The 2023-24 ski and ride season may still be its infant stages, but progress is constantly being made across Summit County’s mountains to open up more terrain to the public.
Each week throughout the winter, the Summit Daily News will provide a terrain update that will inform skiers and riders on what trails are open at what mountains before they head out to the slopes.
Keystone Resort is offering plenty of early season terrain
As of Thursday morning, Nov. 9, Keystone Resort led the way with the largest amount of lifts and terrain open to the public. This week, Keystone opened up top-to-bottom skiing for the first time time this season, with guests able to start from the top of Dercum Mountain and snake their way back to River Run Village.
Keystone currently has four of its 21 lifts running, with all of them accessing the front side of Dercum Mountain. Guests can ski a total of five trails including Endeavor, River Run, Dercum’s Dash, Schoolmarm and Silverspoon for close to 3 miles of terrain.
Following the opening of top-to-bottom terrain, Keystone announced it will now begin the process of opening terrain to the resort’s Mountain House Base Area located west of River Run Village.
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area waits to open additional terrain
With unseasonably warm temperatures stalling snowmaking progress over the last few weeks, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area still only has one run and one lift open after opening to the public on Oct. 29. Skiers and riders can take the Black Mountain Express lift to access the Lower Mountain Blues on the front side of the mountain.
A-Basin provided a Thursday update about plans to open more terrain, stating that, with the way the ski area’s snowmaking pipelines are laid out, making snow at the bottom of the Lenawee Express will take some extra diligence.
A-Basin’s snowmaking crew was able to make a fair amount of progress on Wednesday night, with the Lenawee Express lift getting closer to opening for the season.
Breckenridge and Loveland ready to open on Friday
Breckenridge Ski Resort and Loveland Ski Area will host opening day celebrations on Friday. Breckenridge will begin the season with approximately 50 acres of terrain accessed via the newly upgraded Five SuperChair and the Colorado SuperChair.
Two out of Breckenridge’s 187 trails will be open for opening day via the 4 O’clock and Springmeier trails, giving guests some variety in their opening day turns. The resort will continue to make snow at every opportunity Mother Nature provides and will start working towards opening terrain on Peak 9 next, resort spokespeople said.
Breckenridge will now be open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the BreckConnect Gondola opening at 8:30 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m.
Loveland Ski Area will begin the season with Chet’s Dream being the sole lift providing access to three trails that make up the 18-inch base, top-to-bottom run. Skiers will begin from the top of Chet’s Dream, turn down Cat Walk before taking Mambo down to Home Run which leads back to the base area.
Loveland’s snowmaking teams will now turn their focus to opening additional terrain as soon as possible. Loveland is now open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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