We have a snowbowl in the back here, slight northern slope on the far side, lots of trees behind it. No snow in the bowl now, just some piles. I like pine trees, but here, this winter at least, not a whole lot of snow made it through them, and the grass showed up first around them.
One other thing in the weenie hand book is to mow your final cut short, like 1.5 or 2", (and get those leaves off) so if you get 2" of snow it lays nice, and no blades sticking up acting as heat sinks (lol).