Fresh snowfall in Western North America has led to the first ski resorts opening for winter 2009-10.
Loveland ski area in Colorado, one of the world’s highest ski areas, was the first to open its slopes to excited skiers and boarders. It’s opening on Wednesday, 7th October, was the earliest for 40 years.
Its neighbour, Arapahoe Basin, is expected to open in the next few days and the Californian ski area of Boreal is also reported to be snowmaking and considering opening soon.
The open resorts have relied largely on snowmaking to build up snow depths over a big enough area to make a viable piste, which has been possible thanks to consistent low temperatures.
However there’s natural snowfall too. At Silverton Mountain and it’s the all natural kind and the area reports that as their ski patrol arrived at the mountain this week to do some pre- season work they discovered great snow conditions and went skiing on a base of 50cm in the Grande (a higher elevation ski run at Silverton Mountain).
Of the more famous name resorts known internationally, Copper Mountain in Colorado looks likely to be one of the first to open as it is also one of the world’s highest ski areas and has already started snowmaking.
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