Three weeks of good snow — including another round this weekend — has Colorado’s ski season on a Super-G course.
Two resorts — Winter Park and Snowmass — have announced early openings for this weekend.
Winter Park will open 36 acres of terrain Saturday, four days ahead of schedule.
The same day, Snowmass opens 160 acres, five days before the mountain’s scheduled opening.
“The 2011-12 season has started as a talented overachiever, with near perfect snowmaking temperatures and abundant natural snowfall,” Rich Burkley, vice president of mountain operations for the popular Pitkin County slope, said in a press release today.
Winter Park CEO Gary DeFrange told the Associated Press the early opening at the Grand County resort was the product of Front Rangers’ eagerness to take advantage of the steady mountain snow.
Breckenridge opens on Friday, and Keystone opened some terrain last Friday, and will expand its terrain this Friday.
Wolf Creek opened 600 acres and three lifts on Oct. 8, marking its earliest opening on record — shattering the previous record of Oct. 27, 2006.
Skiers and snowboarders also have been enjoying Arapahoe Basin since Oct. 13, Loveland since Oct. 14, and Copper Mountain since Oct. 4.
While local amounts are higher, the Colorado River basin — which includes parts of ski-rich Summit, Grand, Pitkin, Gunnison and Garfield counties — has a snowpack of 101 percent of its 30-year average today, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Northwest Colorado was at just 79 percent of average today, but the region could see 8 to 16 inches of snow this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Eldora Mountain and Vail are scheduled to open on Nov. 18.
Thanksgiving weekend includes opening days for Steamboat, Monarch Mountain, Crested Butte, Beaver Creek, Telluride, Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, Ski Cooper and Purgatory.
Echo Mountain is tentatively scheduled to open in “early December,” while Sunlight opens on Dec. 2, Silverton on Dec. 10, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk on Dec. 10 and Sol Vista on Dec. 14.
Powderhorn opens on Dec. 15, and Ski Cooper opens to daily operations on Dec. 16.
Ski companies — and the state’s economy — are banking on another good year. The last ski season extended all the way to the July 4 after a spring that was colder and snowier in the high country.
A month earlier, Colorado Ski Country USA reported the 22 resorts in its membership saw nearly a 2.6 percent uptick in skiers last season, with an estimated 6.9 million visits last season.
Nationwide, ski visits were up less than 1 percent last season, the trade group reported.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
