Sun Valley Resort has announced that more runs that expected will be opening Thanksgiving day on Bald Mountain, picture looming over the city of Ketchum. (Express photos by Willy Cook)

New snow will enable Sun Valley to open more Bald Mountain terrain than was first anticipated.

River Run Plaza and Warm Springs Lodge will open for business, with limited operations at Lookout restaurant at the top of Bald Mountain.

Runs currently slated for definite opening on Thanksgiving Day are: Upper College, Flying Squirrel, Lower Picabo, Lower Warm Springs and Lower River Run. Operational lifts will include Lower River Run, Lookout Express and, at the Warm Springs base, Challenger.

If snows continue as they have, said Sun Valley Company public relations officer Jack Sibbach, the outlook is good.

An on-ski and snowcat inspection of might-be-opened terrain was underway at press time, Tuesday morning.

Mountain operations crews were hard at work last week preparing for the big day. (Express photos by Willy Cook)

"We’d love to open up River Run top to bottom," said Sibbach, "but we’ll have to wait and see."

The Tuesday morning summit base was 41 inches, with new snow falling steadily.

Early last week, prior to the latest snow showers, Sun Valley’s outlook was more pessimistic. The resort would have needed approximately 90 hours of snowmaking to open all of Upper College, Flying Squirrel, Lower Picabo, Lower Warm Springs and Lower River Run, said a press release issued last Wednesday.

Unseasonably warm weather limited the hours of snowmaking operations prior to the current storm front, which arrived from the Pacific.