Winter Storm Gail Whopped these Mountains

If you thought Mother Nature had been punishing Vermont this early season (or helping it comply with its Covid-19 restrictions and ski area guidelines, take your pick), you might have been right.  And Ma Nature is not entirely through.

The overnight storm brought as much as 40 inches of snow in parts of southern Vermont and Massachusetts. As of dawn this morning, it was still snowing and Mount Snow, Bromley and  Stratton were all reporting 10 inches to 13 inches as of 4 a.m. with heavy snow still falling. By noon, Mount Snow updated to 35 inches. Magic, which opens today, reported 18 inches by 9 am.  Central Vermont, which was forecasted to get less, still saw more than expected. Okemo was reporting 35 inches of new snow over the past 24 hours and Killington saw a solid 16 inches. Middlebury Snow Bowl and Suicide Six. North of Route 4, the storm took a sharp turn east. Sugarbush, Mad River Glen and points north saw far less of it, with Sugarbush reporting 3 inches (with the snow still coming down) and Smuggler’s Notch and Stowe showing just a couple of inches.

However, strong winds were also blowing and many roads had yet to be plowed so many areas warned of delays.

So who’s open? As of press time, most of the major ski areas were open with the northern areas reporting around 16 to 28 inches of base depth with Smuggler’s Notch showing 24 to 48 inches. That’s a lot of man-made — the snow-level at the Mt. Mansfield stake was at 8 inches. But the storm is not yet over. We’ll be updating this story as snow totals change.

So who’s opening, when:

Magic Mountain on Dec. 16

Middlebury Snow Bowl on Dec. 17

Burke Mountain on Dec. 19

Pico on Dec. 23

Suicide 6 on Dec. 23.

Photo courtesy Mount Snow