NORTH CREEK, N.Y. (NEWS10) – With the most significant winter storm of the season set to move through the region into this weekend, ski resorts are hoping to see high snowfall totals on the slopes. With the impacts of the storm dependent on elevation, higher locations are expected to see the most snow.

“We’re expecting a good dumping of snow this weekend, which is awesome,” said Mike Aspland, who was skiing at Gore Mountain on Thursday ahead of the storm.

Staff at Gore Mountain are expecting to see one to two feet of snow from this system, “Getting a big snowstorm this early in the season is great for our base. It also really excites skiers and riders for the upcoming season,” said Julia Johnson, the resort’s marketing manager.

Those expected totals hoping to build on an already solid base of mostly artificial snow. Snow guns and makers have been running consistently on the mountain with temperatures below freezing.

“We’ve had an incredible snowmaking season start, with low temperatures, and ever since then, we’ve been getting great temperatures for making lots of snow,” Johnson explained.

The ability to make so much snow this early on in the ski season has brought many riders out earlier than ever, “This is the earliest I’ve ever been out. It’s just nice to be outside,” Kelly Doherty said.

“Snowmaking nowadays is so much better than it was 10 or 15 years ago, it’s almost like real snow and the conditions here are awesome,” Aspland added.

But even with plenty of snow already on the trails, riders say nothing compares to the real thing.

“I guess it’s a lot easier to turn and stuff. There’s more coverage and more of the trails will be open,” Doherty explained.

With the slopes hoping to see significant snowfall by the time the storm is out of the region, she, and likely many others are hoping to be back on the mountain this weekend.