The 2016-17 North American ski season has begun!

And it's official! The 2016-2017 North American ski season started today, October 21, at Arapahoe Basin in Colorado. As soon as Canadian Thanksgiving passes, we know it's just a matter of time before skiing starts. As usual, the West is ahead of the East, and never more so than this year. While people in the West are skiing, we are in the middle of a torrential 2-day rainstorm. Last year, the season started on October 18 in the US, and October 19 in Quebec. This year on these days though, we were enjoying highly unusual temperatures of over +20! Fortunately, this coming week, it appears the tide will be turning for us. There's a chance of wet snow on Sunday in Montreal (!), and it's very possible that temperatures will drop below freezing at night this coming week. One or two freezing nights, and the race is on for which ski hill will open first.

With recent advances in snowmaking technology and the promise of cold temperatures, there's a good chance we'll be skiing in the East before the end of the month. In past years, it's been a fierce competition between Killington and Sunday River in New England, with Mont Saint-Sauveur trailing by a day or so in Quebec.

Speaking of Mont Saint-Sauveur, hot off the press is the rebranding of MSSI to Les Sommets. Mont Saint-Sauveur will become Sommet Saint-Sauveur, and the other ski hills under the umbrella will become Sommet Olympia, Sommet Edelweiss, etc... What will the future hold? Meanwhile, will we be skiing before the end of October? Stay tuned.