I think this will be my 26th season grooming the trails at Birch Hill. Our average start date for packing the trails in my time has been between October 12th and the 18th.  Other than the 2002/2003 ski season, which started out great but a Chinook Wind in October and a couple of rain storms in November wiped out all the snow at Birch. The trail lights were off until late December early January. We did the 2003 Junior Nationals with about 6” of snow packed on the trails in March. In the past it has taken one of the groomers to go to Hawaii to get the snow to start, so we will be setting up a Go Fund Me page to send the head groomer to Kona. We will post a link when the page is ready..