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Winter weather has no sign of letting up across the Western U.S. and Canada, neither for the Great Lakes region!

Record cold temperatures slowly fade away in the East this week, while another batch of cold helps Canada and parts of the U.S. stay snowy.

Here comes a nice taste of cold weather for many of us!  Some resorts sit in just the right spot for heavy snow accumulations. 

Powder Alliance, the so-called “off-beat” combined pass, is now a partnership of 19 resorts in U.S., Canada, Japan and Chile with the addition of Sugar Bowl, Loveland and two mountains in the Canadian Rockies.

Sunshine Village sits high on the Continental Divide in the heart of Banff National Park.

Sunshine Village Ski and Snowboard Resort is the first resort in Canada to open its doors to ski and snowboard enthusiasts, November 3. This is Sunshine’s earliest opening in over 30 years. 

The resort opened with four lifts including Wawa, Strawberry, Jackrabbit and Wolverine, one magic carpet and one eight-passenger gondola. With a current base of over 69 cm (27 in) of all-natural snow, Sunshine Village is poised for a solid start to the 2016-17 season.

“A large amount of precipitation starting in early October means the champagne powder snow has piled up fast,” says Dave Riley, Chief Operating Officer at Sunshine Village. “The Sunshine Village team has been working incredibly hard and we are thrilled to be the first resort in Canada to open its doors to our guests.” 

The resort is now offering full ski school programs as well as Tiny Tiger and Kids Kampus programs, in addition to opening select on-mountain dining and retail venues. 

Banff’s only ski-in, ski-out hotel, the Sunshine Mountain Lodge,  opens Friday, November 11.

Skiers and riders are advised to use caution as early season conditions mean there may be unmarked natural hazards around the resort.

You can watch Sunshine’s progress on mountain cams and check out daily snow conditions.

Ski resorts throughout the Northeast are wondering just what did they do to get onto the naughty list? Was it all that snow last season? The cold temperatures too? Maybe we should just blame it on El Niño?