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Beaver Creek gets most snow of area resorts for opening; Vail opens Christmas run

Beaver Creek greeted guests earlier than originally targeted with its Saturday opening this year.

And it proved to be not a moment too soon as crowds flocked to the area to enjoy the foot or so of fresh snow that blanketed area mountains over the past few days.

Powdery conditions greeted Opening Day crowds at Beaver Creek; the resort reported the most snow of any ski area in the northern part of the state in the week leading up to Saturday’s debut, recording a total of 14 inches.



Winter schedule

At the foot of the mountain, the town of Avon was quick to adjust to the early opening, pivoting to its winter bus schedule Saturday.

Getting out for some turns in the afternoon, Avon Bakery & Deli co-owner Mark Strickland was able to reach the mountain from the town core with minimal headaches.

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“I cracked the code,” he said, taking the Blue Line to the Elk Lot before boarding the Beaver Creek shuttle to the top.

Avon’s skier shuttles also began picking up guests from Avon Station Saturday, taking them directly to Beaver Creek Village twice per hour.

Ungroomed terrain

Avon resident Spencer Dickens arrived at Beaver Creek at 2 a.m. to secure her first-chair spot. She was first in line.

“I shot for it last year and didn’t get it,” she said. “This year I was like ‘I need to be the first one.’”

She was joined by Vail local Cesar Hermosillo, who said he has been on Beaver Creek’s first chair six of the last nine years.

Hermosillo said he was excited to find ungroomed terrain on the Latigo run.

“They were opening pieces of it as we were taking laps; we kept getting nice powdery runs,” Hermosillo said. “The snow was soft, very cruisy.”

A snowboarder enjoys the Opening Day snow at Beaver Creek on Saturday.
Beaver Creek | Special to the Daily

As the day went on, Hermosillo said he found the bottom portion of the run getting more and more crowded so he decided to go to Vail.

“At Beaver Creek the lift line was nothing, but the run started getting crowded near the bottom,” he said. “At Vail the runs were totally uncrowded, but the lift line was long, so it was the opposite experience. Good skiing at both, though, glad I got to each of them.”

At Vail, the Christmas run opened on Saturday, which makes the whole Chair 4 bowl from Christmas to Ramshorn open, minus the double black run nicknamed “Chair 4 Cliffs” under the liftline.


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