Loveland to begin making snow today

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Within the hour. Natural snow is also falling across the Colorado Rockies right now.

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3 Miles NNE Copper Mountain CO
39.53°N 106.12°W (Elev. 12395 ft) Mobile Weather Information | En Español
Last Update: 9:19 am MDT Sep 21, 2009
Forecast Valid: 12pm MDT Sep 21, 2009-6pm MDT Sep 27, 2009



This
Afternoon

Snow
Likely
Hi 27 °F Tonight


Chance
Snow
Lo 20 °F Tuesday


Chance
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Hi 28 °F Tuesday
Night

Snow
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Lo 22 °F Wednesday


Snow
Likely
Hi 27 °F Wednesday
Night

Chance
Snow
Lo 24 °F Thursday


Chance
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Hi 47 °F Thursday
Night

Slight Chc
Snow
Lo 25 °F

http://www.breckenridge.com/mountain/mountain-web-cams.aspx

easy to see from the breck webcams
 
Knowing Colo, it'll be warm again next week. But definitely winter here for now.

As much as 8-10" in some mtn areas so far. I hit 2-3" on the ground driving over Poncha pass this evening (on the grass/trees). And Poncha is pretty low as far as Colo mtn passes go (only 9K feet). Flurries were as low as 7,500'. Might get some pics tomorrow.
 
Hey snowboard247, the new season is almost here. It may be time to change your"number of days so far this season" to zero??? :bow:
 
Any idea when A-Basin will follow Loveland's lead?

The "Snow Plume Refuge" cam looked pretty nice this afternoon, and the Basin has had snowguns set up for at least a month.

Is there still a race to open first this year??? Anyone want to make any bets on which resort will be first, and the date they will open??? =P~
 
skibum4ever":3sq8bm0w said:
Any idea when A-Basin will follow Loveland's lead?

The "Snow Plume Refuge" cam looked pretty nice this afternoon, and the Basin has had snowguns set up for at least a month.

Is there still a race to open first this year??? Anyone want to make any bets on which resort will be first, and the date they will open??? =P~
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a-basin starts making snow tonight, and yes I'll go back to zero with the season almost upon us.
 
Still snowing in some areas all day today. Some pics from Salida area back to Denver... As usual prob too many - I just like pics.

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EMSC, we all like pics - particularly of fall colors and SNOW! Thanks.

What is the earliest that Loveland and/or the Basin have opened? I'd enjoy seeing a list of their respective opening dates since both areas began making snow. Also, have they ever opened with significant natural snow and a significant number of trails, or is it always WROD with manmade snow? :snowball fight:

Do we need Tony for this one? :-k
 
WROD skiing in general does not interest me. I found a record of many Colorado areas' percent of terrain open Thanksgiving, mid-December and Christmas from 1988-2002 and have updated it myself since then.

Both A-Basin and Loveland tend to be laggards relative to other Front Range areas in terms of opening terrain in November/December. Higher proportion of steep and/or wind-exposed terrain I presume.

Loveland's median percent open at Thanksgiving is 20%. 6 of the 20 years were over 50% with a max of 86% in 2005. A-Basin is usually less than 10% open with only one out of 15 years being over 50%.
 
In general, A-Basin and Keystone get less natural snow. Vail and BC get more, sometimes twice as much. Don't know about Loveland since our Colorado Pass is not good there.

Which Front Range areas tend to be in the forefront of open terrain prior to Dec. 1?
 
25% is a typical Thanksgiving median. Winter Park is 42%, Wolf Creek leads by a mile at 71%. One could argue that 26% of Vail is more actual terrain that the other examples. By December 15 Vail and Steamboat come to the fore at 82% and 80%, the highest other than Wolf Creek. Christmas week Vail and Steamboat are at 96% and 97%. But give Steamboat the nod here because in the worst season 1998 it was at 65% while Vail was at 34%.
 
skibum4ever":8euq7r9y said:
Also, have they ever opened with significant natural snow and a significant number of trails, or is it always WROD with manmade snow?
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I my experience always WROD for opening. Mid-Oct is just a bit too early. Occasional but not often, some years you'll get some areas (not the basin for sure) opening significant natural terrain by mid Nov. It's also true that for many resorts they could have huge snowfall and still not open significant terrain. Steamboat is one example; They time terrain opening to the combination of snow and anticipated skier visits. e.g. last year they carefully opened up sections of the mtn from opening day to Christmas week despite the fact they could have opened up lots of terrain a week or two earlier since they had the snow.

