Snowmaking at Arapahoe Basin.
Snowmaking at Arapahoe Basin. Credit: Lucas Herbert, Arapahoe Basin

The mountains of Colorado woke up to a little dusting of snow and some nice cold air this morning. Though the natural snowfall isn’t blowing anyone away yet, the weather has allowed several ski resorts to start ramping up their snowmaking efforts.

Arapahoe Basin, Loveland Ski Area, and Keystone Ski Resort always seem to be in a race to open first, and this year appears to be no different. None of the three areas have a set opening day, with each stating they’ll either open as soon as possible or at some point in late-October/early-November.

This morning, all three shared videos and photos of a ramped up snowmaking effort to their social media pages, with Loveland posting a video, Arapahoe Basin sharing photos, and Keystone posting to their story. Snowmaking requires a certain wet-bulb temperature, taking both the air temperature and the humidity into account. It seems that this weekend will provide plenty of suitable weather.

So the contest begins, who will open first? Last year, Arapahoe Basin won the race with an October 29th opening day. This year we’ll have to see. Copper Mountain has officially stated their opening day as Friday, October 8, but I think we’ll see at least two of these three open before then. Keep Ullr in your mind!

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