Which ski resorts open in December?

15 of the 53 destinations in the Opening-Week Snow Reliability Index traditionally open in December, and 11 of those open in the first week. December is where the record turns healthy: 5 of the 15 were snow-ready in at least 8 of the last 10 seasons, and only 1 was snow-ready in none. Revelstoke leads at 10/10 and 95.2 cm.

Put the two months side by side and the shape of the season appears: 26 per cent of November's openings clear the 8-season bar against 33 per cent of December's. These are different mountains, not the same mountains a month later, so this is not a measurement of what December does to a November resort. It is a measurement of the choice: the group of resorts that waits for December is opening into a week the weather has usually already delivered.

The Christmas week question

Most of these mountains are open well before the holidays, so the December opening week is not the same question as the Christmas week conditions. What the record does say is that a destination which cannot clear 30 cm in its own opening week in most years is starting the holiday period on a thin, manufactured base, and it will stay dependent on what falls between the opening and the school holidays. The 7 December openings scoring 3 or fewer seasons out of 10 are the ones to check the live forecast for before committing.

Read the model cell before you read the score

Two December rows show why the cell column matters. Garmisch-Classic is read at 1915 m, near the top of a ski area that starts at 740 m, and scores 9/10. Chamonix is read at 1034 m, near the valley floor of a ski area that reaches 3842 m, and scores 9/10. Both numbers are honest; they are answering slightly different questions about the same mountain, and the cell column is how you tell which.