I am waking up this morning to a heavy machinery sound that can only mean one thing in my area... Heavenly Mountain Resort is making snow on the lower part of the Stagecoach Run. Never thought I would be excited to hear this sound, but given the current snow conditions I will take anything at this point.

Are they planning to open Stage this weekend? I will update with pictures when the sun comes up and I can see exactly where they are working.

These are pictures taken on the morning of 12.16.08 of the Stagecoach Lift (the vertical cut going to the top of the hill in the trees is the lift) and Stagecoach Run (horizontal cut in the trees) on the Nevada side of Heavenly. If you look closely you can see what seems to be smoke coming off of the hill. This is where Heavenly is currently making snow. This area is roughly the middle of the run so we can only hope they will continue to work all their way to the bottom over the next couple of days so they can open the Stagecoach Lift.