Brian Head postpones its 6 November opening: 21 inches fell, the snow guns wait

Brian Head Peak above the resort in Iron County, Utah, with bare slopes in September 2006. Photo: Gordon Mortensen, U.S. National Archives via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Brian Head Resort in southern Utah postponed its opening day on Wednesday 4 November 2026, two days before the planned Friday 6 November start that would have made it the first ski area open in the state. The resort counts 21 inches (53 cm) of snow since mid-October, but the last storm fell on unfrozen ground and came with rain at the base, and the snow guns only ran from Tuesday 3 November. There is no new date. Copper Mountain, Breckenridge and Mt. Rose still open on Friday.

• Brian Head's conditions page of 5 November reads "Opening day has been pushed out. Stay tuned." with 0 of 8 lifts and 0 of 73 trails open.
• 21 inches of snow since mid-October; base depth 12 inches on the resort's own report; 9 inches in the 7 days to 5 November.
• Snowmaking on Navajo Mountain can run up to 24 guns at once after a near-$1 million pipeline upgrade, but it needs cold nights that only arrived on 2 and 3 November.
• OpenSnow shows no snow for Brian Head in the next 10 days, with highs in the 40s °F (4–9 °C) and lows above freezing.
• Second postponed opener in a row: in 2025 the target of 7 November became 21 November.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on 4 November that general manager Tom Pettigrew delayed the opening "indefinitely". In the resort's statement, Pettigrew said: "We've had some good early season snow, and the improvements we made on Navajo Mountain are helping our crews make the most of every snowmaking opportunity." The resort takes things "day by day", the statement adds.

Brian Head's own conditions page, read on the morning of 5 November, puts it in three sentences: "It got cold at last on Monday and Tuesday nights, allowing our snowmaking team to get out and add to the natural snow we got earlier in the week. Opening day has been pushed out. Stay tuned." Ski Utah now lists the resort as "Opening Day TBA".

The resort reported 21 inches of snow since 14 October, and two storms around the turn of the month brought 18 inches of that, according to the Tribune's tally from OpenSnow. KSL wrote on 2 November that the latest storm alone left 9 inches at Brian Head, against 15 inches at Alta and at least 17 at Snowbird. The Tribune notes that the most recent snow landed on unfrozen ground and melted fast, with rain at the lowest elevations.

Fox 13 adds the detail that the snow stake showed just under 8 inches on Monday 2 November and that the Navajo base area, where the first lifts would turn, saw the wettest conditions. The resort needs a wet-bulb temperature of about 28 °F (−2 °C) to make snow.

Brian Head spent nearly $1 million this off-season on a new pipeline on Navajo Mountain, the beginner side of the resort, so that up to 24 snow guns can run at the same time instead of 18. KPCW reported the 6 November target and the upgrade in August 2026, when the resort also pointed to its base at 9,600 feet, against 6,800 feet at Park City Mountain and 6,500 feet at Deer Valley. The plan, per Fox 13, is to open Navajo first and the larger Giant Steps side later, because that takes a much bigger snowmaking effort.

Cold nights are the limiting factor. The guns could not start until Tuesday 3 November, and the forecast the Tribune cites from OpenSnow shows no snow in the next 10 days, with highs into the 40s °F and lows that may stay above freezing for at least a week. That leaves few snowmaking hours at the Navajo base until the pattern changes.

Brian Head would have been the first Utah resort of the winter. The next Utah openers are Alta, Park City Mountain and Solitude on Friday 20 November, then Snowbird and Snowbasin on 27 November. Outside Utah, Friday 6 November keeps three openings and a fourth that depends on the weather.

Brian Head sells 2026-27 lift tickets "as low as $9" on its site and serves Cedar City, St. George and Las Vegas rather than the Salt Lake crowd. The context is a bad year: KSL puts last winter's statewide skier visits at 26 % below the season before, after a poor snow season. Ski Utah's president Nathan Rafferty summed up the mood on 2 November: "Whatever divides us the rest of the year, we can all agree on hoping for a big winter."

The 2024-25 opening on 8 November was the second-earliest in its history; the 2025-26 target of 7 November slipped to 14 November and then to 21 November. In August the National Weather Service warned that El Niño warmth could bring rain rather than snow to southern Utah.

An opening on Navajo Mountain means a few hundred vertical feet of machine-made snow, groomed hard and skied by beginners and families at $9 a ticket. That is a day for a short, soft carving or beginner ski, not for the 100 mm all-mountain board in the garage. In our catalogue the Rossignol Arcade 80, the Salomon Stance 80, the Elan Playmaker 81 T and the Head Supershape e-Rally fit that first weekend; our top-5 beginner skis and top-5 carving skis lists go wider, and the Pick-a-Ski tool sets the length for your weight and level.

If you hold a Brian Head ticket for 6 November, the resort has not published a 2026 refund or credit rule as of 5 November; in 2023 and 2025 it moved tickets to the new date. Check the conditions page before you drive up Scenic Byway 143.