Arapahoe Basin opened Oct. 21, becoming the first ski resort in the U.S. and North America to start running its lifts for the 2016-17 ski season.
Early morning (Oct. 19), mere hours before the sun melted Summit County’s fresh coating of 3 to 4 inches from the night before, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area made the opening the resort announcement just about everyone had been waiting for: Black Mountain Express would start spinning at 9 a.m, making A-Basin the first ski area in North America to welcome the winter season.
Arapahoe Basin in Colorado started running its lifts earlier this week, thanks to some early-season snow and its snowmaking capability. Last year the resort opened Oct. 29.
All skiing and snowboarding is limited to an 18-inch base of manmade snow and packed powder on High Noon, a blue run from mid-mountain to the base area. Last year’s opening day was Oct. 29. Tickets are $76 for adults, $64 for teens (15-17 years old) and $38 for children.
“This is a tremendous start to the ski season at Arapahoe Basin and in the state of Colorado,” said Alan Henceroth, A-Basin’s chief operating officer, in a press release. “We’ve been fortunate to have optimal conditions for our snowmaking team to get a base on the High Noon trail and offer our guests skiing and snowboarding in October.”
A-Basin is home to the first spinning chairlifts, but it’s not the first mountain in the country to see snow worth skiing and riding this October.
California’s Sierra Nevada range enjoyed the first big dumps on Monday, Oct. 17, with totals ranging from a few inches at Northstar in California to more than a foot (seriously) at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge — the exterior of the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horrorfest “The Shining.”
Mt. Rose ski resort in Nevada (near Lake Tahoe) has announced the region’s earliest opening – slated for Halloween (Oct. 31).
Most resorts in the Lake Tahoe region still won’t open for business until mid-November at the earliest, so until then Arapahoe Basin is the only place for ski bums to get a lift-served fix. Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Ski Area generally battle to be the first ski areas to open for the new season in North America.
Officials at Loveland Ski Area expect to open late next week, with top-to-bottom service on Lift 1 once snowmakers have at least 18 inches at the base.
“We usually don’t know until a day or, at most, two days before we are going to open,” said John Sellers, marketing director at Loveland Ski Area, in an email. “When we do open, Lift 1 will serve a top-to-bottom run made up of the trails Catwalk, Mambo and Home Run. This run is over a mile in length and nearly 1,000 vertical feet, and our snowmakers will ensure that it is covered from tree to tree with at least an 18-inch base.”
