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Kimber Francoeur and co-worker Amee McLaughlin love the outdoors. It's a good thing they do, since they spend most of the winter climbing up and down Jiminy Peak, making sure the snow guns are working and the slopes are ready for the skiers and snowboarders.

Because of a huge snowmaking project begun this summer, Vail Mountain managers are more confident than ever that the Nov. 15 opening day will have the best skiing and riding conditions ever on Colorado's largest mountain.

In Colorado, snowfall typically comes first to the highest slopes, prompting a congenial yet competitive contest among ski and snowboard resorts in the #racetoopen for a new season before all the rest.

As an amazing winter at Loon is in full swing, the New Hampshire resort is already looking ahead to the coming months with plans to break ground on a network of lift-accessed downhill mountain biking trails. Starting April 1, four seasons of White Mountain adventure can be yours with the new Access Pass. And summertime work will also include significant snowmaking efficiency improvements. 

With the help of the Pats Peak snowmaking crew and HKD Snowmakers, Ski New Hampshire covered a corner of the New Hampshire State House lawn in a blanket of white last week and shared information about snowmaking efficiency and the ski industry’s impact on the state’s economy.

Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe is set to drop the ropes a week early to give season pass holders the privilege of putting down the first tracks of 2018-2019.

The ropes were dropped on and the lifts were spinning Oct. 12 at Wolf Creek Ski Area, signaling the beginning of another ski and snowboard season across the West.

Loon Mountain has opened for the season with the most open terrain in New Hampshire and tied with sister resort Sugarloaf for most open terrain (acreage) in New England.

Wildcat Mountain in N.H. tested it’s newly completed snowmaking upgrade — the largest in its history — Sunday night (Oct. 20). The ski area installed more than10 miles of new snowmaking water and air pipe, 227 new high output/high efficiency snow guns and completed construction of a new, state-of-the-art, mid-mountain, booster pump house. 

The temperature bottomed out at 29-degrees Friday morning (Sept. 19) at Sunday River Resort in Maine, so they did what most ski areas usually do when it gets cold - turn on the snowmaking system.

Okemo Mountain Resort’s Operation Snowburst returns for a second season of snowmaking improvements to include the addition of 100 new, energy-efficient tower guns.

It appears unlikely that a bill prohibiting the transfer of private water rights to the U.S. Forest Service as a condition of a federal land lease will pass the U.S. Senate – but the fight has prompted the feds to promise to issue a revised regulation this spring.

As with most Colorado resorts, the offseason work at Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort this summer centered on infrastructure and the guest experience.

Thanks to two weeks of snowmaking and a series of recent winter storms, Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin Ski Area is set to kick off the 2013-14 ski season Sunday (10/13).

Barely a week into fall, and its “game on” for both Loveland Ski Area and Arapahoe Basin as both areas prepare to open for the 2013-14 season.

California's Boreal fired up its snowmaking system Thursday night as additional snow fell throughout the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain regions in the west. In Colorado, Loveland Ski Area and Arapahoe Basin started snowmaking operations on Friday evening.

 Loveland began making snow for the 2013-14 season just after 6 p.m. Friday.

The race is on! A-Basinn began making snow on Friday too! 

California's Boreal fired up the snowguns just after midnight Thursday, Sept. 26.

Snow covers the top of the tram at Snowbird.

Fresh snow at Crested Butte!

Looks like mid-winter at Jackson Hole.

First snowfall of the season at China Peak.

First snowfall of the season at Deer Valley.

Sun Valley also picked up a few inches.

Ski areas like Vermont's Okemo Mountain Resort are looking for the best of all worlds when it comes to snowmaking: make the most snow, in the least amount of time, reducing their use of electricity while being as sustainable as possible.To that end the technology is there to help them achieve those goals. 

Cold temperatures have settled in as thousands of snowguns are processing millions of gallons of water across resorts in the Northeast in preparation for the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend.

The federal government has until Monday, March 12 to respond to a lawsuit filed by the National Ski Areas Association that challenges a new directive that requires resorts operating on U.S. Forest Service lands to transfer water rights to the feds.