Snow coats high peaks around Vail, Beaver Creek

Even though the chairlifts won’t crank up for another couple of months and it’s still prime time for mountain biking and hiking, recent snowfall on the high mountains around Vail and Beaver Creek is starting to build anticipation for the coming ski season.

Storms last week left a dusting of new snow above 13,000 feet, and forecasters are calling for much more significant snowfall this evening (Sunday) on slopes down to 10,000 feet.

“Hopefully we'll even see the first dusting of snow on the Gore Range [Sunday] afternoon!” Vail officials wrote on the Vail Mountain Facebook page on Saturday. Opening day at Vail is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 22, and opening day at Beaver Creek is set for Wednesday, Nov. 27.

According to meteorologist Joel Gratz of Opensnow.com, a cold front will move into Grand Junction between 2 and 4 p.m. on Sunday and then spread through the rest of the mountains between 5 and 7 p.m.

“Snow levels will start up around 11,500 feet then quickly lower to 10,000 feet with flakes likely falling lower than that by late Sunday evening,” Gratz reports. “The accumulating snow should stay above 10,500 feet, with accumulations above 11,500 feet reaching 6-10 inches by mid morning on Monday.

“Snow showers and low clouds will hug the central and northern peaks on Monday morning, then slowly dissipate through the late morning. It'll be a beautiful time to look at the peaks, and if this were mid winter, Monday morning would be a pow day.”

Things clear about a bit through mid-week, but then another storm is headed our way on Thursday.

While Vail and Beaver Creek don’t open for a couple of more months, Loveland and Arapahoe Basin have been known to crank up their chairlifts in early October, weather permitting.

“Overnight, the temps dropped a bit and the snowline came down another 1,000 feet or so,” A-Basin COO and Vice President Alan Henceroth wrote on his blog Thursday. “In the coming weeks we will see more and more weather like this. It is always exciting the first time the base area is white. That could happen literally any day now. I am sure we have plenty of fine weather left, but …”

	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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