We kick things off today with a look at Whistler Blackcomb and what they are up to with their vast snowmaking at the biggest resort in North America. Like they say in the video, a lot of people just don’t realize what goes in to resort preparations for a season and with Whistler’s base elevation being lower consider the mouth dropping vertical drop from the summit (around 1700m or 5500ft), it’s important to give an option to riders to make their own way back to the village without having to catch a lift down.

Although Whistler enjoys natural snow all the way to the base elevations for most of the season, a man made helping hand goes a long way into improving guest experience. If you are wondering how effective snow making is, then check out one of our videos from Coronet Peak in August (peak ski season in New Zealand) where the man made snow was the only thing keeping the resort enjoyable at all due to the lack of the natural stuff.

So let’s take a look at the state of play with resort openings and as usual for this time of year, things are pretty busy.

As we’ve widely reported Breckenridge opens tomorrow and you can check out or Breckenridge opening day article here.

In Canada, Marmont Basin in the Rockies, not too far from the picturesque town of Jasper opens tomorrow with 40% off lift tickets and 3 lifts with 5 runs for their season debut. Lake Louise as reported is running and Mt Norquay opens again for the weekend with 2 lifts and $20 lift tickets. A little further south and the snow is certainly falling, with young gun resort Revelstoke reporting a 70cm base and with more snow in the forecast, you can be sure they are not too far from opening either.

The media and crowds came out in force for the opening of Mammoth Mountain in California

In Utah, look for Brighton for some early season turns and Solitude has announced that it will open with $49 lift tickets which gets you access to 3 lifts and 4 runs.

Finally in California, Snow Summit and Bear Mountain have their lifts turning for all the LA folk looking to test the legs, though if you are after some of the “bigger brother” resorts, then Mammoth Mountain may well be worth the trip. Blue sky and sunshine greeted guests today for their season debut and early reports have suggested that conditions are surprisingly very good for this early in the year.

Make sure to check out Snow Report TV on Facebook and Snow Report TV on Twitter and we’ll see you on the mountain.