Several ski areas in Colorado have fired up their snowguns to take advantage of cold temperatures in Colorado, with the aim of being the first in the state, and possibly the country, to open for 2014-15.
Snowmaking is reported to be underway at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area (pictured above), Copper Mountain and Loveland ski areas, which may be open with a fortnight if conditions remain favourable.
"The beginning of October brought cold temperatures and natural snow to Summit County, and we're helping Mother Nature get our ski area open for the season," said Adrienne Saia Isaac, Marketing & Communications Manager at A Basin, "It takes approximately two weeks from the start of snowmaking to create the 18" of base necessary to start skiing on the first trail to open, the intermediate High Noon run."
The three areas are all among the 20 highest in the world, with bases at 2900-3200m (two vertical miles) above sea level, and ski runs reaching as high as nearly 3900m – similar at the top to the year round glacier ski area at Zermatt.
The snowmaking comes on top of substantial natural snowfall at some Colorado ski areas in the last few days of September,
"Mother Nature delivered 7 inches of snow to the slopes of Loveland Ski Area over the past three days. Not to be outdone, Loveland's snowmaking team fired up 17 snow guns last night and began laying down some manmade flakes of their own," said John Sellars from the resort, "Loveland Ski Area's snowmaking team took advantage of the cold temperatures last night and began making snow on Catwalk and Mambo at the top of Chair 1 at 7:00pm. Snowmaking crews will work their way down Catwalk and Mambo to Home Run covering this top-to-bottom run with tree-to-tree coverage for Opening Day 2014."
"Our first night of snowmaking was very productive," said Bobby Babeon, Loveland's trail maintenance and snowmaking manager. "Mother Nature got us off to a good start and our team is ready to finish the job. We will keep making snow around the clock as conditions permit and the slopes should be ready for the first skiers and riders in just a few weeks."