DENVER—A winter storm dropped up to nine inches of snow in Colorado Wednesday, giving skiers and snowboarders a reason to be thankful after a stretch of warm, dry weather.
Vail Mountain opened one run and other resorts in Colorado and across the West planned to open some runs Thanksgiving weekend with a combination of natural and manufactured snow.
Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin and Loveland ski areas opened in October, but other resorts postponed their opening dates because little snow fell and nighttime temperatures didn’t get low enough for snowmaking machines to work well.
Even though eight Colorado resorts had opened at least some of their runs by Wednesday, skiers were getting antsy waiting for another snowfall in time for Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the ski season.
“Everybody knew it would come. It’s just a matter of patience,” said Jason Roberts, 31, of Avon after skiing down Vail’s Born Free trail.
The intermediate-to-advanced run is the only one open so far, but Vail Mountain spokeswoman Jen Brown said she hopes more snow and low temperatures will help the resort open more terrain soon. The resort postponed its opening day from last week based on the forecast change in the weather.
The storm brought only flurries to Utah, where the Solitude Mountain Resort opened last week with some help from snow guns. Some Utah resorts still plan to open on Thanksgiving—which falls a week earlier than normal—or the day after, Ski Utah spokeswoman Jessica Kunzer said.
Two of Lake Tahoe’s resorts—Heavenly Mountain Resort and Northstar-at-Tahoe—plan to open on Saturday. In the northwest, two feet of snow fell on Mount Hood over the weekend, allowing the Timberline ski area to open Tuesday. Mount Hood Meadows plans to open some runs on Friday.
Last year, early snow helped lure skiers to Colorado but Northeastern resorts suffered a lack of snow. This year, the East has seen more snow and good snowmaking weather.
Klaus Wolter of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration in Boulder has so far predicted it could be a dry winter in Colorado and surrounding states.
Skiers from other states usually plan their trips to Colorado months in advance and, with Thanksgiving skiing always uncertain, many book their trips for later in the season with snow is likely to be better.
That means many of the people on the slopes this weekend will likely be locals who’ve driven up for the day. But industry officials still hope the excitement of finally getting back on skis and snowboards will help draw more people to the state.
After last weekend’s warm weather that lured people outdoors to hiked and mountain bike in shorts, Colorado Ski Country USA spokesman Nick Bohnenkamp said it was great to see people in Denver strapping ski equipment to their cars Wednesday morning.
“When it starts to snow, people get that tingle,” he said.
