For skiers, boarders, early snowfall has Mass. appeal

At Blue Hills in Canton, where 20 inches of snow fell over the weekend, ski season started with a bang, according to Chad Johnson, director of the ski area.

"It took some people a while to dig out," said Johnson Sunday. "But when I got here in the morning, there were some kids who had hiked up and were waiting for me to open."

By midafternoon, the crowd was at midwinter level, said Johnson.

"That may not be close to what we have on some blockbuster days in January," said Johnson, "but for opening day it was great."

Last season, snow and freezing temperatures also came early. But the weekend storm that piled up depths in the backyards of most Bostonians inspired an impulse to quick-start the winter sports season.

"Some kids on our team were skiing along the Charles River today," said Peter Graves, coach of Harvard's winter cross-country team. "This week we'll have the team skiing out at the Weston cross-country ski track."

Graves noted that Nordic skiers at Harvard are usually challenged to find the kind of snow that competitors in more northern universities are accustomed to skiing on daily.

"We won't have that problem this year," Graves said. "This lets us get an unsually early start to our practice season."

At Nashoba Valley in Westford, one of the smaller feeder areas for larger northern resorts, the storm also started the winter early.

"I didn't know such a big crowd would show up as they dug themselves out," said Al Fletcher of his Sunday attendance. "It was like mid-January. And the storm is like free advertising. We had six to eight phone lines going with a lot of people looking for ski lessons and the tubing parking full of people."

Further north, the snow was also plentiful and plenty welcome.

"We received over 2 1/2 feet," said Stacey Lopes, spokeswoman for Waterville Valley. "It was an extremely delightful early Christmas present for us, especially because we had somewhat warm conditions going into the ski season. This has helped us to open some more trails a bit earlier than we had anticipated, and it has awakened people that we're open up here."

According to Herb Stevens, a.k.a. the skiing weatherman, this winter could have an above-average snowfall, like last winter, because of the weak El Nino, the upper-air steering current that helps determine the flow of winter storms into New England.

"It looks to me as though we'll have a winter with slightly below-normal temperatures and slightly above-average snowfall," he said.

For some that may sound like torture, but for skiers, boarders, and ski area owners, the heavy snowstorm was manna from heaven.

Globe correspondent Patty Topliffe contributed to this report.