As the venerable Mr. T once said, “I pity the fool.” Well, we here at Freeskier pity the fools who haven’t been up to the mountains lately because the conditions are good. Damn good!

January saw all kinds of snowfall records set, and we aren’t merely talking about the usual suspects, like Alta and Snowbird. Nope, the new year ushered in exceptional conditions across the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave with widespread storms and tons of new snow.

Just how good has it been?

During the last week of January, Snowbird scored four feet over several days, lifting the ski area’s total snowfall to 103 inches for the month and 269 inches on the season. The ‘Bird is reporting a mid-mountain base of 95 inches.

In Vermont, a late January dump left up to 20 inches on many resorts, pushing the accumulation for the season ahead of last winter’s totals and leaving the state more than two feet deeper than the seasonal average.

Similar conditions exist in Colorado, where Vail is reporting a winter snowpack that is above the average of the last 30 years. As of the end of January, the snow on Vail Mountain was equivalent to 16.3 inches of water, versus a 30-year average of 12.6 inches of water for the same date.

Maine has also benefited from exception cooperation from Mother Nature. Sugarloaf has received 50 inches of snow in January, with 127 inches on the season. The totals exceed last season’s numbers, a winter that was widely regarded as one of the best in recent history. That winter, Sugarloaf received 37 inches of snow throughout the month of January, and did not top 120 inches of natural snow until Feb 5. The resort finished the season with 224 total inches.