If you've been out to ski this season, you can see that conditions are way ahead of where we were last year. The winter of was ... abysmal.  Ski Season '06-'07 did  have snowfall. In fact, after Christmas '06, skiers began to expect a snowfall anytime a holiday rolled around. But, overall, conditions up to this point weren't as good as they are this season.

This season started strong, and even with the mild patch known as the January Thaw, ski areas have much more terrain open and better coverage. In December and January last year, many ski areas were still concentrating on getting to full operation. Some areas, if you remember, had to temporarily shut down due to lack of snow.

New Hampshire and Maine have, so far this season, seen more snowfall than they've received in years. Ski New Hampshire, the association of the state's ski areas, reported that in early December, conditions were shaping up as the best since 2000-01. Ticket sales at Gunstock this December were "...three times what they were the year before," according to management in a recent New Hampshire Union Leader article by Paula Tracey. In the same article, Waterville ski area management were quoted as saying that this December was their "...best December in well over a decade."  Maine ski areas, notably Sugarloaf and Sunday River, have also had an upbeat season with enough snowfall to increase holiday skier traffic over previous years. Vermont's ski areas, according to the Vermont Ski Areas Association, have also had strong ticket sales thanks to tremendous snowfalls and cold weather.