EB I70 already Closed. https://511.cotrip.org/LB/viewevent.jsf?sitKey=CARS5-15849
How's that for some good CO weather stoke.
How's that for some good CO weather stoke.
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Colorado 2019-2020 Colorado Weather and Stoke (and beer)
- Thread starter jmeb
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Steamboat is reporting 7.5 overnight at mid mountain. Their powder cams are turned off or I’d post pics.
Does Google have insider info on A-Basin opening?
Webcams looking pretty good up there!
The owner sets the times on google or at least I do.View attachment 81803
Does Google have insider info on A-Basin opening?
Hours on Google only cover this weekend, with some uncertainty about Monday given it is a holiday.
Loveland and Copper have hours saying they open today and every day. Not sure what that should say about ABasin having hours, but then being limited.
Loveland and Copper have hours saying they open today and every day. Not sure what that should say about ABasin having hours, but then being limited.
With a always projected mid October opening, it is also possible those are hours planned well in advance to have base area facilities open for season pass sales and other services. That would fit with the hits being limited just to throw holiday weekend.
Opening the season just for a weekend has not been a typical goal.
Opening the season just for a weekend has not been a typical goal.
http://arapahoebasin.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-very-big-24-hours.html?m=1
But maybe Al is dropping hints
But maybe Al is dropping hints
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Thanks for the reply. Loveland is cheaper overall, as I can buy 2 4 packs for $169 a day and ski cheaply. That's less that you'd pay to ski here in MN! Amazing.
A-basin is on Liftopia for $69 but you have to pick a specific day now and can't change that. I don't like the idea of being locked into one resort. You can buy a 2 of 3 day pass but it's still a lot more $$ than Loveland.
The Loveland 4 packs can be used any day you want, correct? The day I skid there I only got to ski half the terrain so going back would be really nice. I know my family will love the place.
I may just have to pony up and pay the extra $$ and ski Breck with the family. Or we could do Copper since I've skied a day there already and know the layout well. Keystone just doesn't seen worth the $$ with Copper and Breck right there for basically the same price.
Absolutely.
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Guest services is open for pass products at Copper.
I agree, Al has been throwing hints. He said to watch for the cats pushing snow and it would be shortly after that.
I happen to believe that @dbostedo has the winning crystal ball in the other thread. Oct 18th. Maybe the 17th. While the webcam shots do look good, I was just there a few days ago. The depth and coverage is not something I would ski on right now.
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- Loveland 4 packs can be used any day by any number of people. They are just lift tickets.
- March or early April is prime loveland season. Everything should be open.
- Go Wed-Sunday so you can experience the ridge cat [assuming a sunny day]. Free, but you need a pass from the season pass office. There is relatively mild black terrain [field of dreams] you can ski off it. Or steeper lines for the adventurous.
- Plan a bbq on the hill for the fam one day. Free gas grills at each on mountain hut. Ginnie Lee has the best sun deck.
- 4 and 8 both have lots of good, mellow tree skiing. Although the beavers at Abasin is objectively better tree skiing and worth a day for variety.
- There are lots of pugs around Luv to give beta / show you around.
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I haven't checked pass pricing since Aug but A Basin did have a transferable 4 pack back then. It was considerably more than Luv's. pm sent
It's been absolute blizzard conditions on and off at my house in the South part of the Denver metro. We got about a month of enjoying Fall... and Winter has already arrived.
Gun shy about putting this in writing, but I would rather make a crazy guess than just think to myself "dang, I was thinking that would happen."
A-Basin will open Saturday I think
1) The entire day Friday has potential good snowmaking conditions. Early season snowmaking windows are valuable, and it makes little sense to pull the guns and hoses around, when the weather is delivering them a round the clock quality window. Maybe they could open Friday, but the weather makes Saturday's warmer temps a better choice.
2) It is already afternoon on Thursday, and we are getting too late in the day to make an announcement that may pull folks out of work tomorrow morning. A Friday morning announcement for a Saturday opening is a far smoother process.
3) There are no signs of grooming activity or pushing piles on the webcams. Cats moving snow was Al's big sign, which I think is what his blog was teasing (trolling?) for on Friday.
Keystone will be the first to open I think
Yes, that is a bold statement. But, I think the there are lots of factors at work.
Let's start with the weather and snow, where I do not think ABasin has any advantage:
1) Stakes are showing Keystone is doing just about as well as ABasin out of this storm, so whatever natural help is there seems about even.
2) Keystone has had some limited cat activity already--they are not just sitting around.
3) Schoolmarm should require less of a base to open with a shallower pitch, and Keystone has the fleet to groom it out quickly.
4) Keystone is only looking to open the upper half of the mountain down to the Montezuma chair, with gondola downloading at the end of the day. So elevation and temps vs ABasin are going to be very very close.
5) Schoolmarm is much longer than High Noon, but the key factor is system design and capacity. If Vail wants Keystone to compete in the race to open, then there should not be any issues regarding the ability to make the needed acre/ft of snow comparable to ABasin in order to open. And the system is newer, automated, and better optimized for performance with tower based fan guns. The impressive power of an automated fan system was on display in VT a few winters ago when Mount Snow was able to outperform Killington during a cold a cold snap like this.
Keystone/Vail has every motivation and trick to open early:
1) Vail did not make a massive state of the art snowmaking investment at Keystone to be unable to compete to open first. Early snowmaking is essentially marketing dollars being spent. Winning has major value.
3) Epic Pass prices go up October 13th. A huge marketing win on Oct 12 can go a long way in motivating pass purchases this weekend.
