The countdown to the Colorado’s 2019-2020 ski season if officially on.

Arapahoe Basin announced Wednesday morning that the snow guns were firing at 5:15 a.m. The first artificial flakes have fallen on the High Noon run, perennially the site of North America’s first skiers and snowboarders in the fall.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the mountain’s Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth told The Gazette it usually takes a week after snowmaking begins for High Noon to reach its desired 18-inch base for skiing and riding. Snowmakers could have brief windows to work in the middle of the night in the coming days, with the forecast calling for some hours below 30 degrees in the high elevations.

Last year, Wolf Creek opened Colorado’s season on Oct. 13. A-Basin kicked off 2017 that same date. A-Basin aims to open every mid-October.

“We can’t get open soon enough,” Henceroth said.