With opening dates striking the East Coast, skiers and riders took to the hills the day after Thanksgiving to burn off some calories with some snow related recreational fun on Friday, Nov. 25.

 
After approximately six months of waiting, New England ski resorts are opening up from southern Vermont to northern Maine for the 2016-2017 season. The summer and fall months have been filled with continuous anticipation buildup and online video and gear skiing and snowboarding searches.

 
As usual, Jay Peak Resort aimed to open for Thanksgiving weekend. This came with ease this season, following a few good days of accumulating natural snow the week of the holiday.

 
On opening day for Jay, temperatures were hovering around 30 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. With this semi-warm temperature for skiers and riders, opening day proved to be a good one to ease back into that winter state of mind.

 
As usual for Jay, opening weekend terrain was once again accessed from The Jet Triple chairlift. Skiers and riders were able to get back into the groove of things with access to The Jet, U.N. and Derek’s Hot Shot trails.

 
The resort received one to two inches of snow in the nighttime hours prior to opening, which bumped the week’s total up to 20 inches of natural. This natural snow is what proved to be the rope dropping factor for the U.N. and Derek’s Hot Shot trails.

 
Unlike on The Jet, which has a number of artificial snow guns that run along the trail, these two trails are only natural snow pack runs. This means that their base is only made up of whatever natural snowpack the resort receives.

 
The trail count was bumped up to four during the second day of operations on Saturday, Nov. 26, when the Haynes rope dropped following some Friday night grooming and flattening of the snow mounds that had been created by the snow guns.

 
With access to these trails, skiers and riders might recall the struggles that came with opening weekends across Vermont for the 2015-2016 ski and ride season, leaving resorts only able to open one or two trails with the disappointment and headaches that had come with the consistent unfavorable weather patterns.

 
People began waiting anxiously for their first turns, forming a line at the bottom of the lift prior to the slated nine o’clock opening. Skiers and riders were all talking about how great it was to be back in their boots and clicked or strapped into their gear again.

 
The crowd began to dwindle down around lunch time, as many people had begun to experience the pains and aching muscles that come with being fresh out of the offseason.

 
Nearing the end of the day, visibility became an issue as the infamous Jay cloud settled in, covering the upper mountain with a thick coat of fog that came with the slow temperature rise throughout the day.
Soon after this, a light misty mix, mainly consisting of snow and sleet, began to fall within the final hour of the lifts being in operation for the day.

 
When the lifts finally swung to a stop for the day, everyone who had the pleasure of experiencing their first lift-served turns of the season probably went home or back to their lodging accommodations with a better feeling then they had last season when opening day came around.

 
Hopefully Mother Nature will better look out for the skiers and riders on the East Coast this season and the recently accumulated natural snow will set as a good omen for the rest of the season in hopes of a much more significant snowfall year than last year.