WEBER COUNTY — With fresh snow outside, plenty of Utahns woke up with skiing and snowboarding on their minds. Resorts aren't open yet, but when the snow flies, it doesn't take much to get snow riders going.

"It gets you psyched for the season," skier Erik Holmgren said. "It gets you in the mood for the winter."

The first real storm of the year delivered, especially at Snowbasin and Powder Mountain.

"In the last four days ... we have roughly three feet of snow on the mountain right now," said Snowbasin's Jason Dyer. "(The snow) near the lodge — it's pretty impressive. OK, so it's not that deep, but it is a good start to the season."

When it snows like this in October, the phones start ringing at the resorts. Snowbasin opens Thanksgiving Day, but other resorts plan to open sooner than that.

"We get a lot of calls, ‘Are you guys going to open early? What are you going to do? What's your opening date?'" Dyer said.

And, after light snowfall last year, they're all eager for a blizzard of business — and so are the skiers.

Erik Holmgren expected a good time, but he said he did not expect the snow to be as deep as it was.

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The snow is back and autumn is beginning to give way to "the greatest snow on earth."

"I expected a little thinner base," he said. "Last year was a rough year for all of us who like to ski the soft stuff."

Until the lifts are running, these boarders and skiers say, keep it coming.

"It's easily 20–30 inches deep," snowboarder Bryan Smith said. "The sun was out for a little bit, but now we're starting to get the next storm rolling in. It's unbelievable … I've never seen it like this up here, actually."

That thick snow helps create a good base, if the sun doesn't melt it off in the weeks ahead. Early season conditions can be very dangerous, so you might want to wait until resorts start to open in a few weeks.

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