Since day one of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unknowns and the restrictions placed on small businesses have led to a lot of confusion and uncertainty.

However, that will not be the case for ski areas across New York state as they now know they can open November 6 and will have a couple of weeks to get ready and welcome guests.

Tim McAtee owns the Dry Hill Ski Area in Watertown. A weather dependent business, he has spent 39 years never certain of his annual opening date, but obviously this season is much different.

Although with Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing ski areas can open early next month, COVID-19 delays are surprisingly one less worry.

"Very excited, because people are looking for outdoor activities. If you think about skiing, snowboarding, tubing, it's all outdoors and that's what we sell," McAtee said of knowing he will be allowed to open.

Now there won't be many ski areas that open on November 6. There's no snow yet and likely won't be, and it's not yet cold enough to make snow. So in essence, the advanced notice is much longer than it appears, giving McAtee and his team plenty of time to get Dry Hill ready for when they can open.

"Here, we only have two chair lifts. Lifts are our bread and butter. That's what people ride the most. We want to keep it in the best shape possible," McAtee said of one of the ski area's projects.

And safety is key, especially this year, mechanically and physically.

There will be restrictions on how many people can enter the lodge, snack shack, and bar at a time, and there will be social distance restrictions at the lifts, but McAtee said he'll be disinfecting all rental equipment before and after each use.

When people are outdoors and most are already wearing gloves and masks, skiing will be something a whole family can safely enjoy this winter.

"Everyone is learning how to live with this and how to social distance and how to be safe and wear a mask and that's kind of happened in our offseason, so when we do open back up, a lot of people are educated about what's going to be expected of them," McAtee said.

Dry Hill will be celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and McAtee said he will have some deals on pre-sale season long passes. He said it's his way of thanking everyone for their support and understanding as we enter this winter still fighting on. You can learn more by visiting skidryhill.com.