MONTAGE MOUNTAIN -- Snow on Thursday was perfectly timed for Montage Mountain in Scranton It was their opening day and students with a snow day took advantage.
Montage has been making snow all week and they were ready to go whether or not it snowed overnight. But, officials say the weather goes a long way in exciting customers about the season.
A Montage Mountain employee took one of the first official runs of the 2017-2018 season on freshly groomed snow. About three inches of fresh snow topped the man-made stuff the resort's been making all week.
"The snow gets people in the mindset, coming out and a lot of people are excited this year. It's opening day and we're ready to go," said Montage's Jeff Slivinski.
The skiers and snowboarders were ready, too. A few warm-up runs would be all they needed.
The first skiers were mostly a younger crowd. The overnight snow provided some with a day off from school.
"I was excited knowing I was going to get to come skiing today," said Kavan Hughes.
"I just thought, 'skiing today, yeah,'" added Liam Walter.
"Stayed up all night, kind of figured we would have no school. So, I didn't really bother sleeping, I just waited until it said closed. Pretty exciting," Nicole Zehner said.
Several school districts in Lackawanna County had snow days today but some did not. Some sophomores from Mid Valley High School thought the snowfall was the perfect reason to skip.
'Well, it took a little convincing but eventually got my mom to let me take off for the first day because I didn't get to last year."
Montage opened a day earlier than last year. A week of chilly days helped to accelerate the season.
Montage is open until 9 p.m. Thursday and offering discounted passes for the opening weekend. Get more information at the Montage Mountain website.
