Western Openings 2023

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I assume Loveland's water supply is limited also, because Loveland and A-Basin both have some of the slowest track records in the West for getting even half their terrain open.

Not sure that that is the case. They certainly have more and older water rights than ABasin and, when cold, can blow snow continuously & indefinitely (till they run out of terrain with hydrants anyway).

That said, total water acre-feet is probably still not that huge. But they do have several more lifts and at least double the trails that actually have snowmaking compared to ABasin. But probably no more than ~15% of total acreage covered vs ABasin's ~5%.

 

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From an Eldora email moments ago (Friday Nov 3 opening):

WE'RE OPENING EARLY!

Eldora will open for the 2023/24 winter season on Friday, November 3, 2023, two weeks ahead of schedule! A full 1,000 vertical feet of terrain will be open, including Hornblower, Klondike, and International trails, plus a small terrain park offering near West Wing Lodge. Skip work, school, or whatever other boring thing you had planned for Friday, and come join the fun. We’ll have fresh-baked muffins for the first guests in line, live tunes from Godlazer, and those down-home feel-good Eldora vibes you’ve been missing since last winter! No beginner terrain or ski school lessons will be available on Opening Day, but our hard-working operations teams are pushing to open some soon.

That means that Hornblower for the upper mtn portion will be a total nightmare. Awesome to see Klondike/4 O'clock will be open this early though! A needed new wrinkle in opening day terrain (usually have the E/SE facing Jolly Jug as 2nd trail open; always an icy mess from sun warming it, etc... Klondike is N-ish facing).

 

[ChrisC]

I was surprised that A-Basin's snowmaking system ever got approved.

What was the application: Hi there - we sit on the Continental Divide...and have no water...and it's 2010s. We would like some water - about 3-4 Trails for the Vail Pass and some marketing.

Sounds like sketchy approval - but given how Coloradoans enjoy it, maybe it's a good use of scarce water.


Looks like the City of Denver utility sold/shared water rights to A-Basin?! Mountain High in LA needs some too. I'm sure there is an interesting story regarding Colorado snowmaking water.


Denver Water has very senior water rights in Grand and Summit counties dating back to the 1920s and 1940s before their resorts were open or made snow.

A-Basin ski resort

Arapahoe Basin uses water from the North Fork of the Snake River to make snow.
A 1985 agreement with Summit County allowed Denver Water to share water for snowmaking in the county.

The 1992 Clinton Reservoir Agreement and the 2013 Colorado River Cooperative Agreement provided the additional framework for ski areas to borrow Denver's water rights to divert water from streams in Grand and Summit counties.

“The agreements show that people on both sides of the divide can work together and manage water so it benefits as many people as possible,” Bennett said.

Because 20 percent of the water is lost to evaporation in the snowmaking process, the ski areas have their own additional water rights stored in Clinton Reservoir that would be used to pay back the lost water, if needed, during a severe drought.

“When it comes to water, we’re all connected,” Henceroth said. “We’ll ski on the snow this winter, and next summer they might be drinking it down in Denver.”

 

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Lake Louise opens Friday as well:

Glacier Express Chair will open at 9:00 am providing access to Wiwaxy, Bald Eagle, and part of Easy Street. Combined they will offer the longest open run in the

Canadian Rockies! Grizzly Gondola is expected to open sometime this weekend.

Wolf Creek targeting next weekend with their snowmade beginner chair which is a touch ironic for one of the snowiest Colo ski areas that typically will open on mostly dirt and rocks.

Wolf Creek Ski Area is excited to announce that Saturday, November 11th and Sunday, November 12th the ski area will be open with the Nova beginner lift. Nova and Susan’s trails will be available for skiers and boarders. The Magic Carpet will also be open for children in the Wolf Pup and Wolf Rider program. The Nova Lift will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. along with Ski School, Ski and Snowboard Rental, Treasure Sports, Base Camp, Pathfinder Bar and the Upper Lodge, which will serve a full lunch menu.

And of course back east Killington opens Friday for passholders then for everyone Sat. With Sommet Saint-Sauveur having opened at 11a today (going to 8P no less).

 

[EMSC]

Arapahoe Basin uses water from the North Fork of the Snake River to make snow.
A 1985 agreement with Summit County allowed Denver Water to share water for snowmaking in the county

The current water diversion is much further uphill than I thought. Looks close to halfway between the two ski areas...

Also Abasin has done nothing to improve/increase snowmaking despite existing approvals to increase the reservoir, add in some more water diversion, and expand the trails/hydrant system. The image below is from their 2012 master plan, but the 'existing conditions' of the snowmaking are the same today as when that slide was created.

95 acres of terrain with snowmaking. However, nine of those acres do not have snowmaking infrastructure installed,

In a year with average flows, the snowmaking operation diverts approximately 55 acre feet of the estimated 90 acre feet within their existing water rights. While diverting, A-Basin has committed to maintain a 0.5 cubic feet per second bypass flow; in October the maintained bypass flow is 1.0 cubic feet per second. In addition to the bypass flow previously described, water withdrawal will be less than or equal to 25% of the stream flow. A storage reservoir, located adjacent to the maintenance building, with a capacity of 5.5 acre feet is used to provide buffer storage. This storage is inadequate during periods when conditions allow A-Basin to run its snowmaking system at full capacity. Additional storage would be helpful during those times.

In fact the Beavers expansion/lift is not even part of this slide! This should answer Tonys question of why it takes a long time to get to 50% open. The snowmaking system is tiny - even for the west.

 

[Tony Crocker]

This should answer Tony's question of why it takes a long time to get to 50% open.

It answers why it takes so long to get past 10-15%. Getting past 50% is more about steep terrain and gradual accumulation of low water content natural snow. Remember, no western resort has much more than 700 acres with snowmaking. And in Vail's case that 700+ is still only 15%.