It might look like a pretty crappy ski or ride season from the valleys of Vermont, but for resorts in the mountains the view is a lot better.

That's thanks mostly to sheer luck and Mother Nature balancing just enough weak warm fronts with colder, drying air being pulled down from Canada. The result: more snow than not across the mountains of Vermont.

In the past week, Killington Resort reported about 9 inches of natural snowfall. Bolton Valley Resort reported more than 10 inches and Jay Peak Resort reported a whopping two feet.

"New Year's Eve and New Year's Day saw some of the very best ski and ride conditions of the season so far," said Adam White, director of communications at Ski Vermont, adding that the timing could not have been better for folks coming up for the holiday week.

"Those who made the trip certainly got the goods."

Although the snow conditions feel more like spring than a typical start to January, which can see temps dip into the negatives this time of year, today temps will get into the low-to-mid 30s or higher on some peaks — Vermont has been lucky to get just enough cold.

That's thanks to a very "delicate" balance between warm, moist low pressure systems coming up from Mexico and just the right amount colder air being pulled down from Canada, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrea LaRocca based in Burlington.

"We are hitting that sweet spot," she said of Vermont, which had a front-row seat to that perfect mix of warm and cold that is producing more snow across the state's higher elevations.

But that sweet spot is fragile. LaRocca said that the "warm nose" of those fronts coming up from the south have, for the most part, been pretty weak, and just aren't rising up in the atmosphere enough to warm Vermont's peaks. Instead, they are combining with that cold Canadian air and generating a lot of snow.

"That's the dance that's happening right now," she said.

Although that dance has been a little messy at times — a mix of rain, sleet and snow — it looks to continue into this weekend as forecasts call for possible rain that will quickly transition into snow Saturday night and into Sunday.

Contact Ryan Mercer at rmercer@freepressmedia.com or at 802-343-4169. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmercer1 and facebook.com/ryan.mercer1. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.