2) ABasin open is going to attract Epic Pass skiers who do not know ABasin is now on the Ikon Pass. Plenty of folks skiing ABasin in May on an Epic Pass had no idea of the change when I rode the lift with them. Vail has incentive to have Keystone open, so when ABasin turns away Epic Pass skiers, they only need to drive down the road, rather than rage and rant back to Denver.
3) Vail has motivation to educate skiers about changes. ABasin has a core following that cares little for Keystone, Vail, BC,....and probably Breck. ABasin is just doing its thing as usual, swapping Ikon for Epic dollars. The new Keystone early and Breckenridge late pattern for all CO Epic Pass holders needs marketing and exposure to reinforce and educate. Folks who dropped $$$+ to have a long season in Summit County do not want to feel like they just got taken when their Epic Local pass auto renewed but they feel like they lost their early and late season resort in ABasin. News coverage lets Vail tell CO to come ski Keystone now and Breck in April and May.
4) The gondola upload can allow Keystone to open early. The gondola is up and running early anyway for mountain ops, patrol, and everything else. Running BMX at ABasin puts skiers clicked into skis at the top in only a few minutes. The longer gondola ride up, followed by a walk, and then clicking in takes some extra time. Opening 30 min before ABasin, and therefore "winning" the race to open, really only sends skiers down Schoolmarm maybe 15 minutes earlier. Therefore the gondola asks little more of operations, for a big win in the media and bragging rights department for Vail, against a new competitor that spurned it for Vail's only true rival. And Keystone being first to open is far more of a news story, than ABasin doing the same thing it has for a decade.
Yes, that is a lot. But, I think there is a case to be made and delivered by Keystone to actually be the first to open, alongside ABasin, this Saturday.
Objections, outrage, disagreements,....go
A-Basin will open Saturday I think
1) The entire day Friday has potential good snowmaking conditions. Early season snowmaking windows are valuable, and it makes little sense to pull the guns and hoses around, when the weather is delivering them a round the clock quality window. Maybe they could open Friday, but the weather makes Saturday's warmer temps a better choice.
2) It is already afternoon on Thursday, and we are getting too late in the day to make an announcement that may pull folks out of work tomorrow morning. A Friday morning announcement for a Saturday opening is a far smoother process.
3) There are no signs of grooming activity or pushing piles on the webcams. Cats moving snow was Al's big sign, which I think is what his blog was teasing (trolling?) for on Friday.
Keystone will be the first to open I think
Yes, that is a bold statement. But, I think the there are lots of factors at work.
Let's start with the weather and snow, where I do not think ABasin has any advantage:
1) Stakes are showing Keystone is doing just about as well as ABasin out of this storm, so whatever natural help is there seems about even.
2) Keystone has had some limited cat activity already--they are not just sitting around.
3) Schoolmarm should require less of a base to open with a shallower pitch, and Keystone has the fleet to groom it out quickly.
4) Keystone is only looking to open the upper half of the mountain down to the Montezuma chair, with gondola downloading at the end of the day. So elevation and temps vs ABasin are going to be very very close.
5) Schoolmarm is much longer than High Noon, but the key factor is system design and capacity. If Vail wants Keystone to compete in the race to open, then there should not be any issues regarding the ability to make the needed acre/ft of snow comparable to ABasin in order to open. And the system is newer, automated, and better optimized for performance with tower based fan guns. The impressive power of an automated fan system was on display in VT a few winters ago when Mount Snow was able to outperform Killington during a cold a cold snap like this.
Keystone/Vail has every motivation and trick to open early:
1) Vail did not make a massive state of the art snowmaking investment at Keystone to be unable to compete to open first. Early snowmaking is essentially marketing dollars being spent. Winning has major value.
3) Epic Pass prices go up October 13th. A huge marketing win on Oct 12 can go a long way in motivating pass purchases this weekend.
2) ABasin open is going to attract Epic Pass skiers who do not know ABasin is now on the Ikon Pass. Plenty of folks skiing ABasin in May on an Epic Pass had no idea of the change when I rode the lift with them. Vail has incentive to have Keystone open, so when ABasin turns away Epic Pass skiers, they only need to drive down the road, rather than rage and rant back to Denver.
3) Vail has motivation to educate skiers about changes. ABasin has a core following that cares little for Keystone, Vail, BC,....and probably Breck. ABasin is just doing its thing as usual, swapping Ikon for Epic dollars. The new Keystone early and Breckenridge late pattern for all CO Epic Pass holders needs marketing and exposure to reinforce and educate. Folks who dropped $$$+ to have a long season in Summit County do not want to feel like they just got taken when their Epic Local pass auto renewed but they feel like they lost their early and late season resort in ABasin. News coverage lets Vail tell CO to come ski Keystone now and Breck in April and May.
4) The gondola upload can allow Keystone to open early. The gondola is up and running early anyway for mountain ops, patrol, and everything else. Running BMX at ABasin puts skiers clicked into skis at the top in only a few minutes. The longer gondola ride up, followed by a walk, and then clicking in takes some extra time. Opening 30 min before ABasin, and therefore "winning" the race to open, really only sends skiers down Schoolmarm maybe 15 minutes earlier. Therefore the gondola asks little more of operations, for a big win in the media and bragging rights department for Vail, against a new competitor that spurned it for Vail's only true rival. And Keystone being first to open is far more of a news story, than ABasin doing the same thing it has for a decade.
Yes, that is a lot. But, I think there is a case to be made and delivered by Keystone to actually be the first to open, alongside ABasin, this Saturday.
Objections, outrage, disagreements,....go
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