SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Winter may not officially arrive for another month but that’s not stopping Utah’s slopes from opening for the upcoming season.
Solitude Mountain Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon and Brian Head Resort in southern Utah both celebrated their opening days on Friday, Nov. 8, welcoming eager skiers and snowbirds to their mountains.
Solitude’s opening will be more of a “soft launch” of the season. Solitude and Ikon Pass holders will be invited to use the Link lift from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the weekend. The resort will then close after the weekend before fully reopening for the season on Friday, Nov. 15.
Meanwhile, Brian Head is celebrating its second earliest opening in its 60-year history. The southern Utah resort will be welcoming boarders with top-to-bottom snowboarding on the Navajo Mountain beginning at 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Both Solitude and Brian Head benefited from some late-October storms that passed through the Beehive State, dumping snow into Utah’s higher elevations. The storms, paired with ideal conditions for snowmaking, brought Brian Head’s base total to seven inches and a foot to Solitude on their opening days.
The opening dates for the rest of Utah’s ski resorts are not far behind Brian Head and Solitude so snowbirds looking for options won’t have to wait long.
A full list of anticipated opening dates for Utah’s ski resorts as of Friday, Nov. 8, can be found below:
Alta Ski Area – Friday, Nov. 22
Beaver Mountain – TBA
Brighton – Thursday, Nov. 14
Cherry Peak – TBA
Deer Valley – Saturday, Dec. 7
Eagle Point – Friday, Dec. 20
Nordic Valley – TBA
Park City – Friday, Nov. 22
Powder Mountain – TBA
Snowbasin – Friday, Nov. 29
Snowbird – Thursday, Nov. 28
Woodward – TBA