Skiing Starts Friday At Solitude, Brighton

Our ski season officially kicks off on Friday, when Solitude and Brighton open. Other Utah resorts will follow quickly. Most will be open by Thanksgiving weekend. (See this schedule of tentative opening dates.)

A major storm yesterday dropped almost a foot of snow in the Wasatch Mountains. Another storm will hit tomorrow. It now looks like tomorrow's storm is moving south and will blast central Utah, but our northern mountains will still see good amounts of new snow.

Brighton now reports 11 inches of new snow and a 27 inch base. That's very good for this early in the season. Longterm forecasts say we should expect a stormy fall and winter, so ski conditions should just get better and better.

The Salt Lake Tribune has this article about yesterday's storm. Below are excerpts.

Another cold storm system is poised to drive into Utah by Wednesday and could bring more precipitation statewide. But that system will track through central Utah and won’t bring as much rain and snow to northern Utah as Monday’s storm did, Graham said.

The combination three-day punch could bring another 18 inches of snow to ski resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons, according to weather service forecasts.

By 2 p.m. Monday, Brighton and Snowbird were reporting 7 to 8 inches of new snow.

“We’ve got about 6 to 8 inches of new snow, depending on where you’re standing,” said Brighton’s Jared Winkler. “We’re ramping up the snowmaking. We’ll be good to go by Friday.”

It was dumping snow in Little Cottonwood Canyon, as well.

“It’s been snowing heavily all day,” said one Alta employee. “There’s a ton of people here, trying to ski and snowboard.”

Alta is scheduled to open for skiing Nov. 19. Snowbird has announced a Nov. 20 opener, and Park City Mountain Resort plans to open the same day.