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BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (KDVR) — On Friday morning, the first skiers of the season will head up the mountain at Breckenridge. With so little snow coming naturally in recent weeks, opening day is made possible almost entirely by snow guns and grounds crews.
“Our teams have been working so hard despite the temperatures Mother Nature has thrown our way to get this mountain ready for opening day,” Breckenridge Communications Manager Max Winter said.
Breckenridge’s Springmaier trail will have skiers and snowboarders gliding down it on Friday. Breck opened on nearly the same day a year ago, but to about two feet of fresh snow.
This year, things look a little different.
“These snow guns have really made all the difference,” Winter said.
While the peaks have a dusting of natural snow, almost all of it on the trail is artificial. New guns installed this summer are the key to being able to open this early, each with its own weather station to sense when conditions for snow making are right.
“So the moment that we see the right humidity in the air, the right ambient temperature to make snow, we can turn those suckers on immediately,” Winter said.
Grounds crews are also putting in maximum effort to turn what little they have to work with into skiable terrain.
“Early mornings, long nights, working so hard and so passionately to get this mountain ready,” Winter said.
And the skiers appreciate it. Several, like Shawn Dawes and Tom Hoffman, were already camped out in tents on Thursday afternoon to be the first up the lift.
“This was all dirt about a week ago, so they’ve done an outstanding job just getting it open for us,” Dawes said.
Each of them feels thankful that even with little snow in sight, they’ll still be able to hit the slopes in the morning.
“We’re here, snow’s here. Even if it’s just a little bit, we’re just gonna have a good time,” Hoffman said.
Breckenridge opens on Friday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m.
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Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
