Erin Spong

“News Flash” is FREESKIER’s online column designed to keep you up-to-date with snippets of outdoor news you need to know about. This article is published weekly on Wednesdays.

Amie Engerbretson is no stranger to ski films. The Tahoe-based professional skier has been starring in Warren Miller and Teton Gravity Research (TGR) flicks for the better part of a decade. More recently, Engerbretson has stepped up her athletic career by diving into the snowmobile world for access to bigger ski lines while simultaneously getting involved with Protect Our Winters (POW). If that sounds hypocritical to you, you’re not the only one.

Most of a ski resort’s glory shines when the sun is up and the lifts are spinning, but the unsung heroes of your ski day aren’t nestled in their beds at night. They are the one’s willfully exposing themselves to the frigid overnight temps to ensure snowmaking operations complement nature’s offerings for premium shredding, day after day. At Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, these brave souls are called Gunrunners and they are the experts when it comes to making artificial snow.

We know, we know, it’s still early December but we want ski season and we want it now! The Western half of the United States and Canada, particularly British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, scored big the second half of November. Below, you’ll find a list of resorts we recommend sinking your skis into before the Christmas holiday, based on early season snow totals and the amount of terrain each resort currently has open. Use caution, early season conditions still exist, which means rocks, stumps and other low-tide hazards are present and can end your season before it really gets started.

It’s no secret that the ski industry is heavily supported by those with healthy disposable incomes and most ski towns cater to the ultra wealthy. But let it be known that us ski bums still exist and not every ski town has been gentrified with massive second homes and heated sidewalks. We’re talking about Golden, British Columbia—one of the last authentic ski towns in Canada and a hotspot for gravity-fueled, adrenaline-pumping winter recreation of any and all kinds.

The 2024-25 ski season started off with an impressive bang across much of the Pacific Northwest and the Western Rockies. Mountains in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon have all seen upwards of 100 inches of snow already, which made for incredible early season turns at the resorts as well as in the backcountry, and did a wonder for ski areas in terms of opening terrain. Since then, however, the faucet has effectively turned off, the sun has reappeared accompanied by unseasonably warm temps. While some of us may not be complaining about the “nice weather,” backcountry forecasters are bracing for what’s to come with the next round of precipitation this coming weekend and stack on top of the weakened snow.

WHEN SKIERS THINK OF SUN VALLEY, the town of Ketchum and the iconic ski resort typically come to mind. What most overlook, however, is everything else this central Idaho playground has to offer. Home to athletes such as Crazy Karl Fostvedt, McKenna Peterson, Willy Griffith and more, the valley is surrounded by mountain ranges that make it an absolute paradise for outdoor recreation. The Sawtooth, Pioneer, Smoky, Soldier, Boulder and White Cloud Mountains offer up seemingly endless backcountry zones, hut trips and heli skiing terrain that complement the 2,000+ acres of world-class resort skiing at Sun Valley Ski resort. With all this access, it’s hard to see why skiers don’t overrun the place every year, but those that do visit sure don’t mind the lack of crowds and lift lines.

We’ve all been there. You look at the two-week forecast, plan ahead to get your work days covered and the homies together, and then when the time comes, the massive storm that was projected disappears into thin air leaving you with no new snow to plunder and all of your PTO used up. We get it. Weather can be frustrating and unpredictable but now thanks to Google’s new weather-based artificial intelligence (AI), GenCast, that 15-day forecast may not be so far off in accuracy.

Talks of an exciting La Niña winter had all of us eager for a fruitful season, but after a decent November showing, she’s basically ghosted us. We’re halfway through December without any real storm totals to report, which is both sad for our ski days and for our climate. But thanks to an uplifting email from OpenSnow this morning, we may just be turning a corner on this depressingly dry December.

Revelstoke Backcountry Guides is an 8,000-acre, foot-powered tenure just outside the town of Revelstoke with incredible access.