Winter season begins early: 2 Minnesota ski hills open Tuesday

MINNEAPOLIS -- Eager to hit the slopes? Believe it or not, some Minnesota ski hills opened Tuesday.

Wild Mountain Ski Area in Taylors Falls opened for skiing and snowboarding at noon. 

"Our snowmaking team hustled the last two nights, and successfully made enough snow for us to open to the public," a release said.

Wild Mountain claims it is the first ski area to open in North America for the season. It's also tied for the second-earliest opening date in Wild Mountain's history. In 2012, the ski area opened on Oct. 7.

Andes Tower Hills, west of Alexandria, was open from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

"This is not a fake video," Andes Tower Hills General Manager Tom Anderson said in a video Monday. "This is real snow. We can actually throw snow."

Ralph Endres got his runs in Tuesday. He was going to go for a hike. Then he saw that Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls was opening for its first day of the season.

"My wife used to be an instructor here before she passed away. This is the anniversary of my wife's passing away. This was the hill that she taught on all the time so I'm just ecstatic to be here spending the day playing hooky from the business I run," he said.

For the hill to be ski-able on this day, so unusually early in the year, Endres thinks that may have been some divine intervention.

"I'm going to ski out here as long as I can ski out here," he said.

It's not going to be staying this cold, so it could be a short window this week that the hill stays open.

"We prepare all summer long for this day, and we've actually made snow the last two nights to get us where we're at today," Wild Mountain's snow sports manager Nathan Hakseth said.

Connor and Paddy Flanagan made the drive up from Edina. They weren't going to miss this opportunity.

"Get the legs back under you, have fun, slide a couple rails and see some people you haven't seen since last winter," Paddy Flanagan said.

The manager said the hill will likely close this weekend then they'll make some more snow when it gets cold enough again.