When Solitude Mountain Resort managers made the decision to open the ski area a week ahead of schedule — even as warm temperatures had other Utah resorts pushing back their opening dates — they knew people would come. It didn’t matter that it would only be firing up a relatively slow double lift. That they could open only a single green groomer was of little concern.

“There’s such a big population of just die-hards that will get out and ski on anything,” Solitude spokesperson Travis Holland said. “And our goal is always to provide the longest season we can and that means getting open as soon as we can and then stay open as long as we can. …

“It really kind of came down to, ‘Why not? This terrain is skiable. This lift is ready to turn. Why make people wait another week? People are itching to get back on the mountain, so let’s get them up here.’”

True to form, they came. Hundreds of people turned out Friday to celebrate the opening of Utah’s 2023-24 ski season. They dug into free doughnuts as they lined up to ride up the Link lift and take a cruise down Easy Street.

And while they may all be considered diehards, the Dean family took that label to another level.

The family of four, including 8-year-old Rainier and 6-year-old Theodore, left their home in Cottonwood Heights at 3:30 in the morning to make sure they snagged the first chair — which started turning at 10 a.m.

It was the second straight season they’d claimed those bragging rights at Solitude, and they’d learned a thing or two in the previous effort, or so they thought. Last year, when Solitude opened at 2 p.m., mother Liz Dean and the two boys arrived at 8 a.m. to secure their spot and barely beat a few other rabid skiers to it. So this year they thought six hours of padding would do the trick again, and they were right. Courtney Dean said no one else showed up until four hours after they arrived.

“We might have severely overestimated the community stoke,” he said while riding the chairlift up for yet another run at 3 p.m. “But there are lots and lots of people here now.”

Courtney Dean said he was impressed with how well the snow was holding up even as temperatures reached the 40s and how quickly the lift line moved. This year Solitude added some terrain park features to Easy Street. Holland said those features will live on that run only during the early season and eventually will be moved to Solitude’s year-old terrain park on Main Street. For a week or two, though, they’ll keep people entertained during their laps and spread out traffic.

“Anything we can do to spice the day up,” Holland said, “we’ll go for it.”

Solitude will be open the rest of this weekend and then will reopen next weekend. By then, skiers and riders should have a few more options. Alta Ski Area, Park City Mountain and Brian Head all expect to be open by Friday with Woodward looking at Saturday. Snowbasin hopes to be running by Nov. 24 and Snowbird has pegged Nov. 30 for its opener.

Warm temperatures are expected through the weekend and into early next week, but it should still be cold enough for resorts to make snow, according to Evan Thayer, a forecaster for OpenSnow.com.

“Any potential snow is still a ways away,” Thayer wrote in his weather blog Friday. “Our next chance for snow is going to come in the second half of next week.”

Thayer said he’s hopeful Utah will get some significant snow around Thanksgiving, but he said it’s still too early to count on that.

That won’t deter the diehards, though. As long as the ground is white, they’ll be willing to ski it.

Just like the Deans, who Courtney said don’t make a habit of getting up early and camping out for other events.

As he said, “It’s kind of just a ski thing.”

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