Even as snow across the Colorado high country remains sparse, three more ski areas will open this weekend on machine-made snow, bringing the total in operation to six.
Copper Mountain and Breckenridge will open on Friday, and Loveland will follow on Saturday. Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Winter Park opened the last week in October. Eldora and Vail are scheduled to open next week.
Breckenridge will open with the Springmeier trail via the Colorado SuperChair and the Five SuperChair on Peak 8. Spokesman Maxwell Winter said resort officials expect to add the Four O’Clock and Trygve’s trails soon after opening day via the Rip’s Ride chair. For those who don’t have Epic passes, the price at the ticket window will be $162. Another option would be to purchase a single-day Epic Day Pass for $128.
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Copper Mountain will be operating the American Eagle lift out of the Center Village to mid-mountain, serving Rhapsody, Fair Play and Main Vein.
Loveland will open Chet’s Dream lift serving Catwalk, Mambo and Home Run, which amounts to 1.5 miles of skiing with a 1,000-foot vertical drop. For those who don’t have passes, the ticket window price will be $119.
Natural snow throughout the state is meager. Snow depths for Nov. 6 are less than 30% of average for the date at nearly every ski area in the state, and if any snow falls this weekend, it’s likely to be only an inch or two.
According to OpenSnow, the specialized mountain reporting and forecasting service, the chances of decent snowfall aren’t likely to improve until late next week.
Recent storm systems have primarily stayed to the north of Colorado. Banff Sunshine in the Canadian Rockies, which opened earlier than scheduled on Sunday, has received 13 inches this week. Nearby Lake Louise opened on Tuesday and has received 10 inches since Sunday.