Always powder in the early days. (International Ski History Association)

National Ski Areas Association recently published a list of when ski areas opened. Nonetheless, the debate over which hill gets to claim the title continues.

It's a festive Christmas at Grand Targhee. (Grand Targhee)

If celebrating a white Christmas is on your wish list this year, planning to spend the day with loved ones on the slopes is just what Santa ordered. Finish the day with a festive meal where everyone can relax and enjoy each other’s company and you’ve got a family tradition in the making. Follow up an uncrowded day skiing and riding with a feast at one of these mountain resorts.

Fly through the sky at Seven Springs for Labor Day fun (Seven Springs/Facebook)

The end of the summer is unofficially marked by the Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-5), and then the long, long wait for ski and snowboard season to begin.

So before the waiting begins, get a whiff of the high-mountain air and winds in the pines by checking out the holiday festivities at resorts all around the country.

Whether you are a full-fledged foodie or an emerging gourmand, you are sure to find more than one event to whet your appetite at the Steamboat Wine Festival. (Steamboat Wine Festival)

Sampling wines and local food are just the beginning of the activities you’ll discover at wine festivals at mountain resorts across the country this summer. Find extraordinary wining and dining in gorgeous mountain settings.

Landon Fake, general manager of the Camden Snow Bowl in Maine, told SnoCountry.com that skier terrain will increase from 45 to 60 acres, and a new triple chair will increase uphill capacity 20 percent. 

“Happy April,” exclaimed Gore Mountain’s Emily Stanton to SnoCountry.com. “We are open daily through Sunday (April 6). We’re asking people to visit our website or check ahead regarding the schedule for next week. We’ll have events throughout April.”

To be a Burton U.S. Open Champion in snowboarding you must first qualify. Seven Springs in Pa., with its Olympic-sized half pipe, will stage the Burton U.S. Open Qualifier Jan. 31-Feb. 2 for the second year.

No worries. Indulge. Then, work it off, as nearly 200 of the nation’s ski resorts – coast to coast – will be open for skiing and riding Thanksgiving Weekend.

It may have been the worst kept secret in ski country. Three media outlets in western Pennsylvania reported last week on the purported sale of Hidden Valley Resort to Bob Nutting, the owner of Seven Springs Mountain Resort, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ogden newspapers, based in Wheeling, W. Va..

UPDATE March 29: Hunter Mountain, N.Y. announced it will remain open every day through April 7 and then re-open for the weekend of April 13-14. Vermont's Okemo will turn its lifts through April 21 each day -- a week later than planned.  

Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania is calling it the cutest thing to hit boarding since little bitty boards and boots. It’s the just-opened Pittsburgh Pirates Riglet Park at Seven Springs.

East to West. Snowboards to Freestyle Skiing. It’s on tap this weekend at Seven Springs Resort in Champion, Pa. and Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.

We are reaching the crescendo of the ski and ride season as late January turns into February and the popular Presidents Week holiday in mid-month. Resorts are multi-tasking as operation departments continue to pile up the snow and events departments nail down logistics.

That fall semester was tough. Then you scrambled home for Christmas. Bought presents as stores were closing on Christmas Eve. You graduate in May and your parents are on your case about starting a career. You need an escape. Enter college ski week. 

So many adventure-seekers took part in the inaugural Mud On The Mountain Adventure Race at Pennsylvania’s Seven Springs that the resort is going to do it all over again Nov. 3. 

A seven-mile course across the mountain terrain at Seven Springs Resort in Pennsylvania gives a new meaning to the holiday we celebrate the next day. It’s “Mudders Day” May 12 as the resort debuts “Mud On The Mountain.”