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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We&amp;#8217;re Open!&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;em&gt;Mother Nature smiles upon the mountain as it opens for the season&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;STRATTON MOUNTAIN, Vt. &amp;#8211; Happy Opening Day!&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;At 8:45 this morning, after weeks of finger crossing, weather watching and speculation, the lifts at &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/stratton.com\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Stratton Mountain Resort&lt;\\/a&gt; spun for the very first time this season. The first skiers took their seats and were seen winding their way down Upper Mountain trails minutes later.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s awesome,&amp;#8221; said Nick Einstein, a snowboarder from Harrisonburg, Va. &amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;m really excited the mountain is open and pumped to be riding here.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Stratton opens with top to bottom skiing and riding on intermediate and advanced terrain on Southern Vermont&amp;#8217;s highest peak. With 5-8 inches of natural snow in the forecast, trail projections could be as high as 30 for the upcoming weekend.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;The skiing is excellent. Edge to edge. Top to  bottom,  there&amp;#8217;s a ton of snow out there,&amp;#8221; noted Stratton Snow Reporter Chris Estes. &amp;#8220;You ski down and hear the roar of the snow guns in the distance. It makes it feel like mid winter.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;It certainly wasn&amp;#8217;t easy for VP of Operations Mike Quinn and his team to prepare the mountain for opening. Last week, temps across the region and throughout the Northeast hit record highs. Hypothetically speaking, Vermont was closer to tropical than freezing, while our friends in Houston, Texas saw the earliest recorded snowfall in that city&amp;#8217;s history.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re really pleased with the conditions out there,&amp;#8221; Quinn said. &amp;#8220;Mountain Ops, Grooming and Snowmaking all did a fabulous job putting the mountain together.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;And it was a major advantage for us to open when we did, as it gave those guys an additional 36-48 hours to prepare for the big day. Rather than opening with one trail, we were able to open with 13 and service from top to bottom.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://snowboarding.transworld.net/news/stratton-mountain-opens/>