A look at what's in store for the New England ski season

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) - The ground may be bare now but there's snow in the hills as New England ski resorts kick off the season with ever more high-efficiency snowmaking guns.

New offerings include snowcat skiing at Sugarloaf in Maine, in which a snowcat grooming machine with a cabin transports visitors to backcountry areas.

And say goodbye to the paper lift ticket attached to a jacket by a wire hanger. More resorts have swapped them out for high-tech tickets and passes with radio-frequency identification (RFID) that allow skiers and riders to carry them in jacket pockets and pass quickly through gates to board lifts. This season Sugarbush and Smugglers' Notch in Vermont and Waterville Valley, Mount Sunapee Resort and Gunstock Mountain Resort in New Hampshire will be using RFID technology.