Opening Dates, 2020

[Christy]

Crystal is opening tomorrow. 6 lifts, 40" base. Pretty legit, though I'm sure it's early season conditions.

 

[marzNC]

Alta delayed their opening by a couple days. Plan to open on Nov. 23, so still before Thanksgiving.

 

[nopoleskier]

Killington Opening 11/20:
We're opening for skiing and snowboarding on Friday, November 20 for Killington Season Passholders and Ikon Passholders. We'll open to the general public on Monday, November 23. Thank you for your patience while we've been preparing top-to-bottom terrain to ensure proper physical distancing. We’re confident that starting our season, with more acreage and lifts open, will help guests spread out and maintain an appropriate distance while also providing a higher quality on-snow experience from day one of the season.


Reminder, all guests planning to park a car or drop off a guest in our lots will need a daily parking reservation and follow the State of Vermont Travel Guidance. Parking reservations are now live with available bookings from Nov. 23 through the end of the season. Parking reservations for Opening Day through the 23rd (November 20-22) will be released one day at a time, at 7:30 a.m. on the day prior. Parking inventory for November 20-22 will be available for booking by Season Pass and Ikon Pass holders only. No day tickets will be available before November 23.


As always, we are committed to making snow, having an early season Woodward Mountain Park offering and getting lifts turning, but where we plan to make snow is different from recent seasons. We will concentrate our snowmaking efforts on providing a top to bottom route from the K-1 Gondola, in the North Ridge area and on Snowdon Mountain. Snowmaking will begin in the North Ridge area and Killington Peak and stay concentrated in those areas with a plan to expand into Snowdon area as soon as possible. Maintaining snow in these areas will take priority early season and when we feel able to spread our resources, we’ll continue concentrating on upper mountain. This means we don’t plan to offer beginner terrain in the Snowshed or Ramshead areas until mid- to late-December instead of Thanksgiving weekend like we have in the past.

 

[kiki]

I won't, I am going to avoid any opening week craziness anywhere, and Baker is kind of far from Seattle for a day trip anyway (2:45). College students at Western Washington University in Bellingham are Baker's main clientele, and they have a really high percentage of snowboarders, so it's not a crowd I love in any case.

Although, and I hadn't thought of this--I wonder if a lot of students aren't even in B'ham right now.

I would think Baker will be less busy than usual with the borders closed? I know a lot of people from here go there normally—its Cheaper and closer than WB. Without all the Canadians it might be that much less busy....?

 

[kiki]

One of our local hills, Cypress (one of the venues for the 2010 olympics), opened last Friday. They have no reservation or restrictions for pass holders but they limited day pass ticket sales and those sold out for the opening weekend very fast after they were released. I did not go but have been monitoring the chats. Seems to have been crazy with HUGE slow lift lines and folks not wearing masks or distancing well. A lot of rebellious young people. Doesn’t bode well for the ski season.

 

[Christy]

I would think Baker will be less busy than usual with the borders closed? I know a lot of people from here go there normally—its Cheaper and closer than WB. Without all the Canadians it might be that much less busy....?

You may be right. It's quite a drive for me, but I'll keep an eye on things there.

 

[Christy]

The Crystal opening seemed to go okay today, and they have reservation slots available for tomorrow. No opening day craziness, it seems.

 

[marzNC]

For the record, Wachusett near Boston is opening on Nov. 20. Will have some day tickets on sale online.

 

[marzNC]

Skiing started in North Carolina yesterday with the opening day at Sugar. Cataloochee opens on Friday, Nov. 20. Cat only needs a few nights of cold weather to get top-to-bottom coverage. There are advantage to being a small ski area. Both places have been successfully relying on 100% snowmaking since the 1960s.

 

[MissySki]

Wachusett will open tomorrow at 9am.
Jiminy Peak will open Saturday.

Go Massachusetts representing for New England "early" openers this year!

I also heard speculation of whether Yawgoo in RI announces soon.. What a weird year!

 

[marzNC]

Snowshoe in WV has delayed opening day until Dec. 4. Alterra owns Snowshoe and there is no plan for lift access reservations. Snowshoe has been blowing snow for a while but may want to avoid any crowd issues over Thanksgiving weekend, which is typically pretty busy. Lodging at Snowshoe is essentially all at the resort as a mix of resort-owned lodging or privately owned condos that are rented out by the owners.

 

[gingerjess]

Northstar is opening on-time tomorrow, and it looks like they have coverage on the entirety of the longest green stretch on the mountain.

 

[ski diva]

Updated opening day dates for Vermont ski resorts:

Ascutney, Brownsville — N/A

Bolton Valley Resort, Bolton — Nov. 30

Bromley, Peru — N/A

Burke Mountain Resort, East Burke — N/A

Cochran’s Ski Area — N/A

Jay Peak Resort, Jay —Nov. 27

Killington, Killington — Nov. 20

Mad River Glen, Waitsfield — Dec. 12

Magic Mountain, Londonderry — Dec. 5

Middlebury College Snow Bowl — N/A

Mount Snow, Wilmington — Nov. 25

Northeast Slopes, East Corinth — N/A

Okemo, Ludlow — Nov. 25

Pico, Mendon — Dec. 19

Smuggler’s Notch, Jeffersonville — Nov 27

Stratton Mountain, Stratton – Nov. 25

Stowe Mountain Resort, Stowe — Nov. 25

Suicide Six, Woodstock —N/A

Sugarbush Resort, Warren— TBD
(Dec. 18 for Mt. Ellen)

 

[Abbi]

@ski diva are you going to try Stratton? Or wait a few days and see how things settle out?

 

[santacruz skier]

Northstar is opening on-time tomorrow, and it looks like they have coverage on the entirety of the longest green stretch on the mountain.

Vista chair ?

 

[ski diva]

@ski diva are you going to try Stratton? Or wait a few days and see how things settle out?

My pass at Okemo doesn’t kick in til December 8, so I’ll be skiing at Stratton til then. I don’t think I’ll start til the 29th, though.

 

[gingerjess]

Vista chair ?

Yep! Down Skid/Lumberjack/Main Street. Presumably Arrow will be open too if you don't want to go up Vista.

 

[santacruz skier]

Yep! Down Skid/Lumberjack/Main Street. Presumably Arrow will be open too if you don't want to go up Vista.

Yeah but Vista would be a longer run. Arrow is pretty short, but hey, it's skiing !

 

[ilovepugs]

My pass at Okemo doesn’t kick in til December 8, so I’ll be skiing at Stratton til then. I don’t think I’ll start til the 29th, though.

We could socially distantly wave to each other at Sugarbush

I just made parking reservations for Killington on Thanksgiving. TBD if I keep them, but I’d like to try to get as many early days as possible.

 

[Jilly]

I remember when we were lucky to ski before Christmas. Hoping to be Tremblant the 28th.