. For the days surrounding the holiday the best bet is to start early (when the lifts open) or ski late (until the lifts close). Riding during the peak lunch times works too along with avoiding the lifts that the lesson programs use.

How to interpret early season snow reports: Many ski reports use percentages of different types of terrain open. For example a report might say 50% of blue (intermediate) terrain open. If that area has 40 blue runs than that means 20 trails, but if it only has 5 blue runs then not much is open (see our fact sheets under each ski destination for how many trails each area has of each type). When reports list the number of trails open since one trail can lead into another as you travel down a mountain, several open trails can still mean limited options available to ski (look at trail map to figure that out). Lastly the number of lifts open is helpful for getting up the mountain and spreading out the lift lines, but many times more than one lift services the same limited terrain and that could mean more crowds on the slopes. Keep these things in mind when looking at the early season reports!

See our ski reports for the latest conditions.

Deals: Early Season (before Christmas): lots of early season lodging deals out there still. Let us know if you are interested in getting out.

LOL Tip: prepping your face for skiing through snowmaking guns: Fill a blender with ice, keep the top off of the blender. Put your face next to it, hit the pulse button. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Have fun out there!