With colder temperatures in the mountains and snow in Denver on October 4th, snowmaking is underway at Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, and Copper Mountain in Colorado. The race is on! Who will open first? Copper Mountain makes snow early and then has race teams come from across the country to use their facilities and rent hill space for early season training.
A-Basin and Loveland battle year after year for the bragging rights as the first mountain open in the U.S. The humidity has been low and the colder temperatures have made snowmaking a full blown reality for both of these resorts. The strategy for covering the slopes is to start high and then work your way down the slope. According to Loveland's John Sellers, it usually takes about 2 weeks of snowmaking to cover the slope from top to bottom and from trees to trees.
One thing for certain is that opening day is not too far away. Last year, Loveland opened October 14th. However, Wolf Creek in southern Colorado opened on October 8th with a little help from a storm from Mother Nature. So far Mother Nature has been cooperating with colder temperatures.
The race is on and who will open first is still anyone's guess.
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