We are excited to open ahead of Thanksgiving for the first time since 2020!  Looking back historically at the more than fifty years of records I have access to, we have opened prior to the holiday weekend about 70% of the time.  It’s just been a bit of a delayed start these last few seasons.  So, it’s good to be back on track!

As I have mentioned for the last few weeks, the strong upslope component of our big storm a few weeks ago has deposited snow a little differently from how we typically start the season.  As a result, this will be a unique opening with some different lift and trail offerings for our first weekend.

For lift access, we will be running the Caterpillar, Garfield, Pioneer, and Tumbelina lifts.  It’s been a long time since we have been able to open the Garfield lift on opening weekend, so that is definitely a bonus!  The terrain on Panorama and Breezeway will need a few more storm days to open additional trails here.  We will work to move this direction as soon as we can.

For anyone who golfs, I’m sure they have played the back nine.  We will be doing something similar this weekend as Sleepy Hollow is still too thin for us to open at this time.  So, when unloading the Garfield and Pioneer lifts, the “backside trails” will be open that lead down to Lower Tango and the bottom terminals of these two lifts.  Of course, we will have a whole new set of backside trails next year with the opening of No Name Basin, so we may need to rethink this nickname.

To summarize, we plan to open four lifts and 20 designated trails.  Here are the trails that will be open this weekend:

From the Garfield and Pioneer Lifts:  

Green/Easiest:  Drifter, Liberty, Lower Tango, Roundabout, Sidewinder

Blue/Intermediate: North Forty, Romp, Tele Alley, Toddler

Black/Advanced: Gunbarrel, Short Circuit, Upper/Middle Tango

From the Tumbelina Lift:

Green/Easiest: Little Joe, Lower Glade, Rookie

Blue/Intermediate: Beeline, Freeway, Lower No Name

From the Caterpillar Lift:

Green/Easiest: Butterfly, Snowflake

Rest up and we’ll see you on the slopes tomorrow!!