Looking for Early Snow? These 7 Ski Resorts Typically Deliver

October and November are, understandably, frantic-feeling months for skiers. The snow is starting to pile up, ski resort opening dates are on the calendar, and FOMO looms. Most of us want to be at the right place at the right time to avoid missing out on any prospective turns as the ski season gets underway.

In the spirit of enjoying winter to the fullest extent possible, we’ve gathered a list of ski resorts known for opening early and delivering solid early-season conditions. While the weather always remains an incalculable X factor (please no rain this year!), these mountains have strong historical track records.

1. Arapahoe Basin, Colorado

Arapahoe Basin, alongside a few other ski resorts in Colorado, has long pulled headlines for its commitment to opening early. Last season, the mountain started spinning its chairlifts on November 2, 2024. Some years, Arapahoe Basin opens in October (one year, improbably, it opened on October 9). If you were to bet on which ski resorts would be open in early November, this mountain would be a safe choice. A solid but not massive annual snowfall total of 350 inches sweetens the deal.

Even as Arapahoe Basin is an early-winter leader, it may be even better known for its late-season offerings. Unlike some other ski resorts, it doesn’t pinpoint a closing date in advance. Instead, Arapahoe Basin remains open as long as conditions allow, usually into June.

2. Alta Ski Area, Utah

With a planned opening date this year of November 21, 2025, Alta Ski Area isn’t the place to go if you want to ski before everyone else in the country—for that, try Colorado. However, the mountain is a great pick if you’re looking for good coverage and snow in December, which, by our calculations, is still the early season.

Alta Ski Area stacks up a lot of snow on average—548 inches of it, to be precise. While there’s no guarantee that this December at Alta will involve relentless powder dumps, the mountain has a strong track record in getting most of its terrain open that month. Nothing sours a ski trip like realizing you’ll be spending all your days on a few groomed runs. Alta Ski Area’s uniquely snowy environment hedges against that outcome, with some of the best terrain in North America to boot.

3. Keystone Resort, Colorado

4. Wolf Creek, Colorado

Last October, with a storm total above two feet, Wolf Creek became the first ski resort in North America to open, beating Keystone and Arapahoe Basin to the punch by more than a week. To those unfamiliar with the Colorado ski scene, that might’ve seemed like an unlikely outcome—Wolf Creek is tucked away in the southwestern corner of the state, far from Colorado’s buzzy ski area core near Denver, but it’s also Colorado’s snowiest ski area with 430 inches of snow on average, and when your goal is to score nice turns in November or December, a heaping dose of the natural stuff always helps.

5. Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe, Nevada

Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe is not the biggest or best-known ski area in the Lake Tahoe area, but it sports the highest base elevation of the ski resorts there—8,260 feet—making the mountain chillier and better equipped for early-season snowmaking. With the help of its snow guns, Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe reliably kicks off the Lake Tahoe ski season before anyone else.

6. Killington, Vermont

The West soaks up much of the early ski season news, despite the fact that the Northeast has some strong contenders, like Killington. The Vermont ski resort consistently opens in mid to early November, with an October opening as recently as 2018. The trick, of course, is snowmaking, which continues to be a priority as a new independent ownership group guides Killington. This year and the next, the ski resort is installing 1,000 new low-energy HKD tower and fan guns as part of a $38 million capital improvement package.

Like Arapahoe Basin, Killington’s also famous for its late-season skiing. The previous season was a bit of a bust with a May 11 closing, but in previous years, the mountain has kept the party going into early June.

7. Mammoth Mountain, California

The Sierra Nevada, Mammoth Mountain’s home range, has a reputation for sporadic but enormous storms. While you’d need a crystal ball to predict exactly when they arrive, these storms are a potent wildcard that can deliver some serious early-season jackpots. Last November, Mammoth Mountain was slammed with a multi-foot snow storm that, almost overnight, transformed the ski resort into a winter wonderland. While this won’t happen every year, Mammoth Mountain has one of California’s earliest planned opening dates: November 14, 2025.