SNOW!!!!!!!

While most people dream of a White Christmas, up here in ski country, we tend to dream of a White Halloween! This year, Mother Nature has been VERY accommodating! Denver just finished going through about 50 hours of continuous snowfall, and most locations in the metro area received 1 to 2 FEET out of this storm (Rollinsville--in the mountains above Boulder--received something like 46 inches!)!

This was a classic "upslope" storm, so it affected Denver and the foothills more than it did us up here in the mountains, but most of the resort areas received about a foot or so. We are not buried, but it definitely made for some pretty pictures.

We now have 3 ski areas open here in Colorado: Loveland Ski Area, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, and Wolf Creek Ski Area in southern Colorado (just to give you an idea of the snow amounts, Wolf Creek does not have any snowmaking capability--they are open on 100% natural snow!). Keystone will be opening for the season next Thursday (11/5), with many more openings soon to follow.

I will keep you posted! THINK SNOW!

Steve

Welcome to 2009-2010

Okay--so I was REALLY bad about posting last year. I ended up running around like crazy all winter long, and then ran out of things to write about. I am an engineer by degree, and so I have a gene against creativity......

Anyhow--hope everyone had a great summer, and I hope you are now looking forward to another great ski season! We had a really weird fall this year with a VERY early peak of color--about 2-3 weeks early. The trees on the hillsides were pretty much at peak color right after Labor Day weekend, and lost all of their leaves before the trees in the valley even started changing.

We still had some beautiful color, though:

We also had a pretty significant early season snowstorm back on Sept. 21--which allowed our ski areas to start making snow in earnest:

The best news is that ski season officially opened on October 7th, with Loveland Ski Area (www.skiloveland.com) winning the sweepstakes for this year--and also achieving their earliest opening in about 40 years. Not far behind, Arapahoe Basin opened for the season on October 9th (www.arapahoebasin.com), so we now have 2 areas open in Colorado!

As I write this, it is snowing again, and all indications are that it is going to be yet another GREAT winter up here! Plus, many of the ski areas are offering some amazing deals, so make sure to get your reservations in NOW!

THINK SNOW!

Steve