(Bloomberg) -- The icy blizzard that dumped snow across the Rocky Mountains this week is bringing the earliest start for a Colorado ski resort in more than 20 years.

The Keystone Resort -- along the famed I-70 corridor of ski areas that includes Vail and Breckenridge -- will be open on Saturday, according to a statement from Vail Resorts Inc. That will make it the first place you can hit the slopes this season in North America, and the resort’s earliest opening since 1995, the operator said.

An early storm brought freezing temperatures and snowfall that blanketed parts of the Rockies this week; it will continue to bear down in the U.S. Plains and areas of the Midwest. But ski bunnies are probably rejoicing. Keystone didn’t open last year until the first part of November.

Colorado is enjoying an extended ski season in 2019. The Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, about 40 miles outside of Vail, was open for skiing during Independence Day for the first time since 2011 after late spring storms.

Vail Resorts will keep monitoring weather conditions to see if there are opportunities to open other ski areas early as well, Loryn Roberson, a communications manager, said by email. The company operates 37 ski areas, including in Colorado; the Lake Tahoe, California, area; and Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada.

To contact the reporter on this story: Millie Munshi in Denver at mmunshi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Flynn McRoberts

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