With Thanks­giv­ing near­ly upon us, six more Col­orado ski resorts open this week, near­ly dou­bling the num­ber in oper­a­tion and bring­ing the total to 13.

And just in time, a storm sys­tem is expect­ed to drop 6–12 inch­es of snow on Sum­mit Coun­ty ski areas between mid­night Mon­day and noon Tues­day, accord­ing to Lisa Krie­der­man, a fore­cast­er for the Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice in Boul­der. It’s already snow­ing in the San Juans, which could get up to 20 inch­es from this sys­tem. Vail and Beaver Creek are expect­ed to receive 6 to inches.

Eldo­ra opened on Mon­day. Aspen Moun­tain, Snow­mass, Beaver Creek and Crest­ed Butte open on Wednes­day, and Tel­luride opens on Thursday.

Cop­per Moun­tain is set to open next Mon­day, Nov. 30. Win­ter Park still isn’t say­ing, except that it won’t open before Monday.

Avid skiers and snow­board­ers no doubt are won­der­ing what kind of snow con­di­tions we can antic­i­pate this win­ter. We checked with the Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice to see what they’re think­ing about Col­orado moun­tain snow­fall prospects dur­ing ski season.

Based on ocean tem­per­a­ture data in the equa­to­r­i­al Pacif­ic, cli­mate experts believe a mild La Niña win­ter may be in the off­ing for North Amer­i­ca. La Niña years gen­er­al­ly favor our north­ern moun­tains for snow­fall, while El Niño years gen­er­al­ly mean our south­ern moun­tains do better.

“I think for the north­ern moun­tains like Steam­boat Springs — pret­ty much any­thing Sum­mit Coun­ty and north­ward — I would expect at, or slight­ly above, nor­mal snow­fall,” said Scott Entrekin, a fore­cast­er for the Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice in Boul­der. “The ones that won’t do that well will be the San Juan moun­tains of south­ern Col­orado; they’ll typ­i­cal­ly tend to be dri­er in a La Niña winter.”

Here’s what ski areas are telling us about their pro­ject­ed open­ing dates, all of which is sub­ject to change:

Colorado ski resorts projected opening dates

Ara­pa­hoe Basin: Open

Breck­en­ridge: Open

Key­stone: Open

Love­land: Open

Vail: Open

Wolf Creek: Open

Pur­ga­to­ry: Open

Eldo­ra: Open

Aspen Moun­tain: Nov. 25

Beaver Creek: Nov. 25

Crest­ed Butte: Nov. 25

Snow­mass: Nov. 25

Sil­ver­ton: Heli-ski­ing, Nov. 26; lift-served, Dec. 26

Tel­luride: Nov. 26

Win­ter Park: Delayed its ini­tial open­ing, says it’ll open no ear­li­er than Nov. 30

Cop­per Moun­tain: Nov. 30

Steam­boat: Dec. 1

Ski Coop­er: Dec. 9

Sun­light: Dec. 11

Aspen High­lands: Dec. 12

But­ter­milk: Dec. 18

No announce­ment yet: Echo Moun­tain, Gran­by Ranch, Hes­pe­rus, How­elsen Hill, Kendall Moun­tain, Monarch, Powderhorn.

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