The following was brought to us by Claudia Carbone, a ski and travel journalist.
It’s snowing in Colorado. Finally. After a tense first few months of the season, most people were wondering if we were in for a long-term drought. Not me. As a Colorado native, I know what happens in the mountains around here in winter and it’s not golf.
Crested Butte
Though the late start this season gave me pauseit was the latest I can rememberthere were other years when the snow took its time in arriving. In 1987, it wasn’t until late November that the resorts received the first flakes. I was writing a ski column then for The Villager Newspaper. My column Skiing is Believing in mid-November was titled “Does no snow mean no show?”
It started: I’m beginning to look a little silly, writing a column about skiing when so many of you are still fine-tuning your golf game and reserving outdoor tennis courts. As I write this with visions of snowflakes dancing in my head, the temperature outside is 72 degrees, the sun is laughing at me and there’s not a hint of moisture in the air.”
Loveland_Dustin_Schaefer
No sooner had that been published, Denver and the mountains were hit with a gigantic storm the night of the Denver Ski Ball, as I recall, making travel treacherous around the city.
Then there was the drought of 1976-77. That year, the dry fall extended into a drier winter, forcing many ski areas to close. The following year, in an effort not to be caught with their slopes bare, most major Colorado ski areas invested in extensive snowmaking, a practice that continues today.
Snow comes to the high country. . .sometimes we just have to wait for it, which makes it all the sweeter when it arrives!
Wolf Creek
