More Ski Areas Open Both Sides Of The Ocean

Europe

After the huge snowfall that brought up to 70 cm of fresh snow to the Italian Alps before the last weekend, the well known ski resort Bormio situated in Lombardy was opened almost one month ahead of the schedule. Now about 5 km of pistes and 2 lifts are waiting for those who are ready to have some downhill fun long before Christmas. Alpine resorts Cervinia and Val Senales both located in Italy too have also got plenty of snow powder and opened for the season early.

Tomorrow, November 5th, 2008, one of the largest ski resorts in Finland named Levi will be opened for winter sports amateurs. The main slope is already finished and ready to meet boarders and skiers. The Front piste is scheduled to open on November 7th. And on the period of November 14th – 16th the resort will held Men’s and Women’s FIS Alpine World Cup Slalom races.

North America

As we reported earlier, quite a number of the US ski resorts are already opened - Colorado’s Loveland and Arapahoe Basin shared the gold medal this year, a little bit later they were joined by Killington, Vermont, and Sunday River, Maine. On Monday this week Mammoth Mountain ski resort situated in California got in the club. Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Keystone – all located in Colorado – will very likely open on November 7th.

In Canada, there are some ski areas situated in the Banff area of Alberta province ready to open as soon as possible. Lake Louise is the most likely leader – its opening is planned for November 8th. Sunshine Village has plans to open on 11th November. Its deputy director Doug Firby reported: "Even though it's been a mild winter in Banff, we've had some good early season snow up on the mountain, and it's sticking. All we need is one really good dump of snow before the 11th and we'll be in great shape."

Photo: by Dmitry A. Mottl (wikimedia.org)