skibum4ever":8euq7r9y said:
Which Front Range areas tend to be in the forefront of open terrain prior to Dec. 1?
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Subjectively, if it's snowing everywhere in Colo then all of the majors will have decent/OK amount open (breck, copper, Vail, Winter park, etc..). If it's a more 'diverse' snowfall pattern, I'd say Vail is usually the winner in central colo in getting the flakes and also in opening their upper front side faster. The Boat will open some, but as noted above won't open all terrain until the mass of skiers start showing up close to Christmas.
 
The Boat will open some, but as noted above won't open all terrain until the mass of skiers start showing up close to Christmas.
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Jackson is even more conspicuous in this regard. Unless they are getting consistently hammered they keep it limited before Christmas to let snow accumulate/settle, then open a lot for the holidays.
 
We are fortunate in CA in that Mammoth opens as much as they can by Thanksgiving, rather than Christmas.
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When average water content is 13% you can get open and keep open a lot more terrain than if you get the same amount of 7% snow. And that's comparing Mammoth to Vail or Winter Park with similar average snowfall. For more typical Colorado areas under 300 inches (Summit County, Aspen, etc.) getting terrain open, especially the steeps, can be an agonizingly slow process.
 
skibum4ever":9zgeb22x said:
In general, A-Basin and Keystone get less natural snow. Vail and BC get more, sometimes twice as much. Don't know about Loveland since our Colorado Pass is not good there.
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Over what time frame? If you're talking about the whole year, then that's certainly not true w/r/t A-Basin. They get as much or more than any resort in CO save for Wolf Creek, Silverton, and Loveland. They are about on par with Vail/BC, Steamboat and Winter Park. Keystone gets skunked b/c it is surrounded by higher mountains.
 
Mike Bernstein":3bn12o6w said:
skibum4ever":3bn12o6w said:
In general, A-Basin and Keystone get less natural snow. Vail and BC get more, sometimes twice as much. Don't know about Loveland since our Colorado Pass is not good there.
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Over what time frame? If you're talking about the whole year, then that's certainly not true w/r/t A-Basin. They get as much or more than any resort in CO save for Wolf Creek, Silverton, and Loveland. They are about on par with Vail/BC, Steamboat and Winter Park. Keystone gets skunked b/c it is surrounded by higher mountains.
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A-Basin gets less snow than Vail during the ski season. Many storms sweep through colorado leaving significantly higher snow amounts at Vail than will be found at A-basin. At least that was the experience that I got when last winter it snowed some 40 inches at Vail while I was there, but A-basin only picked up around 23 inches.
 
rfarren":14tacvbk said:
Mike Bernstein":14tacvbk said:
skibum4ever":14tacvbk said:
In general, A-Basin and Keystone get less natural snow. Vail and BC get more, sometimes twice as much. Don't know about Loveland since our Colorado Pass is not good there.
Click to expand...

Over what time frame? If you're talking about the whole year, then that's certainly not true w/r/t A-Basin. They get as much or more than any resort in CO save for Wolf Creek, Silverton, and Loveland. They are about on par with Vail/BC, Steamboat and Winter Park. Keystone gets skunked b/c it is surrounded by higher mountains.
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A-Basin gets less snow than Vail during the ski season. Many storms sweep through colorado leaving significantly higher snow amounts at Vail than will be found at A-basin. At least that was the experience that I got when last winter it snowed some 40 inches at Vail while I was there, but A-basin only picked up around 23 inches.
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One data point does not a trend make. Not sure why your experience would be any more instructive than when I skied at Loveland and A-Basin for a week in mid-March during the "Storm of the Century" in 2004. They got 86" at Loveland, 72" at A-Basin, and just under a foot at Vail.

I trust Tony's data linked below as being much more authoritative. One thing to keep in mind is that although A-Basin's measurement is taken at a roughly similar altitude as those at Vail/BC and Winter Park, it also tops out upwards of 1000' higher in elevation. I'd be willing to bet that if the measurements were taken near the summit, the difference wouldn't be nearly as stark. Additionally, when you factor in the snow preservation factor (Montezuma Basin notwithstanding), I think you'll find base depths at A-Basin the equal of just about any resort in CO this side of Wolf Creek.
 
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