Arapaho Basin's East Wall

Snowmaking Rush In Colorado

Two well-known North American ski resorts Loveland and Arapahoe Basin situated in Colorado are involved into snowmaking race each trying to be the first US resort opened for the coming season. So their snow cannons are blasting day and night in order to provide decent snow layer.

Arapahoe Basin started snowmaking process on Sunday, the 5th of October in hope to catch up with the other contender, namely Loveland Ski Area that launched its snow artillery one day earlier - on Saturday, the 4th of October. Considerable temperature drop made possible to start preparatory procedures.

Eric Johnstone, Snowmaking and Trail Maintenance Manager of Loveland Ski Area, reported: "It has been cold up in the high country, but it didn’t look like we would get the temperatures necessary to start making snow until later in the week. We had all our guns placed on the hill and our crew was on standby so we were ready to go when the temperatures dipped."

So the race is going on, the stakes are high. Soon we will see who is the winner this time. Updates on account of current snowmaking status are available on resorts’ websites.

Photo: by Keflavich (wikimedia.org)

Date: 09/10/2008