If everything falls into place, Searchmont Resort is aiming to be open for daytime skiing and snowboarding on Saturday.
"We're working towards getting the hill up and running, but Mother Nature has certainly done a great job of helping us out with it," said Kim Burkhardt, inside operations manager for Searchmont Resort.
The resort began blowing its own artificial snow as soon as temperatures were cold enough, but she said the recent natural snowfall has played a big part in the possible Saturday opening.
Burkhardt said night skiing and snowboarding will start to be offered closer to the Christmas break.
New this year are 12 additional suites, which bring the resort's total complement up to 30 suites. Burkhardt said those suites can support up to 300 people total and will be especially attractive to out-of-town skiers who want to stay close to the hill.
"Who doesn't want to wake up on the hill and just get first tracks out there?" she said."The suites are beautiful and they include two brand new accessibility suites that will be available, as well."
The resort is also expanding the number of camps it is hosting on weekends, Christmas break and March break, as well as building its ski school.
"There's actually going to be a lot more camps than we've ever done before," Burkhardt said.
A new triple-triple season pass is being introduced this year for about half the price of a full season's pass. It allows skiers and snowboarders to access day and night skiing on Thursday and Friday, day-only skiing on Wednesdays and night skiing on Saturday.
Burkhardt said the hope for the triple-triple pass is to increase daytime users of the hill.
"This is a great way for students and even retirees or people that work from home to be able to have the opportunity to come during the day during the week," she said.
Warmer-than-usual winter weather last year led to a lot of ski resorts across the province closing their hills for a time. Burkhardt said Searchmont was one of the few resorts in Ontario that was able to stay open all winter.
"Lots of resorts saw about a 40-per-cent decrease in skier visits. We stayed stagnant. We didn't increase, but we didn't decrease, so that to us was a win," said Burkhardt.
"We never had to close once for weather. We opened every day and every hour that was on our schedule, we never closed and we were open until April 6."
With colder temperatures expected this year, combined with the resort's snow-making capabilities, Burkhardt said there are high hopes for a successful season.
"It's going to be a great year to get everybody out on their skis and snowboards," she said.
Early bird pricing for season passes and triple-triple passes is in effect until Nov. 30 and Burkhardt said some Black Friday sales will be announced on the resort's website shortly.