Arapahoe Basin opens this weekend, kicking off the 2023-24 Colorado ski season

Colorado hasn’t missed out on an October opening for the ski season since 1992, and thanks to Arapahoe Basin, that streak will continue in 2023.

A-Basin officials announced Friday that the 77-year-old area nicknamed “The Legend” will open on Sunday, which will mark the 11th time in 13 years it beat its local rivals to become the first Front Range area open for the season. It also tied for opening day honors with Loveland in 2015. Wolf Creek in southern Colorado was the first in the state to open in 2020 and 2021.

Related: Here’s when every Colorado ski resort plans to open for the 2023-24 season

“There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing people having fun skiing and riding on the hill,” said Alan Henceroth, the area’s chief operating officer. “Our team is incredibly excited to get Arapahoe Basin open and starting the fun.”

Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland opened Nov. 6-11 in 2020, but Wolf Creek opened on Oct. 28 that year to preserve Colorado’s October streak. Last year Arapahoe Basin opened on Oct. 23, followed by Keystone on Oct. 28 and Loveland on Nov. 3.

It may take a few more days for Keystone and Loveland to get open, but they will be aided by cold temperatures and snowfall this weekend. Widespread mountain communities will receive snow this weekend, and in some locations, accumulation could be significant.

Joel Gratz, founding meteorologist at OpenSnow.com, expects 10-15 inches favoring the northern and central mountains beginning Friday at midnight and extending through midday Sunday with narrow bands of “intense” snow.

“The jet stream will linger over central Colorado for a solid 24 hours,” Gratz said. “This fast-moving ‘river of air’ at around 35,000 feet, about where commercial airplanes fly, is what will create these narrow bands. While we cannot be certain exactly where the most intense snow will fall, knowing that the jet stream will be overhead explains why the forecast models are all generating deep snow totals in the same general area.”

Gratz said the most significant snowfall should occur along a line from southwest to northeast including Sunlight, Snowmass, Aspen, most of the Interstate 70 mountains from Beaver Creek to Winter Park, and possibly extending to Eldora.

“Snow amounts of 20-plus inches are possible for locations that are lucky and happen to be under the more intense bands for the longest period of time,” Gratz said. “Snowfall rates could peak at 2-3 inches per hour.”

Temperatures through Tuesday night also should allow for productive snowmaking operations as well.

“As we look into the coming weekend, our team is really excited to see longer, sustained temperature windows for snowmaking,” Keystone spokesman Max Winter said. “The forecasts can change on a dime, so it is really hard for us to make any certain predictions about our opening timeline and whether we’ll be skiing before the end of the month, but you can rest assured if there’s snow to be made, we’ll be making it. With around-the-clock, 24-hour snowmaking, we can create enough snow to open our mountain in just two to three days.”

Snowmaking crews at Loveland also are eagerly awaiting this weekend’s cold temperatures and natural snowfall as well, according to spokesman John Sellers.

“The ski area will look a lot different Monday morning,” Sellers said, conceding that an October opening for Loveland may not be in the offing this year. “We always work hard to open as soon as we can, but we need help from Mother Nature to get the season started. She always comes through, but it just took a little bit longer. We are as excited as everyone else to start the season and are working hard to get open as soon as possible.”

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