First Summary of 2025-6 season is as follows:
My sense is that this season to date has surpassed 2018-9.
2025-6: Early season has been excellent with copious snowmaking opportunities and large quantities of natural snow. Much more terrain is available than at similar times of previous years. Fair Christmas Week. Excellent MLK weekend. With 2′ of snow in late January, followed by 3-weeks of sub-freezing weather (even at the more southerly areas), followed by small refresh snow events. [Updated Feb. 13, 2026]
2018-9: Killington and Sunday River both opened on Oct. 19. Nov. snow and skiing was epic. Christmas week was above average, economically speaking. Jan. had a couple of thaws, but no major meltdown. There was a decent February, and 8 of the 9 days of Presidents Week featured great snow and great weather providing the industry a near record week. Most of VT, ME and northern NH had above average snowfall, but even the more southerly areas had great snowmaking weather to make up for any deficits. Early April featured some superb spring skiing, but mid-April included a severe meltdown where Killington dropped from 80 to 15 runs in a 2-day period. Despite that, the glacier on Killington’s Superstar held up until June 2.
2016-7: Early season: Excellent, but only at Killington; Snowfall: Average to average plus; Economics: Excellent Christmas week both weather-wise and snow; MLK Weekend was excellent despite a generally poor January; February: Thru the 15th: epic; Presidents Day thru Mar. 10 - gruesome, remainder of the season: Awesome; Killington makes it until June 1.
2024-5: Slow early start, followed by a spectacular December. Killington opened to Rte. 4 before New Years Day. Most of ski country has had substantial early season snowfall, with a few powder days. The 1st half of Xmas Holiday week got big numbers of skier visits, although the 2nd half featured a nasty meltdown which refilled water supplies for some areas challenged by drought. January featured a very strong MLK weekend. Much of ski country received average amounts of snowfall (with VT Rt. 100 areas being way above average). Between Dec. 26 and Feb. 27 (9-weeks) there was no thaw north of the MA border which provided almost unlimited snow making weather. February featured powder days and lots of natural snow over most of New England. Industry-wide attendance figures may have been impacted by the unusually cold and windy weather that was the hallmark of February. March 15 to the end of the season has been the worst spring in recent memory: little snow, record warm temps and lots of rain. Even the biggest areas called it on May 11.
2017-8: No October skiing - Nov. 8 opening; credible Thanksgiving for bigger areas; fantastic snow at Xmas break but record low temps made the week an economic flop with most ski areas. Killington, Wildcat and other venerable giants of the industry, all closed for one or more days due to extreme cold. Jan. 10 started a 36-hour epic meltdown which turned MLK weekend into an economic disaster. Just as surfaces were beginning to recover, another meltdown pretty much neutralized Presidents Week. Most major storm following MLK day were followed by either rain or an extend meltdown. March and April have been epic. Killington just missed Memorial Day, but more areas were open in May than in any recent year.
2014-5: Early season: - No October skiing, but great from mid-November to mid-December; Christmas: Rain - pretty well killed the business for the week; January including MLK Weekend: Bad - not much snow, not much business; February: Unbelievably great snow, but record cold weather kept the crowds away; Late season was great with Killington going until Memorial Day.
2022-3: No October skiing; Very limited November skiing; near record warmth in November impacting early-season snow making; already 3 or 4 freeze/melt cycles. A widespread 12″+ storm hits New England in mid-December providing huge trail expansion and some spectacular December skiing. Late December and early January was rife with rain, although the Xmas week itself was pretty good economically speaking for the industry. The remainder of January was reasonably good with a few powder days. MLK weekend provided 3-better-than-average days. Late Feb. thru March featured several large storms and generally excellent skiing. It should be noted, that if one lived in C, Eastern MA or RI, this season would be ranked lower. Very strong April skiing for the areas that remained open.
2020-1 Early season curtailed due to COVID-19. Mid-December was off the charts. After a Christmas disastrous warm rain, there has been consistent cold weather allowing for lots of good snow-making weather, but January has been very light on natural snow. Economically, the ski areas seem to be doing well with people desperate to get outdoors and the absence of a super-spreader event associated with skiing have all been plusses. Despite the lack of January snow, with no January thaw, conditions remained very good. Early Feb. has seen lots of snow events opening glades and non-snowmaking terrain. Except for the ice-storm of Feb. 16, the month included many days of superb skiing. The 2nd half of Feb. and all of March included no natural snow. Long COVID-related lift lines continue to be a problem at most areas.
2019-2020: Early season: - No October skiing, but great from mid-November to mid-December. Xmas week was so-so. Except for MLK weekend, January featured a lot of wild temperature swings and not much natural snow. Snow tended to be better north of the MA border. Feb. was mediocre, with little new snow, but Feb. vacation week was good. Mar. was disturbed by COVID-19 and unusually warm temps. The last New England ski area open were shut down at COB on Mar. 18.
2021-22: No lift-serviced Oct. skiing. Nov. 5 to Thanksgiving Week: Just Killington and their 2-trails. By mid-December: Limited skiing at a small percentage of ski areas. Xmas week featured 3-days of rain and fog. By mid-January, only a handful of New England areas are more than half-open. No January thaw. February and March featured some good days, but very little natural snow and lots of warm weather. March was record warm with many areas closing by mid-March. Good spring skiing in April, wasn’t enough to redeem this season. Killington made it to June 4, but they were the last open lift-serviced skiing by 3-weeks.
2023-4: No October skiing (except for Ward Hill). Killington opened Nov. 6. Most of the other “big boys” were able to open for Thanksgiving. Northern areas did better with natural snow, but all of ski country had great snowmaking weather in early December, providing more open terrain than normal. The 2nd half of December featured unusual warmth and 2-major rainstorms. Christmas week crowds were minimal. January offered a mixed bag: several horrific rain events, but an excellent MLK weekend and a reasonably good ending to the month. While February remained warm with minimal snow-fall, most areas salvaged a strong Presidents Day Week. March brought more warm weather and early closings. The northern part of the state did well with big snow while the more southerly areas got rain. Two spectacular storms at the end of March created a window of outstanding skiing for a week or so at the end-of-March/beginning-of-April. There was little in the way of industry-wide crowds, although the areas that were open were undoubtedly profitable.
