http://arapahoebasin.com/ABasin/snow-conditions/the-basin-411.aspx

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/13407114-113/basin-ski-area-opening

It is taking every ounce of saneness that I have to not leave work now and buy a ticket to DEN.  I guess I could drive and be there by the first chair.  It would probably only take 18-20 hours from Columbus.

Competition for the country's first chair is pretty heavy. Unless you're prepared to get in line , maybe as early at 6 pm the night before, first chair will be unattainable.

The season did open yesterday, and lots of people were there. For me, no -- 600 ft of vert ain't worth the effort, but for lots of people, it was. In Colorado, first chair in the nation is a big deal.

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/13433742-113/dogggg-nate-chair-basin

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/13427195-113/dogggg-sleeping-chair-nate

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/13429192-113/arapahoe-basin-2014-15-black

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/13421911-113/basin-opening-season-ski

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/13433465-113/basin-vaille-season-facebook

I'm amazed to report that Loveland has not yet opened. This has to be the latest Loveland has opened in at least 2 decades.

Keystone and Copper are supposed to open on Friday. The Keystone webcam shows a pathetically small amount of snow on River Run for the last 600 feet down from the top. I doubt that they can get enough snow down in three days (and then move it around) to allow River Run to be open at 9 am on Friday. In the past Keystone has opened the frontside top to bottom on opening day. I'm guessing that won't be the case on Friday. I'm guessing that we'll be looking at gondola downloading to end the day, with only the upper 1700 feet of vert open off the Montezuma lift.

I have to be in Colorado anyway on Thursday, so I'll notch my first day of October skiing since 1993. That was a the year I committed to skiing at least one day every month of the year. 1993/1994 was an intersting year filled with broken wrists while snowboarding, separated shoulders in July at Timberline (OR), and knee damage to end my 12 consectuive months of skiing. I'm tempted to try to repeat the "ski at least one day every month of the year" thingy -- hopefully without the injuries that were part of the first successful attempt at doing that.

Well, Keystone has just announced that it will NOT be opening on the announced 10/31 date -- no new date has been announced.

and Copper has also slipped it's opening -- not 10/31 anymore -- but 11/7

and Loveland STILL hasn't announced a date. If it makes it to November 1 or later -- that's probably a record latest modern history (since the advent of snowmaking) opening date

I really don't want to ski 600' of vert at the Basin on Friday, but it appears that's all I will get.

This is getting downright revolting...

Bob, I'm trying hard to feel sorry for you :)

Yet, A-Basin's marketing is getting better and better every day:

http://arapahoebasin.blogspot.com/2014/10/lousy-pictures.html

I'm in boulder at a meeting right now.  Flew into Denver from SF on Mon and saw a big recent dump of snow in the mountains..  It's probably highly orographic, most early season snows are.

Two updates to the thread:

1) Loveland announced that it plans to open on Saturday.  I don't believe them. I drove by Loveland yesterday afternoon and the area leading to the bottom of chair one maybe had 5 inches of snow on it - with some grass showing. It didn't look like it had been groomed. I think they'll need to blow lots more snow AND then groom it in the final 36 hours. Te problem is it was 60 degrees yesterday, and it's upposed to be 60 degrees today. I don't think it got cold enough to blow much snow last night, and it probably won't tonight.

2) Keystone is now talking about opening the upper 3/4 of the hill with end of  day downloading on the gondola. That would be a first. They just aren't able to blow much snow on the bottom 600 fett of vert - courtesy the warm temps. No date announced as of this morning.

Normally by November 1 the county has had one or two relatively large snows. Not this year. I hope that doesn't say something about the rest of the season.