Snowmaking officially began in Colorado last Thursday, October 15th, and snowmaking has continued since then, but you probably shouldn’t be getting your hopes up too high about skiing this weekend.
Both Loveland Ski Area and Arapahoe Basin admitted to temporarily halting snowmaking for at least a few days as the weather warmed this past week. Loveland’s most recent snowmaking update (posted on October 22nd) explained that temperatures should allow for the guns to be turned back on this weekend, which seems to imply that they still have some work to do before opening.
Keystone Resort also shared an update showing off some impressive snowmaking progress. Like Loveland, however, the Keystone social media team stated “temperatures are looking good for more snowmaking this weekend” in the comments of their update, once again implying that they’ve got some work to do before an opening day.
When Will Colorado’s Ski Season Start?
I’m not a snowmaking professional and I don’t have the inside scoop on starting dates, unfortunately, but I’m happy to share my best guesses on the opening days. In 2025, Arapahoe Basin started snowmaking on October 13th and was able to open on October 26th, 13 days later. The same schedule this year would put opening day on October 28th, next Wednesday. I don’t think the ski resorts will start their season midweek, likely preferring to wait until the weekend.
Temperatures are looking pretty chilly for the next week and there’s a chance of some natural snow in the coming days. Based on that, I think there’s a good chance one, two, or all three of the ski areas in question could make the push for opening day on Halloween (October 31st).
As for who will open first, there’s really no way to tell right now. All three have some good looking snow piles in their most recent updates. The piles at Keystone look to be the strongest based on their social media, but that could very easily be because of some quality camera angles while the other two resorts keep their progress under wraps.
Whatever the case, I expect their to be some tricky involved. Last year Keystone opened for just 3 hours of skiing on Saturday, October 25th, from 3pm to 6pm to beat out Arapahoe Basin by less than 24 hours. We could very easily see something similar this year.
Personally I think the odds of a mountain opening this weekend are pretty low based on recent updates, but I would love to be proved wrong. My official guess is October 31st. Keep a close eye on the webcams over the coming days and keep snow and cold weather in your thoughts!