Two more ski resorts are postponing their opening days because of below-normal natural snow and challenging snowmaking conditions, but four others open this week.
Crested Butte and Granby Ranch opened on Wednesday. Aspen and Snowmass will open on Thursday. Beaver Creek and Telluride were slated to open this week, but both were forced to postpone. Telluride is now shooting for Dec. 6.
Powderhorn and Purgatory were scheduled to open last week, but they needed more snow.
Crested Butte is running the Red Lady Express, a high-speed quad chair that serves the lower part of the main mountain. Granby Ranch is running two lifts, serving three trails.
Aspen will open select terrain on the upper mountain, including Dipsy Doodle and Silver Bell, accessed by the Silver Queen gondola. Skiers and riders will have to download via the gondola because top-to-bottom skiing is not available yet. Snowmass will open beginner terrain in the Meadows area.
Arapahoe Basin, which opened Oct. 26, received four inches from a storm that arrived on Tuesday. Spokeswoman Shayna Silverman said crews there are working hard to open terrain on the upper mountain served by the Lenawee Express from mid-mountain to the summit.
“This lift from Mother Nature helps a ton to get there,” Silverman said.
Colorado resorts are near the lowest snowpack seen in the state since the winter of 1986-1987, according to OpenSnow founding meteorologist Joel Gratz, but there is some good weather news. OpenSnow is predicting seven inches at Steamboat and six at Vail over the next five days, while six others — including A-Basin, Copper Mountain, Loveland and Winter Park — can expect five inches.
On Tuesday, the International Ski Federation announced that there is enough manmade snow on the race course at Beaver Creek to host men’s World Cup downhill, super-G and giant slalom races next week. Copper Mountain is hosting four days of men’s and women’s World Cup racing this week, beginning Thursday.
CDOT will be running special Snowstang buses to Copper for the races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, originating at Denver Union Station with intermediate stops at Denver Federal Center Station and the Wooly Mammoth park-and-ride. The round-trip fare is $25. Regular weekend Snowstang service to Copper, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Breckenridge begins Dec. 13.