If a ski vacation is on the horizon for you there are lots of options for you as ski resorts across the country open up for the season! The biggest news (literally) for the 2013/2014 season is the opening of a brand new mountain. Red Mountain in Rossland, B.C. along the Powder Highway has added an entirely new peak to its resort. Grey Mountain brings an additional 1,000 acres of mostly intermediate terrain to its existing resort. A new chair lift has also been added to service it. The whole project represents the largest expansion of any ski resort in North America in four decades. The closest airport access is Spokane Washington (2.5 hours) and for a Canadian option try Kelowna, which is three hours away.
 
The B.C. resorts are always coming up with new ways to entice skiers and there are some great packages this year. Panorama, where I had the chance to ski last year has introduced the PanoPass. Along the lines of an all-inclusive style program, it gives you access to unlimited skiing and snowboarding, night skiing (available Thursday to Saturday), the snow tube park, toboggan park and cross country skiing with your lift ticket (half or full day). It's an awesome value. It means that if you are there overnight you don't feel like you have to open up your wallet every time the kids want to go night skiing, tubing, tobogganing.
 
Big White has the Mom, Dad and Me package for families trying to introduce young children from three to six years old, to skiing. The two hour semi- private lesson teaches the kids but also the parents on how to encourage them to continue through games and activities.

B.C.'s www.SkiItToBelieveIt.com site is a great one stop shop for planning your trip. It includes some great ski deals, live snow conditions and lots of other handy info for anyone planning a ski/snowboard trip to B.C.   
 
In Alberta, The Big 3, Lake Louise, Norquay and Sunshine www.skibig3.com tend to get the most attention but don't forget about Marmot Basin in Jasper, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Conde Nast named Marmot Basin in its top 20 places to ski and stay in North America Condé Nast Traveler's Best Places to Ski in North America 2011. Expect a ski season of special activities, festivities and deals.  www.skimarmot.com
 
Other news in Alberta is K-POW:  Skiing at Fortress Mountain, a relatively new cat skiing operation in Western Canada, where you and your snow cat buddies explore  Fortress Mountain,  a resort that closed in 2006 and has since reopened as KPOW.
With annual snowfall amounts of between eight and 11 metres Fortress has a great chance of virgin snow. Ski leaders take you on a tour of the various faces of Fortress and seek out the best snow while teaching snow safety, regaling you with movies-shot-on-site stories and helping you find secret stashes of powder. New this year, KPOW is partnering with White Mountain Adventures and will be offering Snowshoeing at Fortress Mountain. www.kpow.ca

Blue Mountain, Ontario's premier ski resort is getting bigger with a 64 acre Orchard Expansion, which will include six new trails and the latest high-speed chairlift systems to get you from here to there. 
 
For those that like to plan ahead, their lift rate specials are on designated weeks from January to March, but for those spontaneous, flexible  souls Blue Mountain offers  a last-minute Hot Deals club that includes the full gamut of accommodations.
 
This past summer I had the  opportunity to visit Hôtel La Ferme, a recently opened hotel in the Charlevoix region. It is a totally funky yet homey hotel built out of an old dairy farm in the middle of a field in Baie-Saint- Paul. One of the coolest things about the hotel was the train that came right into the hotel. For the winter season, you can walk out the lobby from the hotel and right onto a train that links Hôtel La Ferme to Le Massif de Charlevoix ski resort. Pop into the train station, choose your take-out lunch, hop on the rail shuttle with your skis and get off at the foot of trails ? at Le Massif de Charlevoix. Le Massif is only 45 minutes driving from Quebec City.

 
And finally, Tremblant is also celebrating an anniversary. The mountain's 75th winter celebrations feature a long lineup of events including the New Year's Eve party on December 31, the official 75th anniversary spring celebrations and its festivities on February 12,  including the must-attend Caribou Cup, and a new Red Bull signature event that extends over four weekends from March 29 to April 19.
 
Beyond the mountain, it's an entire village that's celebrating a long tradition of hospitality and savoir-faire.  The Westin Resort & Spa Tremblant has received $5 million in renovations. As well a number of boutiques and restaurants have been up-graded in the past year.

For all reservations booked between now and December 3 as part of the Sneak Peak Sale, guests receive up to 30 per cent off lodging rates, on top of Tremblant Privileges that provide exclusive access to first tracks, the skating loan and Sliding evenings presented by Coca-Cola.