Earliest opening ever in Utah
Back in the late 80's and early 90's, there used to be quite a competition between Park City, Solitude, and Brighton as to which would open first. I was a volunteer host at both Brighton and Solitude during those years, and it was always so exciting getting everything ready for an early opening.
I remember Solly's owner Gary tried for a few years to be the first resort ever, in the history of Utah skiing, to open by Halloween. But alas, the conditions were never quite right.
He almost made it one year. In October of 1991, we'd had an early snowstorm lay down a bit of a base that stayed for several days as the temps remained quite cold above 8,000 feet. Solitude fired up the portable snowmaking guns on Moonbeam II and the Link.
Everything was progressing nicely--the machine snow was piling up and the temperatures were cooperating. I was getting more excited by the day at the thought of skiing in October. I was still fairly new at skiing and there were lots of experiences that I was just realizing I wanted to have. The idea of skiing out of season was just beginning to germinate in me (who would have ever guessed what a monster obsession that would become, heh).
I was fascinated with the idea of skiing in a month that most people would never think of skiing. Interestingly, at that time I hadn't ever heard of alpine touring, hiking for turns, and frankly, I wouldn't have known what a climbing skin was if I had tripped over one. So, to me, the only way one could ski in October would obviously be if the ski resorts opened by then, but that wasn't going to be a problem--skiing in October was about to become a reality.
Here we were, a few days before Halloween, and there was a buzz around the place. Even two sourpuss old geezers, with whom I occasionally had to interact, were more animated than I'd ever seen them, when I arrived for our morning briefing Saturday, the 26th of October. We were right on schedule to have the first-ever October resort opening in the storied history of one of the pioneer states of skiing, and it was scheduled for that next Thursday; Halloween Day.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. A high pressure system moved in the day after our meeting and refused to budge for the next few days. The sun came out strong, temps rose--the base was melting before our eyes. The disappointment was evident throughout the organization. It had been so perfect. There had even been a radio ad teasing about the early opening. Now what was going to happen?
By Wednesday, opening on Halloween was out of the question. There just wasn't enough coverage now to do it. I don't know who came up with the idea, nor do I know who gave the go-ahead, but all day Tuesday through Thursday every available worker, snowcat, and snowmobile, was out on that hill pushing snow into piles which were then spread out onto a trail from the top of Moonbeam II down to the base at parking lot 1. There wasn't even enough snow to make a continous trail down to Parking lot 2, but it was evident someone in management was hell-bent on opening anyway.
Solly didn't open on Halloween day, but they opened the very next morning, November 1st, 1991. I was there. On the chairlift, I ate candy my kids had given me after hauling them around the neighborhood trick-or-treating the previous night. It was, apparently, the very earliest opening of a Utah ski resort, even though we didn't make the October goal.
I didn't know it at the time, but it would be the last October skiing I would ever miss...
