Two more ski areas have announced plans to open this week, which will bring the number of Colorado areas in operation to five by the weekend.
Loveland will open Thursday at 9 a.m. with an 18-inch base on Catwalk, Mambo and Home Run. Those trails connect to make up one run that is more than a mile long with a vertical drop of nearly 1,000 vertical feet. In southern Colorado, Wolf Creek will open Friday with two lifts serving three beginner trails.
Arapahoe Basin opened on Oct. 23, Keystone on Oct. 28 and Winter Park on Monday.
In a news release, Loveland chief operating officer Rob Goodell said natural snowfall on the upper mountain has been good, raising the prospect of additional terrain coming online soon after the opening on Thursday. Snowmakers will turn their attention to that part of the mountain after finishing preparations for opening day.
Wolf Creek’s announcement says it will operate Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only until it gets enough snow to open the upper part of the mountain, but that could come soon. A storm system favoring Colorado’s southern mountains Wednesday night through Friday morning is predicted to drop 10-20 inches of snow, according to the OpenSnow forecasting and reporting service.
That storm could bring 4-8 inches to Colorado’s central and northern mountains.