Arapahoe Basin Burns Keystone In Race To Be First To Open
(CBS4) -- Hours after Keystone announced it would be the first ski resort in North America to open for the '19-'20 season, for the first time in decades, Arapahoe Basin pulled a fast one and opened Friday -- for two hours.
Keystone Resort is opening Saturday. Keystone hasn't been the first Front Range ski area to open since 1997, and it hasn't opened in October since 2001.
"Keystone will open Saturday, October 12 for our earliest opening in over 20 years!" resort officials announced on Facebook on Friday. "Thanks to our #KeyPeople who helped upgrade our snowmaking system this summer, we're positioned to be the first ski resort in North America to open for the 19-20 season! Lifts will start turning as early as possible, so stay tuned for details."
Early Friday, Arapahoe Basin said they would be opening "...soon." Then at 1:40 p.m. they announced they were firing up the lifts from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Arapahoe Basin and Keystone Resort both fired up their snow guns early last week -- hoping to be the first Colorado ski resort to open for the season.
"The snowmaking crew is raging, totally capitalizing on this tremendous weather," A-Basin officials wrote on their website Friday.
Last year, A-Basin was the first resort to open in Colorado -- on Oct. 19 -- and didn't close for the season until July 4. The last time the resort was able to stay open until Independence Day was back in 2011.
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Loveland began making snow last week and sent Parker the Snow Dog out to check the conditions on Thursday.
However, officials with Loveland said Friday it will not be ready to open this weekend.
"Snowmaking is going well here at Loveland. The upper part of the mountain looks great but our snowmaking crew still has a bunch of snow on the lower section of the mountain to make," officials said Friday. "Loveland Ski Area hopes to open sometime mid October to early November. Last year Loveland opened on October 20."
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
