UPPER PENINSULA -- Start waxing your skis.  Not only is Ski Brule already up and running, but snow guns are working full time at Marquette Mountain and Mont Ripley.

At Mont Ripley, two pumps are running, pushing out one million gallons of water a day.  The staff is planning on opening the slopes on December 6, but if natural snow falls, as it did much of Monday, and if the temperatures stay low, the lifts will open sooner.

"This man-made snow is dense so it will melt slowly," explained Nick Sirdenis at Mont Ripley, as the snow guns worked behind him.  "So what we got is going to stay.  The snow behind us we won't see again until May or April."

Mont Ripley is the only university-owned (Michigan Tech) ski hill in the state of Michigan and opened a new lift--the Copper Lift--last year.

Marquette Mountain also fired up its snow guns Monday as temperatures lingered in the twenties, and the natural snow started piling up.

Anticipated opening day?  Thanksgiving Day.