Early-Season Snowstorm Jump-Starts New England’s 2025-26 Ski Season

Featured Image: Courtesy of Jay Peak

East Coasters, rejoice! While snow totals out west remain low, winter has arrived in New England–and in full force at that. Over the last seven days, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have all been hit hard with Mother Nature’s first big flakes of the winter.

Though all of New England saw snowfall, Sunday River, Killington and Jay Peak got the most love. If you’re looking for where to score your first pow day of the season, here's your ticket! Temps will continue to linger in freezing territory, meaning ski areas will have ample opportunity to make snow and open more terrain.

Sunday River

Over the last week, Sunday River received 3 inches of snow and as of November 17th, has 3 of their 140 trails open, which is more than most resorts in Colorado. With opening day just under a week ago, the mountain is making rapid progress on its terrain opening. 

Killington

A little further south in Vermont, Killington is living up to its name, “The Beast of the East,” with the most terrain open on opening weekend in recent history. They have 22 out of 140 of their trails open, blowing any other resort’s current offerings out of the water. Receiving over 4 inches of fresh snow over their opening weekend, starting November 12th, on top of running 175 snow guns, helped push them over the top. Killington is in the running for the best place to shred right now.

Jay Peak

Jay Peak, one of the snowiest resorts in the East, already has a season total of 38”-55” across the resort... and the resort has yet to even open. As their snow report says, “We are not easing into winter, we are nosediving straight into the thick of it.” They are supplementing this early-season good fortune with snowmaking to maximize terrain on opening day, November 22. If things keep going as they are, there’s a good chance they will open even more terrain than Killington. 

If you’re not local to one of these resorts, don’t fret, most of the east is set to open in the next month! Here’s the roundup of all the upcoming opening dates in the East:

Jay Peak: November 22th

Okemo: November 22nd

Mount Snow: November 22nd

Stowe: November 22nd

Mad River Glen: December 13th

Smuggler’s Notch: November 28th

Loon Mountain: November 21st

Sugarloaf: November 21st

Mount Sunapee: November 26th

Stratton Mountain: November 26th

Bolton Valley: November 28th

Cannon Mountain: November 28th

Windham Mountain: November 28th

Waterville Valley: November 29th

Attitash: December 5th

Saddleback: December 6th