Wolf Creek is getting clobbered again with fresh snow, but the southern Colorado ski area known for historically prodigious snowfall was unable to open Wednesday because of high winds and low visibility.
The area reported 10 inches of new snow this morning and did sell some lift tickets but officials decided not to open because of the conditions. Wolf Creek will refund tickets sold for Wednesday or exchange them for use on another day.
Wolf Creek Pass is closed to vehicular traffic. Other mountain road closures are in effect on the Grand Mesa, Lizard Head Pass, the Dallas Divide, U.S. 550 over Red Mountain, Molas and Coal Bank passes, and Loveland Pass.
“It’s really high, variable winds,” said marketing vice president Rosanne Pitcher. “It’s been steady, heavy snowfall, but the wind is just blowing everything everywhere, so you really can’t see what the accumulation is. When the wind blows, it just goes everywhere.”
Pitcher was able to make it to work before the road closure went into effect on the pass.
“When you’re driving up the pass, you have pretty decent visibility, and then all of a sudden a gust will come and you absolutely cannot see anything for those couple of seconds,” Pitcher said. “You have to really be careful. You just wait until the gust passes, and then you keep going.”
Pitcher said it’s not forecast to be as windy on Thursday.
“We’re hoping we can operate tomorrow,” Pitcher said. “We just have to wait and see.”