Which mountains are having a good early season?

[Core2]

Very dry early season for us down in the four corners has me looking at flights. Where is good right now?

 

[blah]

Banff, targhee. Whistler's starting to get there.

 

[Philpug]

Mt. Rose, Squaw are doing real good.

From Mt. Rose...

From Squaw...

 

[Tony]

Even though they only report 34" season snowfall (and no longer report the base depth?!), today makes a week for the Wall being open at Kirkwood. My report from last week. AFAIK they opened the Timber Creek base and lift 7 last week and plan to open the Backside (lifts 2, 3 and 4) next weekend which would mean all chairs running with possible exception of No. 9 - Bunny.

The Pacific NW and Western Canada also had good early starts although some of the early snow got melted by rain as far inland as Bachelor. You can use OpenSnow or onthesnow to see snowfall and lifts.

 

[NPhoenix]

Reno looks like the best option right now. RNO and SLC aren't ideal routes from PHX like DEN is (cost wise) but RNO doesn't look too bad on Southwest the closer you get to Christmas. I usually use Southwest because I bring my gear. That being said I'm probably going to drive it since I'm bringing my kids and going to Mammoth and Squaw as part of the Mountain collective. Oh, and I have a sweet van.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Whistler seems fairly normal so far. Base is around 180cm. The alpine as usual is opening slowly as traffic and snow control dictates.

The Peak chair is open so It already is possible to ski the full vertical on Whistler. Decent early season coverage as far down as Olympic Ovals on Creekside, Many have been skiing to base but I would still recommend downloading.

We are entering a dry spell, break out the sunscreen. The only new expected this week will be man made. They have over 700 snow guns. Most are currently positioned on the lower hills to take advantage of the cooler temps so those ski outs to base should be fine fast.

a few other hills in Vancouver area - Cypress Grouse and Baker have more snow if day skiing them is an option.