Editor’s Note: Each Thursday throughout the winter, the Summit Daily News will provide a terrain update that will inform skiers and riders on what trails are opening before they head out to the slopes. 

As skiers and riders slowly trickle to Summit County for the Thanksgiving holiday, ski areas are busy prepping the mountain for the first major holiday of the winter season. 

Following a brief dry spell, Summit County ski areas received several inches of snow early this week, plus a blast of cold air to help with snowmaking, giving access to more terrain leading into the holidays. 

---

---

Breckenridge unlocking upper Peak 9 

After successfully opening up its second base area of the season last week, Breckenridge Ski Resort will give skiers and riders access to the upper part of Peak 9 at some point this weekend.

“Thanks to 10 inches of fresh snow this week, sustained cold temps and the hard work of our snowmaking and grooming teams, we’re excited to announce that upper Peak 9 will open this weekend with the addition of the Beaver Run SuperChair on Friday and the Mercury SuperChair planned for Saturday,” senior specialist in communications Sarah McLear said. 

---

---

The addition of the two lifts will provide access to intermediate terrain on Cashier and Bonanza. Additionally, Breckenridge has been able to open up more terrain on Peak 8, including Callie’s Alley, Swinger and Crescendo. 

More natural terrain is expected to pop open soon across both Peak 8 and Peak 9, at the discretion of Breckenridge’s teams. If all goes to plan, Breckenridge should have more than 300 acres open across Peak 8 and 9 for guests this weekend.

“Last weekend, patrol opened Contest Bowl as a hike-to experience on an as-conditions-allow basis, and it was great to see skiers and riders getting out into some of our high-Alpine terrain again,” McLear said. “Patrol will continue to assess snow conditions and terrain openings on natural snow, and we have another storm stacking up for early next week that should help as well.”

Breckenridge will now look to get Peak 8’s Rocky Mountain SuperChair and associated terrain open up next. The ski resort expects to have Rocky Mountain SuperChair open late next week. After that, Breckenridge will move its snowmaking efforts over to Peak 7 in order to hopefully open up the peak in mid-December.

As of Saturday, Nov. 16, uphill access is open at Breckenridge. For the time being, there is one uphill route from the base of Peak 8 to Vista Haus via the Springmeier trail. Skiers and riders are encouraged to call the winch cat hotline at 970-547-5627 before uphilling and to keep an eye out on the resort’s social media and website for more routes to open as the resort progresses through its early season opening plans. 

First black diamond run opens at Keystone

Similar to Breckenridge, Keystone Resort has made great progress in terms of snowmaking and opening up more terrain.

Due to the hard work from its mountain operation teams, Keystone will open its first black diamond run of the season — The Edge — on Friday, Nov. 22. In addition to giving access to The Edge, skiers and riders can also expect to see soft openings on natural snow across trails like Frenchman, Flying Dutchman and more throughout the upcoming weekend.

As of Friday, Keystone will have 182 acres open for skiing and riding with more terrain growing close to coming online.

“This is the most acreage we’ve had open for this time of year since the 2019-20 winter season, when we saw an unusually high natural snowpack in the early season, and we couldn’t be prouder of the work our teams have put in across our mountain to make this possible,” communications manager Max Winter said.

As Keystone looks toward the Thanksgiving holiday, its teams will work hard to open up Mozart, Prospector and a handful of black trails on North Peak. Keystone is also on track to open up its mountaintop snow tubing next week.

“It takes a village to make early season skiing like this possible,” Winter said. “Don’t forget to thank a snowmaker, ski patroller or any resort employee you see.”

Loveland Ski Area opens Loveland Valley 

On Friday, Nov. 22, Loveland Ski Area will open up the Loveland Valley portion of the ski area. Housing the ski area’s ski school, Loveland Valley will allow skiers to access some of the ski area’s easy terrain before venturing over to Loveland Basin.

Loveland Valley is expected to open up in the morning on Friday and will provide access to Lift 7 and the Rainbow Carpet.

Earlier in the week, Loveland opened up several other trails including Nix Nox on Wednesday, Nov. 20,  and Waterfall on Thursday, Nov. 21. Both newly opened trails can best be accessed via Chet’s Dream.

On Saturday, Nov. 23, Loveland is scheduled to open up all of Richard’s Run, which can also be accessed by taking Chet’s Dream.

Looking ahead, mountain operation teams at Loveland will be shifting their focus to Chair 6 which will provide access to Roulette. 

“With a storm in the forecast next week, we’re excited for more snow, and we will continue expanding our terrain offerings,” director of marketing and communications Loryn Roberson said. 

Copper begins spinning American Flyer 

On Friday, Nov. 22, Copper Mountain Resort will begin spinning the American Flyer lift out of the Center Village base area.

The lift will give guests access to Coppertone, High Point and Loverly trails. Throughout the weekend, guests can also expect several rope drops on trails that rely on natural snowfall surrounding the American Flyer lift.

With the addition of American Flyer and its corresponding trails, Copper will nearly double its terrain footprint.

“American Flyer is one of our main lifts out of Center Village, so we’re stoked to have it up and running and offer more access on the mountain,” communications and philanthropy manager Olivia Butrymovich said. “Conditions at Copper are great with 4 feet of snowfall this month and more in the forecast for early next week.”

On Thanksgiving Day next Thursday, Nov. 28, Copper will have a Timberline Express grand opening event for the newly upgraded lift. Over the summer and fall, Timberline was upgraded from a four-pack to a six-pack lift. 

Weather and conditions permitting, the lift is scheduled to begin operations for the first time this winter on Thanksgiving Day. For more details on the event, visit CopperColorado.com.

Upper mountain nears opening at A-Basin 

Over the last week, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has had some productive snowmaking sessions, aiding the ski area in officially opening up the upper portion of the mountain.

While A-Basin’s snowmaking reservoir recharges, snowcats are out in order to work on the latest piles of snow spread out across the slopes. Once A-Basin gives access to top-to-bottom skiing and riding off of the Lenawee Express lift, the ski area will turn its focus to the Molly Hogan lift in order to get its learning terrain online. 

For the weekend ahead, A-Basin will have Black Mountain Express spinning for laps on High Noon.