I spent Tuesday and Wednesday exploring what is open as far as the early season snow goes.  Tuesday (11/11) two friends and I took off for Breckenridge.  We took the gondola up, then a chair lift to arrive on a crowded hill around 10:30am.  Once on the hill it quickly became a game of dodge.  With so many on the one run, safety became a concern.  This changed however around 12, or 1pm, and it soon became the opposite.  No one was around and we seemed to have the whole run to ourselves.  Whether folks had work, or thought it was too busy, either way after 12pm is the time to go.  Did I mention that it had been snowing this whole time and the run had only gotten better, not to mention all the snow making that was going on.  We enjoyed this change till about 4pm, when we realized that the last lift was the only way down.

On Wednesday (11/12) myself and another friend took off about the same time, but not to the same place.  Some buddies had been talking good about Keystone, so we thought we would try it out.  It was more like 11am when we pulled up and parked.  The gondola here was much different, it is the only way up the hill.  However it soon looked like much of the same.  One run covered with skiers and snowboarders, and tons of snow making equipment. The day began with us playing it safe.  Then around 12pm just like before, everyone took off.  The afternoon was great, a good park, an empty hill and no lift lines.  Oh did I mention it had been snowing all day again, and the conditions were great.  We had a blast until 4pm when we rode to the bottom and to our car.

Although this sounds like any apres-ski conversation you would hear in any bar in any ski town, there are some good points to take away:

(1) Any early season skiing or snowboarding is best left until the afternoon, 11am or later.

(2) It has been snowing, and snowing good for the past two days at about 10 thousand feet or higher.

(3) All the mountains have been making a lot of snow, including Vail.  So expect to see more terrain open this weekend, 11/14 and later.  With all this good stuff going on we should see Vail open on time and in great form!