The mountains arecalling Six Colorado ski areas offering limited terrain, largely on manmade snow
Despite less than abundant natural snowfall in the mountains and temperatures that have sometimes hampered snowmaking operations, two more Colorado ski areas opened for the season on Friday, bringing the number of areas in operation to six.
Breckenridge and Vail joined four that opened in mid to late October: Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Wolf Creek. Winter Park is scheduled to open next Wednesday.
None of the areas in operation have much terrain to offer. Vail opened two trails on the top of the mountain totaling roughly 70 acres. That’s a tiny fraction of the resort’s total area of 5,317 acres and 195 trails. Breckenridge is offering about 50 acres on two trails. When fully open, Breck’s total skiable terrain is 2,908 acres (187 trails).
Other resorts are reporting similar conditions. Keystone, which opened Oct. 22, has five trails representing 69 of its 3,148 total acres, but it’s one of only three Colorado areas that are offering top-to-bottom skiing and riding from the summit to the base. Resort officials are hoping to add another trail this weekend.
“We’re hoping to open several more trails, including Spring Dipper, sometime next week if conditions permit,” said Keystone spokeswoman Loryn Roberson.
Arapahoe Basin, which has been open since Oct. 17, opened its Lenawee lift to the summit last Sunday and is offering top-to-bottom skiing and riding, but only on three intermediate trails and one terrain park.
The only other area offering top-tobottom skiing is Wolf Creek in southwestern Colorado, a four- to five-hour drive from Denver.
Loveland has two lifts in operation, serving four trails.
“We are very close to opening more terrain and hope to have more updates for everyone very soon,” Loveland spokesman John Sellers said.
Some resorts near the Interstate 70 corridor received substantial snowfall since Wednesday including Loveland (13 inches), Arapahoe Basin (11) and Keystone (eight), according to the Opensnow snow forecasting and reporting service. Vail Pass received