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North American Ski Season Start Is Earliest for 40 Years

North American Ski Season Start Is Earliest for 40 Years

Published : 14-Oct-2009 03:02

Loveland Ski Area in Colorado was the first ski area in North America to open for the 2009-2010 ski season when Chair 1 started turning at 9am on Wednesday, October 7th. The resort, one of the world's highest ski areas, had started making snow on September 21, 2009.

"We took advantage of the cold temperatures and got an early start making snow this year. Those extra days paid off and we are opening a week earlier than last season," said Eric Johnstone, Snowmaking and Trail Maintenance Manager. "Now we can move some equipment to other trails and try to open more terrain as quickly as possible."


This is the earliest opening day at Loveland Ski Area in 40 years.

"We are proud of our snowmaking crew and extremely excited to offer the first skiing and snowboarding in Colorado and North America," said Rob Goodell, Director of Business Operations. "Skiers and riders have been waiting all summer for this day and we are anxious to fire up the lifts. We are opening a week earlier than last year but the coverage is great! We will open with an 18" base and tree to tree coverage on our opening day run."


For the first turns of the season, skiers and snowboarders had access to a top to bottom run consisting of 1,000 vertical feet via Chair 1. The trails Catwalk, Mambo and Homerun make up this opening day run which is over a mile in length.

Two more US ski areas – Loveland's neighbour Arapahoe Basin and California's Donner Summit have now opened too.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

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