YOUR AD HERE »

Winter has finally arrived: Heavy snowfall accelerates trail openings at Summit County ski areas

Breckenridge gives guests access to all 5 peaks, A-Basin opens up The Beavers, Copper plans to green light 2 chairlifts

Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
A skier gets some air while enjoying a snowy day at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area on Wednesday, Jan. 10.
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area

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 open at what mountains before they head out to the slopes.

After several weeks of impatiently waiting for a significant snowstorm to grace the Summit County area, significant snowfall has finally arrived.

A series of storms blanketed Summit’s ski areas with close to 10 inches of snow by Thursday morning, Jan. 11. With more snow in the forecast heading into the holiday weekend and well into next week, ski areas are swiftly dropping ropes to more terrain, sending skiers and riders to the slopes seeking fresh, powder-filled turns. 



All 5 peaks now open at Breckenridge Ski Resort  

Each winter, it is a huge milestone when Breckenridge Ski Resort opens up access to all five of its peaks. On Monday, Jan. 8, the ski resort officially reached that milestone when Peak 6’s Kensho Superchair started spinning, drastically expanding the resort’s terrain footprint and giving guests access to high-Alpine terrain.

“With the opening of Peak 6 on Monday, we are officially skiing and riding on all Five Peaks, and the new snow is helping us expand our footprint across the resort with new areas like the south side of Peak 8 and the south side of Peak 10 now open,” senior communications Sara Lococo said.



Breckenridge also opened up access to Peak 8’s 6-Chair. Although some of 6-Chair’s terrain has been open and accessible from the T-Bar, now skiers and riders can have direct, lift-served access to it daily.

Breckenridge is steadily working toward opening up more terrain and will focus on the terrain that surrounds the Imperial Superchair and more high Alpine areas in the immediate future.

Lococo and Breckenridge encourages powder hounds this weekend to plan ahead so they can make the most of their time at the resort and to carpool whenever possible. For more trip tips, visit Breckenridge.com.

Guests at Breckenridge Ski Resort were treated to 10 inches of snow between Monday to Thursday morning.
Breckenridge Ski Resort/Courtesy photo

Keystone prepares to drop ropes to a swath of trails

With the opening of Bergman Bowl and several other trails, Keystone Resort has steadily pulled ahead as the Summit County ski area with the most of its mountain open. Currently sitting with 72% of it’s in-bound terrain open, Keystone continues to drop ropes on swaths of terrain across its three peaks.

Diamondback trail is on schedule to open this weekend, offering an alternative route down the backside of Dercum Mountain for advanced skiers. The resort is also preparing to open Beger, Jaybird, and Modest Girl on the frontside of Dercum.

In terms of opening up Starfire trail, a crowd-favorite run at the resort, communications manager Max Winter said it takes some extra time to open it each season because of the pitch of the run and the way it faces the sun.

“Starfire is a long, groomed, steep and mostly sun-facing pitch,” Winter said. “For that reason, it takes our snowmaking teams a bit of extra time to get the run ready to open, and some high winds have made our operations a little more challenging. With that said, we’re seeing great progress and expect Starfire to be open for the season some time in the next week.”

With The Outback now fully open for the season, Keystone plans to turn its focus to Erickson Bowl and The Windows. Guests are encouraged to explore trails in The Outback and in the resort’s high Alpine bowls throughout the snowy weekend ahead.

Copper Mountain Resort/Courtesy photo
A snowboarder does a powder slash while riding at Copper Mountain Resort on Thursday, Jan. 11.
Copper Mountain Resort/Courtesy photo

Copper plans to begin running Blackjack and Mountain Chief chairlifts

Heading into the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, Copper Mountain Resort is excited to start spinning two new lifts for the first time this winter.

According to senior communications manager Loryn Roberson, Copper plans to open up the Blackjack and Mountain Chief lifts that will allow access to trails like Rattler, Alicante, Otto Bahn, Six Shooter, Matchless and Colorado Blvd.

The resort also is also planning to open Union Meadows, which offers access to approximately 300 acres of terrain. As the snow continues to fall and terrain continues to expand, Copper is asking guests to please respect all signage and closures. 

After this storm cycle, Copper will turn its sights to opening areas like Celebrity Ridge, Union Peak and Tucker Mountain.

Shelby Reardon/Summit Daily News

A-Basin’s unveils The Beavers and Pallavicini terrain 

Last week, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area officially concluded its snowmaking for the season since the ski area can only divert water up until Dec. 31. 

Now relying primarily on natural snowfall, The Beavers was A-Basin’s main focus last week, but the ski area had no timeline for when the 300-acre area of intermediate to advanced terrain would officially open to the public. 

With a couple inches of snowfall on Monday night, Jan. 8, A-Basin opened up The Beavers to the public on Tuesday morning, allowing guests to have access to the rolling groomers, steep chutes and glade runs that make up the terrain area.

The Beavers were quickly followed by the opening of Pallavicini terrain with Pali Face and The Alleys on Wednesday, Jan. 10. 

“Next, we’re looking towards Zuma Bowl,” communications manager Shayna Silverman said. “I can’t emphasize enough how much work our team did this week, really capitalizing on this storm and catching us up.”

As of Thursday afternoon, A-Basin had received 8 inches in the past 48 hours with 19 more inches expected over the next five days, according to meteorologists with OpenSnow.


Be more informed in 2025.

Sign up for daily or weekly newsletters at SummitDaily.com/newsletter


New trails open at Loveland

Over the last week, Loveland Ski Area has dropped ropes on six new trails. New trails include Excelleration off of Chet’s Dream, Lift 6’s North Blackjack, Dealer’s Choice, Deuces Wild and Forest Meadow and Bennett’s Bowl off of the Ptarmigan Lift. 

In addition to the package of new terrain openings, the Loveland Ski Area ski patrol team has opened up Cat’s Meow for directed skiing. 

The run, which is located off of Chet’s Dream, is not fully open for the season, but with more snow in the forecast, Loveland says there will be more opportunities to access the trail and other expert terrain in the near future.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.