SILVERTON - Silverton Mountain Ski Area saw the first skiers of the year after receiving two major storms dropping snow this Thursday and Friday. The lucky skiers and snowboarders were waiting and ready to ride when they woke up to what looked like February storm conditions. After two days of heavy snow, Silverton Mountain's slopes were chock full of new snow 28 inches to 36 inches deep at 11,600 feet (lower mountain elevation) with substantially more up at higher elevations. Silverton Mountain is America's highest ski area, with a peak elevation of 13,487 feet.

Silverton Mountain has gotten the "first tracks" of the winter for six years in a row and every season since opening for business in 2001. With the amazing snow conditions, the skiers and snowboarders were skiing steep chutes and open powder fields. The scheduled opening date for Silverton Mountain was planned for Nov. 23, 2006, but now plans are being considered to open as early as possible. If the snow continues and temperatures remain cold enough to hold the snow, Silverton will open the backside of the mountain immediately at that time with 100 percent all natural snow.

New this year at Silverton: a new 40-year lease that allows additional unguided skiing. This will be the first time Silverton has offered unguided skiing at the start of the winter season. (Formerly, Silverton was restricted to offering skiing to guided groups, until April 2006 when unguided skiing was first allowed by the BLM.) Also new is 164 acres of ski terrain; Silverton just added 164 acres of ultra steep expert terrain, as pictured in the photo on this page. Areas of this new terrain are nearly vertical, loaded with cliffs, and for the best experts only.

Silverton Mountain will be offering a combination of unguided and guided lift served skiing for 2006/2007.

As for the resorts in and around Summit County, Breckenridge reported total snowfall for the past 72 hours at more 27 inches at mid-mountain. Vail and Beaver Creek also received more than two feet of snow over the past few days. Not to be outdone, Keystone is reporting four inches of new snow over the past weekend, with 18 inches falling because of recent storms.