Minnesota’s Wild Mountain got a very early start on ski season this year, opening on Oct. 18 — its second-earliest opening of all time. Who’s going to be next?
Ski season has officially begun. On Tuesday, Oct. 18, Wild Mountain Ski Area in Taylor’s Falls opened up, claiming the title of 2022’s first North American ski area to open its slopes — and kicking off the 2022/23 ski season.
There are bragging rights that come with that. Every year, the race to open first gets more heated; resorts like Keystone and Arapahoe Basin avoid posting hard opening dates on their websites anymore.
If one of them does, its competitor is apt to quietly kick its snowmaking into high gear overnight and swoop in and beat the other mountain open. It happened in 2019 and it’s bound to happen again.
Now, those mountains keep that kind of beta hush-hush and close to their chests. Last year, Wolf Creek and A-Basin were the first, opening simultaneously on Oct. 17.
Wild Mountain Ski Area: ‘Here. We. Go.’
This year, Colorado’s ski areas didn’t even have a chance to claim the title of “First Open.” Wild Mountain up in Minnesota saw its opportunity in a cold front moving over them and took it. That swift action paid off.
“Our snowmaking team hustled the last two nights, and successfully made enough snow for us to open.” The ski area wrote in a post on its website titled, “Here. We. Go.”
It’s not the mountain’s earliest opening ever (that was on Oct. 7, 2012), but it does tie for Wild Mountain’s second earliest opening, ever (the other being in 1994).
With an annual average snowfall of 50 inches per year, the ski area isn’t usually setting records for bottomless pow. But that’s probably why it made moves to set a record this year and open before anyone else in North America.
“We have early season conditions so all guests should expect bare spots, hidden obstacles, rocks, snowmaking equipment and other obstructions.” Wild Mountain’s website warned.
“Our snow base is limited, so we aren’t sure how long we’ll be able to remain open with the current conditions … so, get in your car and get up here!”
Forecasting the Season
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Who’s Next?
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