First Snowfall In The Mountains Kicks Off The Race To Open First
Now that the first spritz of white has dusted the highest peaks in the West, the annual race is on to be the first ski and snowboard mountain to crank up its lifts.
In seven out of the last 10 years, Arapahoe Basin has claimed the crown -- not surprisingly since it tops out on the Continental Divide at 13,050 feet with the highest lift-served summit in North America. Most any autumn storm coming into the Rockies that is pushed to that elevation will likely drop snow.
In the past 10 seasons, A-Basin holds the mark for earliest opening: Oct. 11 in 2019. It also holds the record for the latest first-to-open mark: Oct. 29 in 2023. Only Loveland and Wolf Creek have cracked A-Basin's dominance in the past decade.
However, it's as much about snowmaking as snowfall these days. Obviously, colder temperatures mean mountain managers can turn on the jets sooner and produce an adequate base in several weeks. High-elevation mountains like A-Basin, neighbor Loveland, and Breckenridge and Keystone in Summit County naturally get colder sooner than others do.
Another factor now is the sophistication of the technology that sprays high-pressure water through snow guns where it's combined with compressed air and exposed to cold ambient air to produce snow. Ongoing improvements in all the equipment involved include the revolutionary "all-weather snow boxes" that can produce snow all year round. (Of course, it will melt in above-freezing weather.)
All the traditional players in the informal first-to-open contest have, in recent years, jacked up their snowmaking capabilities, changing the dynamic of the opening race. Keystone, A-Basin and Breckenridge are known for their snowmaking power. Even Wolf Creek -- long a maverick that eschewed snowmaking -- now fires artificial snow onto its lower slopes.
But early snowfall is still the main factor. Last season's winner Wolf Creek got 26 inches in the days leading up to its Oct. 22 opening. The dump combined with snowmaking to produce a solid 18-inch base and 30 percent of the mountain open.
So far this season, that big October storms has not yet materialized, although Alta and Winter Park each got seven inches. Copper Mountain, never a contender for opening first, was the first mountain in Colorado to turn on its snow jets and begin to lay down an early base.
The main contenders put "TBA" as their opening date, but a number of others have announced their official opening days (depending upon conditions, of course. They are:
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Nov. 7: Breckenridge and Copper Mountain in Colorado; Brian Head in southern Utah with the state's highest elevation.
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Nov. 8: Mount Rose, the highest elevation among Lake Tahoe resorts.
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Nov. 14: Eldora and Vail in Colorado, Solitude in Utah's Wasatch Range, and Mammoth Mountain in California's Sierra Nevada.
