The snowflakes are starting to fly — and that means ski season is almost here for many resorts across the Empire State.

At Ellicottville's Holiday Valley Resort in Western New York — it’s better late than never.

"Without the colder temps and low humidity, we just can’t effectively make snow," said Dash Hegeman, director of marketing at Holiday Valley Resort. "We’ve had some decent little windows where they’ve been able to fire up the system and start the process, but nothing really extended that’s allowed them to go full bore."

Holiday Valley hoped to open the slopes the day after Thanksgiving, but Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. But now with cold and snow in the forecast, they’re aiming to fire up this Friday. 

"It looks like we’ve got some windows in this coming week, along with some hopefully lake-effect snow that will add some nice scenery to the area and we’ll be able to get things really ramped up," he said.

According to onthesnow.com, only a handful of mountains in the state have opened for the season. It all depends on what the weather brings.

"Snow gets people stoked," Hegeman said. "It’s what our skiers and riders love to see, so from that aspect it’s really good to have Mother Nature kick in and help out with the process."

Roughly 500,000 people visit Holiday Valley each season. About 20% of them come from Canada — and with loosened COVID-19 border restrictions, they started to see their neighbors to the north return last year. 

"It’s exciting to see people get back across the border easily," he said.

While some may dread the snow and cold, it means big business for ski resorts and one way for people to enjoy the winter months.

"Being able to see people who are really stoked about getting back out on snow, in the lift lines and coming down the slopes is an awesome thing to see,” said Hegeman. "This is the time of year that we really look forward to."