Snow Business: Early Openings for Several Mountains

Here are some tidbits so far from the early part of the 2017-18 snow sports season.

Scores of skiers and riders came out to Wachusett Mountain on Nov. 12 as the central Massachusetts ski area kicked off the 2017-18 season with one of its earliest openings ever.

Cold temperatures the week before and the mountain's beefed-up snowmaking system combined to get terrain ready for all three quad chairlifts. Wachusett completed a major snowmaking pumping expansion last season and it was put to good use for an opening-day base depth of 8-to-20 inches.

For the latest updates, check www.wachusett.com.

“We’re thrilled to get a jump start on the season,” Wachusett President Jeff Crowley said. “Our snowmaking allows us to be among the first ski areas in New England to open for the winter.”

In Vermont, Okemo Mountain Resort opened for the 2017-18 season on Nov. 11 with top-to-bottom skiing and snowboarding on five trails with two lifts operating, including the resort’s Sunburst Six high-speed heated seat bubble chair.

“This was our earliest opening in five years,” Okemo Vice President and General Manager Bruce Schmidt said. “We opened on November 8 in 2012. In November 2002, opening day was November 2, and in 1997, opening day was November 1. As luck would have it that year, we ended up closing until mid-November.”

Snowmaking started at Okemo on the afternoon of Nov. 7, and base depths on opening day were 12-to-18 inches.

Okemo opened an additional trail on Nov. 12, and the resort anticipates having more terrain open in the days and weeks ahead as snowmaking temperatures allow.

Several terrain park features have been installed on Countdown and Nor’easter temporarily until Okemo’s eight terrain park trails can be covered with snow.

Up the road in Vermont, Killington was checking in this weekend with 14 trails open.

In New Hampshire, Bretton Woods ski area kicked off the 2017-18 on Nov. 10.

Here are some other projected opening dates in New Hampshire:

• Cannon Mountain: Nov. 24
• Cranmore Mountain Resort: Nov. 24
• Black Mountain: Dec. 2
• King Pine Ski Area: Dec. 15
• McIntyre Ski Area: Dec. 15
• Abenaki Ski Area: Dec. 26

Chris Dehnel is a Patch editor. His snow business column runs regularly during the snow sports season.

Photo: Wachusett's first chair of the season takes off up the mountain. Photo Credit: Wachusett Mountain.