Mass. Ski Slopes Welcome Weekend Snowfall

After the warmest December on record, regional ski areas welcomed the weekend's snowfall — even if certain slopes got no snow.

At the Blue Hills Ski Area, just south of Boston, 12-year-old Caroline Forrester waited for the chairlift with about 100 other kids. She came with her Nashoba Valley team after the storm left 7 inches on the Blue Hills.

Forrester, a racer, said the snow had its ups and downs.

"It's very powdery ... it doesn't make the course icy, which is in ways good and bad," she said. "It slows you down, the powder slows you down a lot."

But for the ski area, fresh snow is a blessing.

Blue Hills general manager Viro Piacentini said the resort makes plenty of its own powder. But there's nothing quite like a good snowstorm.

"What it means for us is it puts snow in people's backyards, and they start thinking about skiing, but we've been skiing since the beginning of the month, had really good conditions, and this just helps us out," he said.

The snowfall brought as much as 15 inches to parts of southeastern Massachusetts. But Nashoba Valley, in Westford, got no snow. Still, Nashoba's Jonathan Damon said 100 percent of trails are open.

"Right now we're skiing on about a 30-inch base, and major, mega superstorm January 2016 snow dropped zero inches on us," he said.

The storm brought about an inch to Wachusett Mountain in central Massachusetts. Wachusett marketing director Tom Meyers said snow anywhere is good for ski areas everywhere.

"The snowstorm across the eastern seaboard has just reminded everybody that winter is finally here with a vengeance, and now is the time to get out and enjoy it," he said.

Wachusett opened Thanksgiving weekend, but Meyers says the unprecedented warmth in December meant the mountain didn't start seeing traffic until this month.

Now Meyers says he hopes it doesn't snow so much that people can't get out of their houses and onto the slopes.