Skiing above the clouds at Marmot Basin in Alberta.

Many ski resorts are enjoying the good early-season snow conditions, and Alberta’s Marmot Basin is no exception with a new chairlift in operation.

Located near Jasper in Alberta, Canada, the Rocky Mountain resort had its earliest and one of its most successful opening days ever on the 11th, with over 2,300 enthusiastic snow seekers hitting the slopes.

Six lifts and 43 runs were open and snow conditions were reported be “one of the best ever” for an opening day. Marmot’s state-of-the-art snow making system complimented abundant early season natural snowfall resulting in near perfect mountain conditions.

Marmot’s new Canadian Rockies Express high speed quad chair was also in full operation, and it was the talk of the mountain. The new chair is very fast, traveling at over five meters per second, and takes riders up 2.3 km in only 7.5 minutes. Getting from the base of the mountain to the top of the upper area now takes less than half the time it took previously.

“We were anticipating lots of skiers and riders for our first day of the season but never did we imagine there would be so many,” said Brian Rode, Marmot’s VP of Marketing. “Word got out that we had incredible snow conditions and more terrain open than any other resort and that’s what did it for us.”

Marmot expects to open more runs very soon and is anticipating a record breaking season.

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