Utah ski season openers

The Utah ski season will officially kick off Friday. Solitude will open two of its lifts at 9 a.m.

The Canyons was looking at opening on Saturday but has pushed the date back to Nov. 21.

Most of Utah's 13 resorts are on a to-be-announced opening schedule, waiting impatiently for the first major snow of the year.

It was expected to hit last weekend, but the storm coming in from the northwest weakened and fizzled, said Monica Traphagan, meteorologist with the United States Weather Service.

Some snow fell late Tuesday and early Wednesday, but not enough to cover runs.

The next major storm is expected to come into the northern Utah area on Monday and Tuesday. With any significant snowfall, and with operations for man-made snow in service, several Utah resorts will open in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

A small front is expected in on Friday, but it, too, is expected to be weak.

The three-month outlook, said Traphagan, is for above-normal precipitation in the northern reaches of Utah and average precipitation over the rest of the state.

In the winters of 2004-05 and 2005-06, Utah's higher-elevation resorts received more than 600 inches. Alta, in fact, in 2004-05, received nearly 700 inches of total snowfall for the year.

Last season, total snowfall was below 400 inches.

Solitude becomes the first of Utah's 13 resorts to open.

Jay Burke, director of marketing, said the resort would open Moonbeam and Link lifts. Most of the snow around the lifts, roughly 10 inches deep, is man-made.

"We'll have two to three runs open and hope, by the weekend, to have the Apex lift and more runs open," he noted.

"What we want to do is simply offer people a chance to come up and slide and get all the waiting out of their system."

An adult day pass will be $43. Services, including rentals, food and ski school, will be open.

The next scheduled openings will be The Canyons and Park City Mountain Resort on Wednesday.

Snowbasin, Wolf Mountain and Brian Head are scheduled to open on Nov. 22.

Traditionally, being open by Thanksgiving is an "iffy" thing. Most years, however, resorts have been able to make the holiday date.