Keystone, Copper postpone opening days due to warm weather

Keystone Resort indefinitely postponed its opening day on Friday, Oct. 31, due to the “unseasonably warm weather” in Colorado’s high country the last two weeks, Vail Resorts officials announced Tuesday morning. Later in the day, Copper Mountain followed suit, pushing its Oct. 31 opening day back until Friday, Nov. 7.

“Our top priority is to provide our guests with a superior early season product,” Keystone Vice President and COO John Buhler said in a press release. “We’re all eager to get in those first turns, but it’s a long season and we want to make sure we’re providing the best conditions and experience possible from day one.”

Copper Mountain officials said it was a tough decision to push back opening day by a week.

“Mother Nature is starting to release her hold on winter and we will have a great start to the 2014/15 season,” said Gary Rodgers, president and general manager of Copper Mountain. “Delaying Opening Day was a hard decision to make, but the quality of our snow surface and the experiences of our guests are most important.”

Arapahoe Basin, also in Summit County, opened for the season on Oct. 17. But nearby Loveland Ski Area, which also typically opens in mid-October, still has not announced an opening day.

A cold snap with a small amount of new snow above 10,000 feet helped with snowmaking operations Sunday and Monday, but it wasn’t enough for Keystone and Copper to stay on track for their planned Halloween openings.

Vail and Beaver Creek aren’t scheduled to open until Nov. 21 and 26 respectively.

Keystone will provide daily updates at http://www.keystoneresort.com/openingupdate and will announce a revised opening date as soon as possible.

The next chance of any precipitation is Sunday night, with forecasters calling for warm, dry weather the rest of the week.