Open Haugen, Wisconsin’s October Ski Session, Kicks Off This Weekend

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated Oct 3, 2025 5:08 PM ET

Colorado may be the king of early-season skiing, but in Wisconsin, people will be skiing before the Keystone and Arapahoe Basins of the world open, thanks to Open Haugen, an event held at Trollhaugen Ski Area each year.

Scheduled for this weekend, Open Haugen is a fall celebration with chairlift rides, hay rides, and a ski shop sale, among other activities. Perhaps most importantly, though, the event features real snow and a small terrain park setup.

Rather than trying to make snow in October before winter arrives and the temperature plummets, Trollhaugen uses a technique inspired by European ski resorts abroad.

The ski area stashes snow from the previous winter, hides it beneath insulating straw, and when October comes, uses cats to groom it into a small skiable area. Before it started storing snow, Trollhaugen relied on ice from ice skating rinks to host the ski portion of Open Haugen.

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A post shared by Trollhaugen | Dresser, WI (@trollhaugen_wi)

This year, the terrain park will be open on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday includes free-form ski and snowboard sessions with no competition involved. On Sunday, Trollhaugen is hosting two rail jams with prizes.

While tickets for skiing and snowboarding have sold out, general admission to Open Haugen is free. “Spectating is just as important. Help cheer on the 300+ humans!” Trollhaugen wrote in an Instagram post.

Despite the snowy excitement, Open Haugen doesn’t mark the official start of Trollhaugen’s lift-served season. That’ll come later. But there are ski areas that stash enough snow over the summer to open in October, regardless of how Mother Nature is behaving.

The Finnish ski resort Levi, for instance, opened today, October 3, for the weekend, relying on massive quantities of saved snow. So did Ruka, another ski resort in Finland known for its snow storage.

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A post shared by Ruka Ski Resort (@rukaskiresort)

While those opening days may look a bit dystopian with thin strips of white surrounded by greenery, local skiers likely had no complaints. In October, any snow is good snow, even if it spent all summer sitting under protective covers.

This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

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