There's a particular kind of excitement that comes with hearing the first snowguns of the season. It's loud, a little premature to start celebrating, and usually enough to get everyone around here thinking about winter.

As we head into our 70th season of operations, we're looking back at the first days of snowmaking over the past decade, none of which got underway quite as early as this year. Making snow in October is a rare occurrence at Jay, something we've managed fewer than five times in resort history.

The starting point is usually familiar territory. Snowmaking begins on some variation of the Stateside summit, covering the Upper Jet, Montrealer and Angel's Wiggle as we work toward our annual Thanksgiving weekend opening. This year, our snowmaking crew is planning a more aggressive approach, making the most of every opportunity Mother Nature gives us and preparing for whatever this El Niño has in store.

We've got our sights set on Friday, November 27th, with our 6th Annual Day for the Devoted, followed by public opening Saturday and Sunday, November 28th–29th. Terrain and lift availability will depend on what the weather and our snowmaking team can put together between now and then. Read more about 2026+27 Opening Weekend HERE.

Seventy seasons in, we're still making plans around the weather. We're just getting a little more ambitious about what we do when it cooperates.