Industry News
Loveland Ski Area, CO, is getting ready to take advantage of the falling temperatures by getting its snowguns ready to start firing. Loveland aims to open in mid-October and will begin snowmaking for real in 12-days.
Ready, Test, Go!
The Loveland Trail Maintenance team conducted tests on all the snowguns today, in preparation for the upcoming 2023/24 season. Loveland hopes to start making snow in 12 days!
– Loveland Ski Area
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 couple of 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 first to open ten times, and Keystone was 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 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:
- 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!
