Arapahoe Basin beats Keystone as state’s first ski resort to open
The snowboarder affectionately known around Summit County as Nate Dogggg was in line at Keystone Resort on Friday afternoon, poised as usual to spend a cold night at the foot of a ski lift to claim the first chair of a Colorado ski season, when he discovered his long streak of season-opening first chairs was in serious jeopardy.
He had gotten to Keystone on Friday an hour after resort officials announced it would open for the season on Saturday, proclaiming it would be the first ski area in North America to open. But while Dogggg was in line with his snowboard, Arapahoe Basin one-upped Keystone and announced it would open at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Dogggg needed to bust a move — and fast — if he was going to keep alive his streak of 24 consecutive season-first chairs.
“I drove from Keystone as fast as my little piece-of-poo Jeep could do it,” said Dogggg, who doesn’t give his real name in his annual opening-day interviews. “Sure enough, magically, got here in time.”
So it was that the 2019-20 Colorado ski season began Friday at 3:28 p.m.
with about 200 skiers and riders in line. A-Basin, which ended its season last year on the Fourth of July, was closed for only 99 days, which is the shortest amount of time in its history, according to the ski area.
A-Basin has been the first in the Front Range to open for seven of the past eight years, tying with Loveland in 2015. Wolf Creek in southern Colorado beat them both in 2011, opening on Oct. 8. Two years ago, Arapahoe Basin opened on Oct. 13.
Keystone, which officially opens at 9 a.m. Saturday, hadn’t even attempted to open in October since 2002, conceding the battle for opening-day honors to A-Basin and Loveland, but Vail Resorts significantly upgraded Keystone’s snowmaking system this year.
Company officials made no secret of their desire to compete with Arapahoe Basin to get open first. The two ski areas are only 4 miles apart.
On Friday afternoon, after ABasin usurped the first-to-open honor, Keystone graciously admitted defeat on Twitter.
“Congrats to A-Basin on opening this afternoon!” Keystone tweeted. “Our teams have been hard at work across the resort, and we can’t wait to kick off the season tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. The fun has just begun!”
Those who got to enjoy the snow at A-Basin on Friday had to act quickly, because A-Basin announced it would open just two hours before the lifts opened.
“The way we’ve always seen it, as of today, for the rest of the 2019-20 season, everybody has skied or ridden behind us,” Dogggg said. “First chair is the absolute start of the ski season for all of us, but we have the joys and luck to be on the very first one to lead the pack.”
Dogggg usually is the first in line, but this time, he had to settle for second behind Taylor Hutchinson of Dillon. Hutchinson just happened to be at Arapahoe Basin checking out the mountain when he realized it was about to open. He grabbed his skis from his vehicle and got in line.
“Right place, right time,” Hutchinson said while waiting for the lift to open. “I’m excited to have this run wide open in front of me before the rest of these people get to it.”
Opening day here usually means long lift lines and overcrowded slopes, but because of the late announcement, it was much more manageable.
“This is awesome,” Hutchinson said. “This is unlike any other opening day I’ve seen before.”
Also on the first chair was Karson Kosanke, a rookie ski patroller at Keystone — yes, Keystone — who was on his way up to Loveland Pass hoping to find some backcountry snow to ski when he discovered Arapahoe was about to open.
“I stopped the car in the middle of the road, I turned around and I was the third person (in line),” Kosanke said. “It’s wild. I’ve never even been close to a first chair, anywhere. It’s guys like Nate Dogggg that hype it up and make it such a wild thing to do. I feel really, really, really, really lucky.”
Alan Henceroth, Arapahoe Basin’s chief operating officer, said his team began thinking Wednesday that a Friday afternoon opening might be doable. They were in a meeting Friday, getting ready to finalize the decision, when they heard that Keystone would open Saturday.
“Our decision was going to be yes, there was no doubt,” Henceroth said. “Skiing’s great.”
Jay Irwin of Frisco, the first telemarker to make it down the mountain, gave Henceroth props for sneaking past Keystone and making A-Basin the first Front Range area to open for the eighth time in nine years.
“Being able to ski, and quite honestly, having A-Basin pull the smooth here — well done, Al,” Irwin said of Henceroth. “Nicely played.”
And the snow?
“It’s fantastic,” Irwin said. “Wall-to-wall (coverage), and it’s just gorgeous. And no crowds. I’ve been here on opening day every year. Opening day (usually) is like a carnival. You’ve got people out there just ripping snow and a lot of people drinking heavy. I usually try to get off after six runs, because that’s when things get really ugly.”
It definitely wasn’t ugly Friday, especially with A-Basin open for just two hours before closing and reopening at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. The sun shone, the snow was great, there was room to move and the battle had been won.
“It’s fantastic,” Hutchinson said after finishing his first run. “So good. We’re back.”