Summit County Colorado Blog

Early guests on opening day enjoyed free pancakes, courtesy of The Breckenridge Ski Resort, and then headed off to enjoy any one of three lifts (Rip’s Ride, Chair 5, and the Colorado Super Chair. These three lifts serviced skiing and snowboarding on four trails: Crescendo, Spruce, Springmeier, and Trygve’s. In total, 108 skiable acres were open, just about 5% of the total available at Breckenridge.

The week leading up to opening day has been warm and dry. But prior to that, the 09-10 ski season had been off to a good start. In fact, early fall conditions were so favorable that one local ski area, Loveland, was able to open on October 7th. This was the earliest that any ski resort has ever opened for the season in the state of Colorado!

And as of this writing, Vail Pass is under a Winter Storm Warning through 6am on Saturday and parking is free in most lots through Sunday. So dust off the skis and snowboards, check the air in the snow tires, and head to Breckenridge for the weekend. See ya on the hill…

The last day that the Breckenridge Colorado ski area will be open for the ’08-’09 season will be this Sunday April 19, 2009 and it is expected to be one of the best powder days of the year!

A winter storm warning is in effect from noon today (Thursday) through noon on Saturday and total snow accumulation is expected to be measured in feet.  After this Sunday, the only Summit County ski area that will remain open will be Arapahoe Basin which typically stays open as long as snow conditions and skier numbers allow.

The ski season started off well but then Colorado had the driest February on record.  The dry spell continued through mid March and then some late March storms brought snow pack levels to slightly above average for the time of year.  This current storm system is great news for those looking forward to spring / early summer fishing, rafting, and lake boating in and around Summit County as reservoirs are expected to fill to capacity and river flows are expected to be strong.  In fact, the fishing this year is already off to a fantastic start.

So…get ready to come up to Breckenridge this weekend and then break out the summer toys!

February 2009 was the driest February on record for Colorado.  And to make matters worse for the ski areas, the National Weather Service is forecasting that March is expected to be warmer than average with less than average precipitation.  During the first week of March, high temperature records have already been broken.  And more such records are expected to be broken later in the week.

Of course none of this is good news for the Colorado ski areas, rental property owners, ski town merchants, or anyone who just wants to get some powder turns in.

But this could mean an early start to the summer season in the high country.  Summer never seems to last very long up here and I for one would not mind getting another month of biking and boating in this year.  People are already playing golf in Denver which hit a record high temp of 74 degrees today.

The ski season started out well and snow pack is now about average for this time of year.  And some of our snowiest springs have followed very dry mid seasons.  So check back and I will keep you posted if we do get any big storms…