FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports10.19.11 **Attention Ski Junkies**

10.19.11 **Attention Ski Junkies**

Our morning photographer, Tyson, gave me the inspiration for today's blog. As he drooled over his latest edition of Ski Magazine this morning, he asked me with puppy dog eyes, "Can we have this?", referring to a glistening white powdery ski-side slope. Needless to say, he's a major ski junky and is itching for some fresh powder to dig in to with his new skis. I had to tell him, regretfully, there is no big snow in our forecast here quite yet in the northeast as a warm and rainy pattern continues for at least the next week.  But, as we all know, Vermont (or the northeast for that matter) has never gone without a winter…so soon enough, Tyson, soon enough.

That said, this winter promises to be another epic one here in the northeast. Long term forecasts show a similar winter this season to last year (which gave many of us record setting amounts of natural snowfall). La Nina is returning (also evident last year), this tends to keep the northern tier of the country wetter than average.

Given the very mountainous terrain around here, no matter what the large scale trend shows, the mountains almost always have a winter season packed with snow. Not to mention, we are home to the best of the best for east coast ski areas. Check out the list of top 10 best east coast ski areas dubbed by Ski Magazine (click here for that), and you'll notice what a winter playground we have right here in our own back yard.  Congrats to Tremblant (QB),  Stowe, Smugglers' Notch, Okemo, Whiteface (NY), Stratton, Killington, Sugarbush, and Bretton Woods (NH) for making the cut for the best of the best here in the northeast.

Meanwhile, in the higher terrain in the western US, there are a few mountains turning their chairs. So far, 2 resorts have opened up in North America for the season. Loveland and Arapahoe Basin (both in Colorado) have opened a small percentage of their terrain. Amazingly, Arapahoe opened up for the season after only being closed for just 100 days since last season wrapped up! This news might be enough to catch a flight over to get some early season runs before all of our local mountains open up.

So until Old Man Winter comes a-knockin, Tyson, continue drooling and happy dreams of champagne powder, to you. Soon enough, Tyson, soon enough.