It's been four seasons since Monarch Mountain opened in November, but it's happening today for the 85th time. Opening base depths are 18", so you should expect early season conditions. Monarch relies on all-natural snow. Powderhorn resort is also opening today with beginner and intermediate terrain on offer. Base depths are a bit lower than they were last week - most open resorts are reporting 18" early season base depths. Vail and Wolf Creek have the highest values. The latest storm to hit the ski slopes occurred on Tuesday into Wednesday this week and gave the central and northern resorts healthy powder totals of 6-12". TOP 5 SKI RESORT BASE DEPTHS: RESORT BASE DEPTH Copper 27" Wolf Creek 25-27" Vail 26" Powderhorn 21" Purgatory 17-21" FORECAST:Heading into this weekend, sunshine and easy travel conditions will be the name of the game Friday & Saturday. High pressure over the dessert southwest will lead to highs above freezing. Expect some icy and harder patches of snow on the slopes as snow compacts due to this weather pattern. Saturday will also feature gusty downslope breezes on easterly and northeasterly slopes at all altitudes, and "into your face" breezes on westerly slopes mainly above treeline. Sunday brings a significant pattern change to the mountains, as a large plume of pacific moisture called an atmospheric river brushes the western part of the state. Clouds increase and some snow showers are likely for most ski resorts particularly during the afternoon. Snow continues Monday, with a more potent plume of pacific moisture arriving Tuesday leading to the arrival of heavy snow. Based on the potency of the moisture I'm expecting accumulations in the 8-12 inch (+) range Tuesday at higher elevations with difficult travel over mountain passes. Snow will wind down on Wednesday as moisture moves east to the I-25 corridor. Here's an (early) look at potential snow totals through Wednesday at the ski resorts: To be clear - I expect some peaks to eek out impressive totals above what this blend shows, but I like it because we're averaging together many possibilities here giving us a good starting point. I typically rely heavily on a model called the European ensemble when forecasting snow at longer ranges and she'llHere's the full list of resorts and opening dates/projected opening dates and status:COLORADO SKI AREA PROJECTED OPENING DATES: Arapahoe Basin Open Aspen Mountain Nov. 28 Aspen Highlands Dec. 14 Buttermilk Dec. 14 Beaver Creek Nov. 27 Breckenridge Open Cooper Dec. 11 Copper Mountain Open Crested Butte Nov. 27 Echo Mountain Dec. 13 Eldora Open Granby Ranch Dec. 6 Hesperus CLOSED this season Howelson Hill Nov. 30 Kendall Mountain Dec TBD Keystone Open Loveland Ski Area Open Monarch Mountain Open Powerderhorn Open Purgatory Open Silverton Dec 28 Snowmass Nov. 28 Steamboat Nov. 23 Sunlight Dec. 6 Telluride Nov. 28 Vail Open Winter Park Open Wolf Creek Open Disclaimer: This is sponsored content. All opinions and views are of Monarch Mountain and does not reflect the same of KOAA.__Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.