Loveland snowcat

Yesterday was a total media frenzy as Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Ski Area‘s #racetoopen ended in a tie. Both resorts opened at 9am on Thursday, October 29th and both had one (real) trail, one terrain park, and a multitude of early season snowboarding failures. It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was a snowboarder doing a nose press to ass slam and having a great time doing it.

Which brings me back to a quote from famous bootfitter Larry Houchen: “Horshoes, sex, and skiing are the best because you don’t have to be good at them to have fun.” 

That quote rang especially true as skiers and boarders made their first ungraceful turns of the season in what was an epic opening day for the state of Colorado. However, the two friendly rivals are constantly battling and in order to break the tie and award a winner, we’ve broken down yesterday’s opening into a series of categories.

Here we go.

A-Basin

Snow

Winner: Loveland

Loveland benefited from 21” of natural snowfall leading up to their opening, which combined with their manmade efforts provided for extremely consistent and relatively soft conditions for opening day. Winner Loveland.

Loser: Arapahoe Basin

Although conditions were relatively good for opening day, the steeper slope and lack of natural snow at A-Basin resulted in icy conditions by mid day that left many a snowboarder penguin sliding down High Noon.

Terrain

Winner: Loveland

Again, due to the natural snowfall leading up to their opening, Loveland was able to have a wide run open to the public.

Loser: Arapahoe Basin

A-Basin’s High Noon trail was a little narrow and resulted in some epic traffic jams at the choke above the main pitch adjacent to the terrain park.

Lifts

Winner: Arapahoe Basin

The BlackMountain Express is a high-speed quad that takes approximately 5 minutes to ride, allowing for as many laps as you’d like between 9am-4pm. So to get those legs burning head to A-Basin.

Loser: Loveland

Although Chair 1 is a beautifully old-school style chair, it’s a bit slow compared to A-Basin’s BlackMountain Express.

Aprés

Winner: Arapahoe Basin

The ‘Beach’ and the 6th Alley Bar were pretty rowdy yesterday as the bar was packed by 11am. People were definitely partaking in the opening day festivities and the high stoke definitely translated into awesome alcohol sales. No matter what, A-Basin has the best aprés scene in Summit County!

Loser: Loveland

Although tailgating and aprés have their place at Loveland, the small ski area just can’t compete with the Basin and its legendary ‘Beach.’

Crowds

Winner: Loveland

Crowds at Loveland were surprisingly scarce, which allowed for big turns, open catwalk jibs, and room to roll through their small terrain park without constantly looking over your shoulder.

Loser: Arapahoe Basin

To start the day, A-Basin was relatively uncrowded but as the day wore on Epic Pass holders made their way up to the Basin and things got a little crowded on High Noon, which resulted in some awesome penguin slides down the main pitch of the white ribbon of death.

Overall Winner: Loveland (3-2)

Unofficial Networks Newsletter

Get the latest snow and mountain lifestyle news and entertainment delivered to your inbox.

Hidden
Newsletters
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.