Snowstorm drops several more inches on Colorado ski resorts as Arapahoe Basin opens more terrain

Keystone, opening Friday, reports 7 inches new

The two operating local ski areas got another blast of winter Tuesday night into this morning, with Arapahoe Basin reporting 3 inches of new snow and Loveland reporting 5 inches new. Vail and Beaver Creek, which open later this month, got up to 8 inches new.

The latest storm, which was still producing light snow this morning in Vail, continues a trend of early season snowstorms that have allowed Colorado resorts to get a jump on snowmaking ahead of numerous scheduled opening days in mid to late November.

Arapahoe Basin expands its terrain to the summit for top-to-bottom skiing today.“With the natural snowfall last week combined with the extremely good progress being made by the snowmakers, A-Basin will open two additional intermediate runs, Lenawee Face and Dercum's Gulch serviced by the Lenawee Mountain Lift,” A-Basin spokeswoman Leigh Hierholzer said Tuesday.

“After the upper mountain has been opened, we will move the snowmaking resources to Sundance and open that as soon as possible, giving our skiers and riders much anticipated beginner terrain.”

Copper Mountain and Keystone open Friday, and Wolf Creek, which has only been open on weekends, shifts to seven-day-a-week operations on Saturday. Breckenridge opens on Friday, Nov. 11; Vail opens on Friday, Nov. 18; and Beaver Creek opens on Wednesday, Nov. 23.

"Thanks to the new snow and the round-the-clock efforts of Keystone's snowmaking, grooming and mountain operations team, Keystone Resort will be opening on Friday with top-to-bottom skiing and riding on Spring Dipper and River Run trails, all serviced by the River Run Gondola," according to a Vail Resorts press release, which reported Keystone got 7 inches out of the latest storm.

"For beginners, the resort is offering two learning areas, one at the top of the mountain and one at the Gondola mid-station. In addition, Keystone is debuting one the best and biggest early season terrain parks with 25 new features, all accessed by its own chairlift."

With A-Basin already open and once Keystone opens on Friday, two of five Colorado ski areas available with Vail Resorts' Epic Pass will be up and running. The Epic Pass is still on sale for $669. It also includes unrestricted skiing at Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge.

U.S. Ski Team athletes are scheduled to start training on Vail's Golden Peak starting today and sometime this week at Copper Mountain's new speed training facility.

Forecasters are calling for another blast of snow Friday night into Saturday, with another possible storm early next week.

The new snow Tuesday night and possibility of additional snow Friday night led Colorado Department of Transportation officials to close Independence Pass between Leadville and Aspen for the season today. The popular pass was scheduled to close Nov. 7.

	24hr snow	mid dpth	snow cond.
A-Basin	n/a	n/a
Aspen	n/a	n/a	closed
BC	n/a	n/a	closed
Breckenridge	n/a	n/a	closed
Buttermilk	n/a	n/a	closed
Copper	n/a	n/a	closed
Crest. Butte	n/a	n/a	closed
Eldora	n/a	n/a	closed
Heavenly	n/a	n/a	closed
Highlands	n/a	n/a
Howelsen	n/a	n/a	closed
Keystone	n/a	n/a	closed
Kirkwood	n/a	n/a	closed
Loveland	n/a	n/a
Monarch	n/a	n/a	closed
Northstar	n/a	n/a	closed
Powderhorn	n/a	n/a	closed
Purgatory	n/a	n/a	closed
Silverton	n/a	n/a	closed
Ski Cooper	n/a	n/a	closed
Ski Granby	n/a	n/a	closed
Snowmass	n/a	n/a	closed
Steamboat	n/a	n/a	closed
Sunlight	n/a	n/a	closed
Telluride	n/a	n/a	closed
Vail	n/a	n/a	closed
WinterPark	n/a	n/a	closed
Wolf Creek	n/a	n/a	closed
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