Colorful maple leaves clung to trees along the Mississippi River with the Minneapolis skyline looming behind Wednesday, as seen from along Mississippi River Blvd. in St. Paul. (David Joles, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The first skier of the season carried an American flag to the top of the ski hill at Andes Tower Hills this week, where the Minnesota resort held an unusually early opening ceremony celebrating recent cold temperatures that allowed for snowmaking.

The ski resort in Kensington — west of Alexandria — broke its own record, with its earliest opening ever on Tuesday, according to general manager Tom Anderson. He estimated around 100 people showed up to take advantage of the short-lived below-freezing weather.

"Our maintenance guys in October are usually working on mowing, doing last minute fixing on the chairlifts — stuff like that," he said. "We saw that there's going to be two nights of below freezing temps and they said, 'Hey, let's stop and make some snow.'"

Other area ski hills, including Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls and Trollhaugen Outdoor Recreation Area in Dresser, Wis., did the same, opening this week as Minnesota and western Wisconsin saw overnight temperatures below freezing.

At Andes Tower Hills, the one run that is open has about 24-36 inches of snow that took about 15 hours to make.

"We concentrated on making all the snow in one area so when it's 70 degrees this weekend, we won't lose all of it," Anderson said. "We did it to get some customers out — get them happy."

The ski hill likely won't be open for the rest of October, but it depends on the weather, he said. The resort usually opens around the second weekend of November.

Wild Mountain announced on social media it opened on Tuesday. Trollhaugen saw its earliest opening in 50 years on Wednesday, said James Rochford, general manager.

There's about a foot of compacted snow and the Wisconsin resort will also be open from 2-8 p.m. Thursday, Rochford said. He estimated a few hundred people showed up on Wednesday to go on two runs, a chairlift and a tow rope that's in operation.

"We're happy to be open and to give a little kick off to the season with some of these bonus days in October," he said. "Hopefully it will get cold again in early November so we can keep going."