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Happy New Year! You’ll have plenty to celebrate in certain parts of the U.S. and Canada regarding this week’s weather forecast.

For Midwestern skiers that like to get in a lot of slope time around the country outside the Heartland, a few new options are available for this season.

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

The Michigan Snowsports Industries Association (MSIA) is offering a White Gold Card that allows you to ski or snowboard a full day at 33 Michigan ski areas, and Skiing Wisconsin offers a coupon book allowing you a day at 17 participating Badger State ski areas. It keeps your lift ticket cost for the day to around $8.

November has been good to many of us and the pattern to begin December is looking colder for most, with potential for more heavy storms.

Winter has arrived across the upper Midwest. Many ski areas and resorts are opening this weekend, and Thanksgiving Weekend also looks good if you want to get away for that first ski trip of the new season.

Wisconsin's Little Switzerland. (Little Switzerland/Facebook)

There are some changes coming in ownership shifts of three Wisconsin ski areas. One is set and the other two are possibilities.

Wisconsin ski areas were busy this past summer enhancing the experience for guests this coming season. Snowmaking upgrades topped the improvement lists, but there were also terrain park expansions, new runs, new lifts and improved beginner areas. 

Little Switzerland has added a new high-speed rope tow in their terrain parks and expanded both their large and small parks. They also cleared a new trail called Easy Cheesey, which will be the easiest way down the hill. Snowmaking capacity was increased with the addition new fan guns.

Nordic Mountain, always one of the first to be fully open in the Badger State, once again added more snowmaking firepower and cleared a new winding, intermediate run called MeNords. They feel it will become one of their most popular once discovered.

Camp 10 increase both the capacity and efficiency of their snowmaking system, which they feel will allow them to open earlier in the season.

Alpine Valley, in the southern part of the state, tripled the size of the beginner area complete with four magic carpet lifts and added a new chairlift on their First Adventure beginner run.  

Wilmot Valley, added over 5,000 feet of new high-pressure pipe and two new snow blowers between chairlifts 3 and 8 to increase and improve snowmaking efforts. They also added new LED lighting on five of their runs, overhauled chairlifts, and spruced up the day lodge.

Tyrol Basin improved their beginner terrain and added a new magic carpet lift for the upcoming season.

Sunburst’s Tubing Park was named as one of the Top 10 Tubing destinations in the nation recently by USA Today. They offer 42 lanes, two magic carpet lifts and speeds up to 42 mph cruising down the hill. Hold your breath.  

Photos: Top -- Tyrol Basin made summer improvements (Tyrol Basin/Facebook); Right -- Alpine Valley triples beginner area (Alpine Valley/Facebook); Below -- Little Switzerland adds fan guns, new trail (Little Switzerland/Facebook).

With 130-some years as a Heartland tourist destination you could hardly call Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, sedate.

Wisconsin ski resorts are getting into the spring spirit this month with lots of events and lift and lodging packages. It’s a great month to get out and enjoy the slopes with presumably a little warmth finally in the air after the bitterly cold winter. 

Wisconsin ski areas are offering midweek incentives to entice Badger State skiers and riders to the slopes and conditions couldn’t be better.

Midwest-based Peak Resorts has purchased Ohio’s Alpine Valley Ski Area, and in Wisconsin Little Switzerland Ski Area has reopened this season under new ownership after having been closed since 2007.