October on record in Denver and temperatures around the state over the past several weeks have felt more appropriate for outdoor lounging than snow sports.
So as November begins with the promise of more above-average heat in the forecast, should Colorado’s skiers and snowboarders worry?
“It’s not time to panic just yet,” said Joel Gratz, founding meteorologist of , a website that tracks conditions on the slopes. “Even though we have very little snow, there’s not a very strong correlation with how the ski conditions will be toward the end of December.”
However, Gratz said, anyone looking to make early season turns might need to be patient because he predicts possible delayed opening days and limited coverage on open slopes. While Arapahoe Basin , other areas are waiting for the weather to start cooperating.
Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwest Colorado says it won’t open as planned on Friday. And Keystone Resort — also slated to open on Friday but facing a dearth of snow because of the warm temperatures — says it will make a decision in the next day or two about how to proceed.“We’re going to cool down a little bit during the middle of (this) week, so there might be a little more high elevation snowmaking,” Gratz said Monday. “But I don’t see super cold weather coming and I don’t see around-the-clock snowmaking this week and potentially not the next week as well.”
Loveland Ski Area, which typically opens in mid-October, still had no set opening day as of Monday morning.
“We’re just waiting on Mother Nature to bring those cold temps back,” said John Sellers, Loveland’s marketing director.
Loveland began making snow on Oct. 3, but since then Mother Nature hasn’t made things easy. The good news, Sellers said, is the ski area has completed most of the work required to get its first run open, meaning a few more cold nights is all that’s needed to get the season kicked off.
Sellers said the goal is always to start getting skiers and snowboarders on the slopes as soon as possible. Last year, .
“I guess the message is we’re closed. Unfortunately we’re in a holding pattern,” he said. “We know we are going to be able to make some snow this week.”
Jim Kalina, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder, says there won’t be any major cool-off in the near future and that the Climate Prediction Center is calling for above-normal temperatures through November.
At 12:24 pm the temperature at DIA reached 79 degrees which equals the record high for the date, last set in 1950.
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder)
“It looks like we’re going to either be the second or third warmest October on record (in Denver),” he said.
As of the end of Sunday, the average October temperature in the city was 57.7 degrees. The yearly average is 51.2 degrees and the record was set in 1950 when the average temperature in October that year was 59.9 degrees.
“We’ve been so warm and dry,” Kalina said.
Wolf Creek says its tentative plans for opening on Friday are not going to come to fruition. But otherwise, Colorado Ski Country USA spokesman Chris Linsmayer says none of its other member resorts are planning to push back their schedules.
We love this shot snapped by our VP of Mountain Ops Ed Youmans. He and his crew are working hard to get the mountain ready for 11/19!
— Purgatory Resort (@skipurg)
“We have opened earlier than (Nov. 4) the last four years and it’s usually because we have some snowfall,” said Rosanne Haidorfer-Pitcher, Wolf Creek’s vice president of marketing and sales. “This year, it is warm and the tentative date is not going to work out.”
Wolf Creek does not have robust snowmaking capabilities like some of its Colorado counterparts, but Haidorfer-Pitcher said the area — in a worst case scenario — can make enough snow to get a beginner slope open before or by Thanksgiving.
“We try not to battle it and just accept what’s happening,” she said. “This year, it’s OK if we’re not open early.”
Keystone Resort is set to open on Friday and has not announced any change in its schedule (A countdown ticker is posted on the resort’s website). , however, aren’t showing much snow coverage.
“Unseasonably warm weather throughout the region over the past couple weeks has presented a challenge for snowmaking,” said Sara Lococo, a Keystone spokeswoman. “Our mountain operations team is and will be evaluating the situation over the next day or two in order to make an official decision regarding opening day.”In Facebook posts, resort operators have been trying to reassure patrons wary of a delay.
“We are remaining hopeful that Mother Nature will turn things around and cool off enough so that our Snow Makers can work their magic,” Keystone commented in response to a question about opening day. “We’ll keep providing updates as things progress!”
The rest of Colorado’s ski areas typically open in the middle of November or just before Thanksgiving. Copper Mountain plans to open for the season Nov. 11. Winter Park Resort is planning to start its lifts on Nov. 16, and Vail is slated to open Nov. 18.
Leigh Hierholzer, marketing director at Arapahoe Basin, said the snow on the one open run is holding up nicely. There are plans to make more snow during nights this week so the resort can hopefully open a second run — the intermediate Ramrod trail — in the near future. Snowmakers will then begin tackling the upper mountain.
“It always seems to start out like this and people seem to get worried,” Hierholzer said. “But, you know, that’s just early season.”
She added: “We realize the weather has been warm, but we are still happy with where we are right now. We still have a lot of people up here skiing, we still have good snow. We still have the best skiing in Colorado.”
