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It's a big day for snow enthusiasts as Snowbird ski resort opens today. It's the first ski resort to open in Utah this season. Being able to open the slopes two weeks early has made a lot of people happy.
Skier Evan Bonar said, "I'm so pumped, first day of the year and four feet of snow. I was just up here hiking a few days ago and there was no snow."
Ginny Marie Lines said, "It's just so good to be here!"
Skiers and snowboarders were lined up early this morning to be the first to hit the slopes for the 2008-2009 ski season. Today's opening is the second earliest opening in the resort's 38-year history. The earliest was on November 5th, 2004, when Snowbird received 633 inches. Last year Snowbird received 611 inches of snow and stayed operational from Nov. 30 to June 22.
Snowbird made the decision to open today after receiving 46 inches in the last five days. Twenty-eight of those came between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon. With that much snow in such a short period of time, ski patrol was out early this morning making sure the snow is safe by looking for potential avalanche dangers and roping off hazards.
Jared Ishkanian, the PR director for Snowbird, said, "Obviously we have some early season conditions here. There are some rocks poking out in certain spots. So we want to rope all that off so there aren't any hazards lurking under the surface."
Snowbird ski patrol says they need about another three feet of snow in order to open all the runs. Right now they have four open, including Regulator Johnson, which is a black diamond.
Because they only have four runs open at this time, the resort is offering discounted tickets until they can open all of them. All they need is one more big storm to be fully operational.
The next resort scheduled to open is Brighton. It will open on November 12th.
Snowbird and Alta recently were named the No. 1 ski destinations in North America by Outside Magazine. That type of ranking helps drive tourism in Utah.
During last season, Utah's 13 ski resorts hosted 4.2 million skiers. According to the state tourism office, skiers spent 176 percent more than other tourists who visited the state overall, bringing in about $6 million.
