As yet another mid-week storm system takes aim on the Front Range, ski areas near and east of the Continental Divide are expecting substantial snowfall. The biggest beneficiary could be humble Echo Mountain near Idaho Springs.
Echo is Colorado’s third-smallest ski area at 60 acres, only 1% the size of Vail, but it’s the closest area to Denver at only 17 miles west of Genesee. It could receive 19 inches from this system, according to OpenSnow meteorologist Joel Gratz.
Gratz is warning that snow totals have been difficult to pin down for this system, but he believes Eldora could get 16 inches and Winter Park 11. Eight more resorts could receive 6-8 inches.
“Skies are becoming cloudy as the next storm moves into Colorado,” Gratz wrote this morning. “All mountains should see snow from Wednesday through Thursday, but I have low confidence in (predicting) exact snow totals.”
Resorts receiving 6-8 inches could include Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, Monarch, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Snowmass and Vail.
“Regardless of the uncertainty in the potential snowfall, I’d still target Thursday as a day that could offer powder,” Gratz wrote. “The snow quality will initially be thicker due to warmer temperatures, then should get fluffier with colder temperatures on Thursday, so this should be a right-side-up storm with fluffier snow on top of thicker snow.”
Friday and Saturday figure to bring little or no snow, but Gratz sees the potential for a strong storm early next week.
