Industry News
This is only a test! Our snowmaking team conducted water testing on the snow guns today. The team is closely monitoring the forecast and is ready to fire up the snowguns as soon as Mother Nature gives the go-ahead. Get ready! 🏂❄️⛷️ #cowx
Posted by Loveland Ski Area on Wednesday 9 October 2024
Loveland Ski Area, Colorado, is preparing to take advantage of falling temperatures by getting its snowguns ready to start firing. Loveland aims to open in October and will begin snowmaking for real as soon as conditions allow.
“This is only a test! Our snowmaking team conducted water testing on the snow guns today. The team is closely monitoring the forecast and is ready to fire up the snowguns as soon as Mother Nature gives the go-ahead. Get ready! 🏂❄️⛷️ #cowx”
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. Although a few midwest resorts have been getting in on the action in the last couple of years.
- Related: Brain Post: How Snow Guns Work
From 1982 through 2001, Loveland was the first to open ten times, and Keystone was the first 10 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 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 10 years or so:
- 23/24: Ski Ward, Massachusetts – October 22
- 22/23: Wild Mountain, Minnesota – October 18th
- 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
See you on the slopes next month!
