Loveland Ski Area, CO, Joins Copper Mountain, CO, in Snowmaking

Loveland Ski Area, CO, yesterday joined Copper Mountain in making snow for the upcoming ski season.

• Related: Copper Mountain, CO, First North American Resort to Begin Snowmaking

Arapahoe Basin won’t be far behind, but COO Alan Henceroth said this morning that it just wasn’t cold enough for it to fire up its guns.

Loveland and Copper Mountain had a nice jump on snowmaking Tuesday night. We kind of just kissed the right temperature but didn’t really get cold enough for a meaningful effort.

As always this time of year, we will be watching the weather every single night. When the temps say go, you can be sure that we will be making snow.

– Alan Henceroth, A-Basin COO

Clear sky and the snow will fly.
Snowmaking is underway at the Loveland Ski Area. #9News #9wx @LovelandSkiArea pic.twitter.com/e7MG6L4PRf

— Matt Renoux (@MattRenoux) October 5, 2022

Typically, it’s a tussle between Colorado’s A-Basin and Loveland to see who starts the ski season off for North America, both resorts battling for bragging rights.

From 1982 through 2001, Loveland was the first to open ten times, and Keystone was the first ten times. However, three of Keystone’s wins were photo finishes when both areas opened on the same day, and Keystone used its lights to open before sunrise, getting a jump on Loveland by two or three hours in the quest for bragging rights, according to the Denver Post. Then in 2002, Arapahoe Basin installed snowmaking equipment. From 2003 through 2018, Arapahoe Basin was the first Front Range area to open nine times, Loveland was the first five times, and they tied twice. Wolf Creek, a small area 250 miles from Denver in southern Colorado, actually beat both of them four times since 2011, thanks to ample early natural snowfall.

Here is a list of the first resorts to open over the last ten years or so:

• 21/22: Wolf Creek, Colorado – October 16th
• 20/21: Wild Mountain, Minnesota – October 19th
• 19/20: Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – October 11th
• 18/19: Wolf Creek, Colorado – October 13th
• 17/18: Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – October 13th
• 16/17: Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – October 21st
• 15/16: Killington, Vermont – October 18th
• 14/15: Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – October 17th
• 13/14: Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – October 13th
• 12/13: Wild Mountain, Minnesota – October 18th
• 11/12: Wolf Creek, Colorado – October 11th
• 10/11: Sunday River, Maine – October 23rd
• 09/10: Loveland, Colorado – October 6th
• 08/09: Loveland, Colorado – October 7th

It’s getting closer… see you on the slopes soon.