MARQUETTE -- The snow guns were up and running for the first time this season at Marquette Mountain Thursday night.

They won't be able to open before Thanksgiving as hoped.  However, an opening for the ski slopes next weekend may be possible.

The 24 snow guns Marquette Mountain owns were turned off Friday morning because the temperatures were in the mid and upper 30s; temperatures too warm to effectively create snow.

"The first time of year, it is always kind of rough until it starts getting to the low 20s," says hill foreman Chris Zorza.  "Then we really start pumping out the snow.  We mainly depend on our snow guns to get open, to get the base down.  Then the more Mother Nature we can get, the better."

The slopes will be open once they are able to cover the ground with about two feet of manmade snow.  It's a task that takes at least three days of constant snow making.

If Mother Nature keeps the snow falling during the winter months, the guns are no longer necessary by early January.