Lake Tahoe, CA/NV – Up to two feet and more of Mother Nature’s bounty will allow a number of Lake Tahoe area ski resorts to open early this week for the new winter season.

Squaw Valley and Northstar on Tahoe’s North Shore, and Kirkwood and Heavenly in the south will all be opening this week ahead of schedule.

“We are genuinely thrilled to welcome winter back to Lake Tahoe,” said Andy Wirth, president and CEO of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. “Thanks to last week’s two feet of snow and cold temperatures that have allowed us to optimize our new vast and fully automated snowmaking system, we’re pleased to announce that we will be opening this Friday, November 16 – nearly a week earlier than anticipated.

“We will commence operations on Friday with Searchlight, Red Dog, Squaw Creek and FirstVentures lifts, and you will be seeing even more terrain opening before Thanksgiving,” continued Wirth. “I’ve asked our mountain operations teams to prepare the upper sections of the mountain including Gold Coast, Mountain Run, and with every effort possible, potentially down into the Shirley Lake area. Our snowmakers and snowguns have been absolutely going gangbusters and conditions continue to look great. We will also open Alpine Meadows earlier than our original planned date of December 7.”

Squaw’s operating hours are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Expanded operations for the Thanksgiving holiday will include additional terrain, Aerial Tram rides and SnoVentures operations – which includes snowtubing and mini snowmobile rides.

Heavenly and Northstar had originally planned to open on November 16 with Kirkwood following on November 21. Instead, Heavenly and Northstar will open tomorrow with a combined seven lifts and eight trails, totaling 51 acres. On Friday, Kirkwood will open one lift and five trails, accessing another 40 acres and Heavenly will open Dipper Express, giving access to mile-long Orion’s, adding another 20 acres, weather and conditions permitting.

“No need to bring your ‘rock skis’ to our resorts,” said Pete Sonntag, Heavenly’s general manager. “Our resorts have a reputation for opening with quality in addition to quantity. The guest experience is always first and foremost at our mountains and providing the best skiing surfaces possible plays a huge part in that.”

Heavenly will operate Tamarack Express Chairlift on Wednesday, accessing upper California Trail and Tamarack Return. By the weekend, the resort plans to add Dipper Express and Orion’s run. Everything will be accessed via uploading and downloading on the Heavenly Gondola.

Northstar will open four lifts on Wednesday, including the Big Springs Express Gondola, Big Easy, Arrow Express and Vista Express chairs, giving access to Pinball, Main Street, Upper Main Street, Lumberjack, Woodcutter and Easy Street trails.  One of the beginner carpet lifts will open as well, opening up some terrain specifically for new skiers and riders.  Ski school will also open early, as well as on-mountain dining. The Village at Northstar will also be open, featuring shopping, dining and access to the resort’s 9,000 square foot outdoor skating rink.

“This last storm brought phenomenal snowfall and our snowmaking team has been hard at work to make ensure we have the extra coverage needed to provide a high quality experience,” said Northstar COO Bill Rock.  “Our guests expect the best and we’re ready to provide that, so why wait?”

Kirkwood will open Chair 5 (Solitude) accessing about 40 acres of terrain including Race Course, Mokelumne, Lower Monte Wolfe, Lower Zachary and lower Olympic.

“We’ve got two-and-a-half feet of Mother Nature’s finest augmented by some machine-made snow,” said Casey Blann, Kirkwood’s general manager. “If the amount of people hiking our terrain over the weekend is any indication, we’ve definitely got the goods at Kirkwood.”

Lift tickets at Northstar, Kirkwood and Heavely will be available at early season pricing and can be applied toward the purchase of a season pass.