Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com
The overnight snow storm has wreaked havoc not only in Summit County’s backcountry, but across the county’s ski resorts and ski areas as well.
Breckenridge Ski Resort announced shortly before 8:30 a.m., that its upper mountain lifts and terrain would be closed today due to avalanche danger. Breckenridge later added that lower-mountain lifts may be delayed past their scheduled 8:30 a.m. opening.
At Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, A-Basin chief operating officer Alan Henceroth announced on his blog just after 8 a.m. Thursday morning that the ski area will not open for the day.
“Due to extreme avalanche concerns,” Henceroth said on the blog, “A-Basin and Highway 6 over Loveland Pass will not be opening today. We are working closely with CDOT to manage this challenging situation.”
Copper Mountain is on a delayed opening after an avalanche near the Conoco in Copper Mountain that ruptured a natural-gas line.
“In the early morning of March 7, an avalanche behind the Conoco station in Copper Mountain ruptured a natural gas line,” Copper Mountain spokeswoman Taylor Prather said in a statement Thursday morning. “There were no Copper Mountain staff on-site and the Conoco at Copper Mountain will be closed as Excel crews repair the line. Copper Mountain Resort operations are not affected by the gas leak, however due to road closures in the surrounding area as a result of significant snowfall overnight, opening will be delayed.”
With that, though, there is also some good news with Summit County’s ski resorts and ski areas on Thursday, as the resorts are reporting some of the highest overnight snowfall totals in recent memory.
At both of Vail Resorts’ Summit County properties, Breckenridge and Keystone Resort, snow stake cameras showed 17 inches as of early Thursday morning, with more forecast through the day.
Breckenridge reported that it anticipates to receive another 5-9 inches through the day.
Over at A-Basin near the Continental Divide, the ski area reported 14 inches of fresh snow as of about 6:30 a.m.
And at A-Basin’s sister ski area along the Continental Divide, at Loveland Ski Area in Clear Creek County, the new snowfall reached the top of Loveland’s snow stake camera.
As of 8 a.m., Copper Mountain had yet to announce snow stake totals.