Question: Early season at Red Lodge, MT

[Jumpymostly]

Does anyone have any info on early season conditions at Red Lodge, MT? I have a chance to go there Dec 12 & 13 (free ride and lodging), but right now it looks like they have only 2 blues and 2 blacks open, and short ones at that. Any idea if they normally get most of the mountain opened up before Christmas? The forecast only has 2" and a couple "slight chance" days. The website says they have snowmaking, but I can't tell how many runs that can cover. I'd love to get in an extra trip to the mountains, but that sounds like not much skiing for 2 days vacation and 24 hrs roundtrip driving. It would be sad if I got there and they have less terrain open than the hills here in Minnesota.

 

[Gloria]

Red Lodge was on our news last night and from what I remember from the footage it looked pretty good. It's always a gamble in MT with the weather it can be 80 degrees one minute and snowing the next. Things can change in a matter of hours, when I went to Jackson last year at this time, only a handful of runs were open and by the time they opened the following morning Sublette was open. So it's hard to say...wait a couple more days and see what happens.

 

[EllaSki]

Red Lodge got a ton of snow very early in the season (https://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/10/14/state/51st_081014_redlodge.txt) but I'm not sure how much of that is still around.

Their website says that they are opening the upper mountain this weekend, so that sounds like a good sign. Someone I rode a chairlift with today (I know, not always a reliable source) told me that Red Lodge sometimes doesn't open lifts because they aren't fully staffed for the season yet, not because they're lacking the snow.

Anyways, it's a free ski trip! My vote is to go for it!