Club Colorado  

So I decided at the late Saturday night to zip up to Loveland for a few turns on Sunday morning. (That’s Day 2 for me, if you’re counting at home.) After sleeping in (you can do that in October and no worry about ski traffic), I picked up a friend, stopped for bagels and coffee and cruised up to Loveland. We buzzed the groomed terrain on the Catwalk, Mambo and Home Run trails, all the while looking toward the top of the mountain and thinking about a day later this winter when we’ll ski the copious amounts of deep powder off of Chair 9.

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When Arapahoe Basin opened for the 2008-2009 season at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, the first seat on the Challenger chair lift was wrapped in a blue blow and dedicated to Edna Dercum, one of the founding members of A-Basin back in 1946. Dercum passed away in September at the age of 94, after spending much of her life skiing in Colorado.

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It’s 5:45 a.m. when I finish loading my car and pull out of my driveway in Boulder. The sky is dark but there is an ambient glow from the brilliant full moon hovering overhead.

I remind my drowsy self that I could easily sleep for another hour before starting what might be a typical work day.

But it’s Opening Day at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland and, while I’m not a zealot who has any intention of getting on one of the first few chairs of the season, I’m super-stoked about skiing for the first time since last March. More on that in a moment …

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In most places, the middle of October means baseball playoffs, football games and colored leaves fall from trees. But in Colorado it means the start of the ski and snowboard season. And today was Opening Day, baby!

Skiing in October is a Colorado phenomenon and a rite of passage for many of the diehards who live here. If you just couldn’t wait to break in your shiny new season pass or new gear or whatever, it meant you either called in sick, showed up late or just plain blew off work, school, family and various other responsibilities in order to get back on snow. A-Basin and Loveland opened at 8:30 a.m. with throngs of skiers and snowboarders eager to make some turns.

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Let the race begin! With the 2008-09 ski season just around the corner here in Colorado both Loveland Ski Area and Arapahoe Basin are well on their way to starting off the season with a bang. Both resorts have begun snowmaking in preparation to be the first ski resort open in the state of Colorado, and in the nation. We are getting excited to start cruising down the slopes again, and we’ve got out skis waxed up and ready for their first taste of snow for the new season.

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