Aspen Skiing Co. may manage to have an early opening again this year due to somw great early season snows.
There was a lot of talk on the internet yesterday and also around Aspen that the Aspen Skiing Co. is planning to begin operations this weekend with skiing and snowboarding on Aspen Mountain. The ski operations are normally begun on Thanksgiving day. However, according to the Aspen Skiing Co.representative Jeff Hanle there are not any plans for an early opening. On Tuesday Jeff spent his time trying to dismiss the rumors of a potential early opening of the mountain.
“The rumor mill is exploding,” Hanle said. “I’m telling everyone I can stop, stop, stop.”
Yesterday afternoon, the Aspen Skiing Co. mentioned this on their Twitter account: “We’ve heard the early-opening rumors too! As of yet, nothing to announce. Keep the snow coming & stay tuned.”
Jeff mentioned that there was not anything for him to announce since no decision was made and there hasn’t been much talk about an early opening . We ahve had great snow so one might think that opening would be easy. The snow conditions won’t necessarily stay in good shape if there are many skiers on this Aspen real estate.
The Aspen Skiing Co. says there were 7 inches of that wonderful white stuff on Aspen Mountain and 3 inches on Snowmass Mountain, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk Mountain in the last 24 hours since 1 p.m. Tuesday. The snow was still falling at that time. There manged to be 5 inches of that great white gold on Snowmass since the last 48 hours and 11 more inches of snow on Aspen Mountain. The Aspen Skiing Co. reported a base of 18 inches on Aspen Mountain and a whopping 25 inches on Snowmass Mountain.
The snow was coming down so hard in Aspen early evening that if became difficult to see. Drivers said that visibility was was at a minimum and that they could only see approximately one quarter-mile since there was heavy snow and high winds. Not a good time to manage to look for Aspen real estate. This slowed me down to drive around for property management.
One thing is for sure and that is that there will be plenty of snow to open as scheduled on Thanksgiving. Snowmass and Aspen Mountain have been originally planned to open on Nov. 25. Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk are originally planned to begin operations on Dec. 11. Every year the Aspen Skiing Co. does a fundraiser for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club which manages to normally be on Aspen Mountain real estate the day before Thanksgiving. Season ski passes are not honored that day so you must buy a lift ticket if you want to ride on the mountain that day.
“The top of Aspen Mountain is looking good,” Hanle said. “If we keep getting cold temperatures, top to bottom is looking good.”
There has been a lot of snow this month which helps the Colorado resorts with nice opening days. Winter Park is should open this Wednesday. Vail Mountain is expected to open this Friday. They have 550 acres of real estate ready to go. Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Keystone, Loveland and Wolf Creek have already been open.