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Top 5 most-read stories last week: Winter storm, Breckenridge trailhead and ski season begins

Breckenridge Open Space & Trails manager Duke Barlow walked a group through the future Laurium Trailhead parking lot at a Nov. 4, 2024 site tour. The project to move the lot will happen sometime in 2025, according to officials. After construction is done, the current lot will be fully decommissioned.
Kit Geary/Summit Daily News

Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com from Nov. 3-9.

1. Winter storm locks up Colorado mountain highways with multiple closures on I-70, Loveland Pass and CO-91

Editor’s note: This story was published on Sunday, Nov. 3.

The Interstate 70 mountain corridor is experiencing multiple closures amid a snowstorm that is expected to last into Monday morning, Nov. 4.



The Colorado Department of Transportation is warning of road closures and delays due to safety concerns. A winter storm warning is in effect for Summit County and much of the mountain region through 11 a.m. Monday, with several inches of snow expected.

— Summit Daily staff



2. ‘We have fielded a lot of complaints:’ Safety concerns prompt relocation of popular parking lot for backcountry skiers near Breckenridge

A steep and often icy trailhead parking lot outside of Breckenridge has been causing its fair share of safety concerns during ski season, so officials have decided it needs a new home.

In recent years, neighbors and law enforcement have been reporting an increase in incidents at the Laurium Trailhead parking lot as more people use it to backcountry ski and snowboard on Bald Mountain.

The 15-spot lot has a 14% grade and, at times, is over used, officials say. Neighbors near the lot say it’s not uncommon to see people double parking and blocking others in when it’s busy.

— Kit Geary

3. Colorado snow totals: Winter storm dumps more than 12 inches on 2 resorts that have yet to open

A winter storm pummeled the Colorado Rocky Mountains Sunday, Nov. 3, into Monday, Nov. 4, bringing well over a foot of snow to some of the region’s ski resorts.

Breckenridge Ski Resort and Copper Mountain – two Summit County ski resorts that are not yet open for the season – were the “big winners” in Sunday’s storm, OpenSnow founding meteorologist Joel Gratz wrote in a blog post Monday.

The snow stake at Copper Mountain received about 20 inches, which essentially maxed out the snow stake, according to OpenSnow. Meanwhile, at Breckenridge, the snow stake was buried in about 16 inches of snow.

— Summit Daily staff

4. ‘This really is coming home for me:’ Shannon Buhler returns to Summit County to lead Keystone Resort

Long before Shannon Buhler became the new vice president and general manager at Keystone Resort, she was a kid growing up in Summit County.

Buhler spent much of her adolescence exploring the resorts that are sprinkled throughout the county and competing for sports teams like Team Summit, but it was in California when she was just over a year old that she was introduced to the world of winter sports.

“My story started when I was really young,” Buhler said. “When I lived in California, I first got on skis when I was 14 months old. We lived in Wrightwood, California, next to a ski resort named Mountain High where my dad worked. I was always pretty tied into the ski industry.”

— Cody Jones

5. Ski season is underway in Colorado as Keystone Resort and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area open for the winter

Ski season is underway in Summit County after two resorts, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and Keystone Resort, began spinning their lifts Saturday morning, Nov. 2 — a slightly later start to the season than some years.

The Black Mountain Express began running at 8:12 a.m., making A-Basin the second ski area in Colorado to open for the 2024-25 winter season. Wolf Creek Ski Area near Pagosa Springs came in first when it opened on Oct. 22.

As a DJ played, skiers — some of them in goofy costumes – slid down High Noon. Meanwhile, the line at Keystone Resort’s River Run Gondola was electric as guests waited to get out on the 45 acres of skiable terrain when the resort opened at 9 a.m. 

“The start of every ski season is always an amazing experience,” Keystone Resort communications manager Max Winter said, “but there was something really special — with the sun shining, the music going — that made this just an incredible start to the season.”

— Ryan Spencer and Andrew Maciejewski


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