A couple of Colorado ski areas are entering their 80th seasons by raising new banners.

Winter Park will welcome its first guests Saturday in the resort’s earliest opening on record. The declaration comes after Monarch Mountain announced it would open Friday, its earliest opening in half a century.

Winter Park and Monarch — born in 1939 and other than Howelsen Hill the state’s oldest ski areas — typically open one to three weeks later in November. Operators have to thank the snow that roared across Colorado this week, following storms earlier in the month.

Winter Park on Wednesday was building on 40 inches of accumulation for October. By morning, Monarch tallied a whopping 10 inches of fresh powder overnight. Between Sunday and early Wednesday, the mountain’s 17 inches of snowfall were the most of Colorado’s ski areas, according to OpenSnow, the sport’s go-to weather source.

Over that span, Wolf Creek Ski Area picked up 9 inches ahead of its Thursday opening for Halloween. Eldora, the quick escape for Boulder skiers and snowboarders, will enjoy its earliest opening in 22 years on Friday.

Keystone is reporting a 44-inch total, proclaimed as the resort’s snowiest October on record. Having celebrated its earliest opening since 1995 on Oct. 12, Keystone is currently running six lifts, more than any other ski area in the state.

Alan Henceroth, CEO of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, which kicked off Colorado skiing Oct. 11, started a recent blog with an understatement: “Having this much snow in late October is really quite good.” He said patrollers were packing down the bounty, creating quality surfaces expected to last.

While cold temperatures will briefly prevail, Joel Gratz of OpenSnow on Wednesday is predicting a lull in the powder party: He expects the next significant snowfall in the high country to arrive the week of Nov. 11.