We’ve been going on and on all winter about how snowy it seems to be in the Black Hills This winter. Now it’s official: The federal National Resources Conservation Service reported that the snowpack in the higher hills is off to its best start since about 1996.

The season got off to a snowy start in November, followed by a big blizzard in December. And in January the Black Hills have seen a series of small 3- to 5-inch snowfalls.

That’s good news for a couple of reasons. First, snowmobilers, skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers have a lot more to work with this winter.

“It’s by far the best snow we’ve had in a dozen years. There’s four feet in the trees and a two- to three-foot base on the trails. It’s just unbelievable,” said Steve Olson, general manager of the Comfort Inn/Bodega in Deadwood and an avid snowmobiler.

And believe me, Steve should know. He goes snowmobiling about twice a week.

Olson said one of his hotel guests, a snowboarding fresh-powder fanatic from Montana, traveled to the Black Hills recently specifically because we have the heaviest snow in the region.

There are about 350 miles of snowmobile trails in the Black Hills, and those small storms have been keeping them fresh, according to Shannon Percy, Black Hills Trials Manager for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish & Parks.