It’s snowtime! Loveland kicks off Colorado’s ski season with a pre-Halloween opening

Early-bird snow hounds may want to head to Colorado soon.

Loveland Ski Area, about an hour west of Denver in Arapahoe National Forest near Georgetown, plans to open at 9 a.m. Thursday, making it the first resort in Colorado to open this season, its website says.

Skiers and boarders who want to be first in the chair on opening day have been camped out in the resort’s parking lot since Monday, Fox 31 Denver reported Tuesday.

A cold snap dropped 17 inches of snow last week at Loveland, and temperatures were cold enough to rev up the snowmaking machines.

The resort will continue to make snow at the base of the mountain but “coverage up top is outstanding,� spokesman Rob Goodell writes on the website.

Loveland will run Lift 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday with one top-to-bottom run. After that, it will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends.

At least one other Colorado ski resort will follow suit with the early opening. Keystone Resort received about a foot of snow last week and plans to open Nov. 6.

Breckenridge plans to open Nov. 13, Vail Ski Resort plans to open Nov. 20, and Aspen and Snowmass have a projected Nov. 26 opening date.

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