Silver Mountain opens

| November 23, 2011 8:15 PM

COEUR d'ALENE - Right on cue.

Silver Mountain Resort opened for the ski season Monday, beating its planned Black Friday opening date goal with nearly a week to spare.

The winter destination south of Kellogg will close on Thursday for Thanksgiving, but will open again on Friday for the holiday weekend.

"Right now it's like mid-winter," said John Williams, Silver Mountain director of marketing. "We've got plenty of snow up there.

At mid-mountain level, around 24 inches covers the slope while 31 inches sits at the top.

Around 29 runs opened on Monday. The full mountain - around 70 runs - should be available to skiers by Friday.

The mountain will be open weekends until Dec. 16, then stay open seven days a week through the Christmas rush. By January, it will switch its operational days from Thursday through Monday.