Ski Season begins in Michigan Thanksgiving Day. Ski Brule announced that they will partially open from 10 am until 4 pm. Big Bear and Log Jam will be open. On those slopes they report a base of up to 24″. The Bunny Trail may open Saturday if they can get in some more snow-making. Kids 9 and under ski free this weekend. You can also get a season pass good for both Ski Brule and Mt. Bohemia.

Other Michigan resorts are not open yet, but will be making snow as conditions permit.

Pic. shows the first natural snow of the season at Mammoth Mt. Ski Area north of Las Angeles. Pic. from WTLA.

Out West – There are 10 ski areas partially open in Colorado, including Keystone, Breckenridge, Vail and Winter Park. California’s Mammoth Mt. has 4 lifts operating and 16 trails open. In Montana, Big Sky will partially open on Wednesday – We just drove past Big Sky a couple days ago. In Utah, Brian Head, Park City and Solitude are partially open. Brian Head just got around 10″ of natural snow.

Out East – 4 resorts are (very) partially open in Vermont. Sugar Loaf and Sunday Mt. are partially open in Maine and in New Hampshire, Breton Woods has 1 lift open and 1 trail.

Alyeska near Anchorage, Alaska will open this weekend. Check out the snow in the webcams there (daytime). Anchorage may set a record for snowiest November. They have already had 39.2″ of snow this month (average for the month is 7.2″). They’ve had snowfall on 13 of the last 16 days. It’s also been unusually cold this week. Yesterday (Sun.) the high/low in Anchorage was 10°/0°. The average high and low for today is 27°/17°. Anchorage officially has 16″ of snow on the ground.

Gulkana was the coldest spot in Alaska Sunday, with a high of -11° and a low of -28°. Even Juneau has stayed below freezing.