It was also announced that the 09/10 ski and snowboard season will be the greatest on record.

The Ski Channel will now be available on RCN’s Video ON DEMAND in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Lehigh Valley and New York City.

“There are more skiers per capita in these markets than nearly anywhere else in the country,” said Bellamy. “As this is going to be an incredible ski season, we look forward to deeper penetration into these areas with such a heavy concentration of skiers.”

“Our goal is to deliver high-quality programming that our customers want and expect. Because The Ski Channel is extremely targeted to our customer base, it is a perfect fit and we’re pleased to provide this exciting channel to our customers,” said RCN Strategic External Affairs and Programming Senior VP Richard Ramlall.

Additionally, The Ski Channel announced that this ski and snowboard season will be the best on record.

“Yes Mother Nature is unpredictable, but because of a significant amount of contributing factors happening simultaneously, we at The Ski Channel are predicting that this will be the greatest ski and snowboard season of all time,” said Bellamy. “There has never been a time when weather, facility, equipment and awareness have all been in perfect harmony at such a high apex.”

* Conditions - Resorts across the country have set historical early season openings  due to unseasonably cold weather and, in some instances, staggering amounts of snow. That coupled with the fact that El Nino should bring significant amounts of snow during the season to most of the country should mean an incredible ski season.  The Farmers Almanac has also forecast an extremely snowy season.

* Olympics - The upcoming Winter Olympics are in North America, and there will be more stories than ever emanating from Vancouver this season.  Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn have already become household names.  But, also Julia Mancuso, Erik Fischer, Ted Ligety and others have bonafide medal shots

* Facility - The overwhelming majority of large resorts have made significant infrastructure improvements over the last five years to the tune of billions of dollars.  New villages, trams, gondolas, base camps, lodges and hotels are largely finished now, creating incredible destinations for consumers.

* Equipment - Ski, snowboard and clothing manufacturers are producing the best products with the best technologies in the history of their businesses.  These will make the experience a lot better.