23 November 2016 — Let it snow, let ’em spin…opening day announcements coming fast and furious right now, today we add Loon NH and Sunday River ME to the list of open areas…further down the eastern seaboard, Song Mountain NY is open today, Adirondack biggie Whiteface spins ’em tomorrow…New York City’s closest-with-the-mostest Belleayre has announced they’ll open Friday. Two small but significant updates for Belleayre this season; they’ve added a carpet lift to their beginner area, and finally regrading around the base of the Super Chief lift. This was a spot that was routinely under water on warm days. No, I’m not exaggerating…others opening Friday in the Empire State include Greek Peak, Hunter, and Gore Mountain. On Saturday we expect to add Titus, Windham, and Western NY biggie Holiday Valley… Michigan now on the map, Ski Brule opened for the season yesterday. Today they’re running the Big Bear chair and the Bambi rope tow, looking to add more lifts on Friday…elsewhere in Michigan, Nub’s Nob and Boyne and Boyne Highlands have announced a Thursday opening. This trio gets different weather than Brule, but as you can see from the photo of Nub’s Nob above taken yesterday, they make up for it with some pretty powerful snowmaking systems…rumor is that eastern Penny’s Montage Mountain had some guns on overnight, we’ll check that out…update on yesterday’s accident at Nashoba Valley, 28 year-old Jason Sanderson of Carver, Massachusetts was killed while cutting a pipe in a trench. Apparently the saw kicked back and struck him in the throat. Co-worker Sam Romanelli made a heroic effort to save Sanderson but the injury was simply too severe. [UPDATE 11/27/16: The Sanderson fatality occurred elsewhere and I got my wires crossed on this, this was unrelated to the Nashoba tragedy. I regret the error and apologize to all involved….RB]

Photo above courtesy Nub’s Nob