Keystone – Jerry Naylor was not going to let a little bad weather get in his way to the ski slopes Thursday. He wasn’t going to be dissuaded by horrendously slow- moving traffic.
He wasn’t going to be fazed by cars and trucks skidding off the road ahead of him.
And he sure wasn’t going to turn back because of a roadblock on Interstate 70 that delayed his progress for two hours.
An October storm that dumped up to 2 feet of snow in some mountain areas made Thursday a powder day, and the 34-year-old Boulder resident was bound and determined to get his ski fix at Arapahoe Basin.
“I’m glad I finally made it,” Naylor said with a grin as he prepared for his first run at 12:15 p.m. “It was nightmarish. But it’s all good now.”
While the heavy snowfall had many Coloradans grunting behind snow shovels and yelling at the stationary taillights in front of them on greasy-slick roads, wintry weather in October is a godsend for ski areas.
The autumn snowfall has been so substantial that Wolf Creek ski area will open today, a week ahead of schedule and the earliest opening in history. Keystone, too, announced it will open earlier than expected, on Nov. 3.
“It does look delicious out there right now,” said Amy Kemp, spokeswoman at Keystone, where 16 inches of snow had fallen by midday. The resort has registered 41 inches of snow this month, making it the snowiest October on record.
That has been good news for resorts across the state.
“The bad news is that, unfortunately, we had so much snow that our phone lines were down for part of the day,” said Matt Sugar, communications director at Winter Park Resort, which received more than 24 inches of snow. “The good news is that when they came back, our call volume was up 25 to 30 percent. Hopefully we’ll make up in volume what we lost while we were shut down.”
At A-Basin, which has been open for two weeks, skiers and snowboarders standing in the lift corral cheered Thursday each time lift operators allowed the line to move forward with a shout of: “Front row!”
Knowing the early-season snow would be epic, skier Matt Pitts and snowboarder Tim Schroeder headed up from the Front Range to the high country Wednesday night and spent the night sleeping in their pickup.
They arrived at the ski area at 8:30 a.m. and cooked breakfast in the parking lot before hitting the slopes.
“We’re glad we came up when we did. I assume it was probably near impossible this morning,” said Pitts, 26, of Westminster.
Naylor can attest. Mired in slush-slowed traffic, he spent two hours getting from Boulder to the bottom of Floyd Hill, normally a 45-minute drive, and then he got stuck behind the roadblock at Georgetown when a rockslide closed I-70.
“The Georgetown visitors center filled up pretty quickly,” he said.
He was back on his way the moment the highway reopened, determined to get in a few runs before heading to Steamboat Springs to meet another ski junkie for evening plans.
“We’ve got tickets to the Warren Miller movie,” he beamed.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
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After the storm
Colorado Springs was shut down much of the day, with 18 inches of snow and high winds.
Up to 45,000 customers in Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder lost electricity.
Denver International Airport got 5 inches; more than 110 flights were canceled.
Watch video of the storm, see dozens of images from readers and staff photographers, tell us your stories, and get the latest on the impact. denverpost.com
