After getting snow a few times and hearing rumors for the past couple weeks of when it would happen, on October 15th it did, A-basin and Loveland both opened at 8:30 tying for the first non glacial ski area in north America to open (timberline being the exception). there were some shenanigans in this process, with Loveland posting that they'd open half hour earlier than their standard weekday hours, but A-basin pulled a fast one on those sneaky petes, and opened at the same time. Abasin had had the distinction the previous two years of first to open.

Before abasin opened, we had had to earn our turns by driving up the service on peak 9 of Breck, so 4th of July Bowl. more recently, this had turned from a slush cup to an ice sheet, and we knew we were ready for the season to kick off. here's some pics, the last couple with it snowing on the ice sheet:

Kolby claiming while Brian points.

Brian

Bennett heshing out.

Team Ryan

Brian with Ryan cole dancing

and here's our house with it's first snow, we surprisingly know people from the last two groups of renters, haha.

so back to the 15th. roll out in brian's impreza (though girls have been known to mistake it for a WRX, lol), pick up the crew of Kolby, Woody and Gus, and head to A-basin with a packed car. after picking up passes, and having an incident with fingers in a door (sorry gus) we made it there and got one of the last spots in early riser, AKA the beach, before they shut the gates. we met up with bobby and will, and skiing ensued. while both woody and I struggled with sharp edges catching, people threw down, and captured some of it on tape electing to film instead of ski most of the day. here's a little edit that came from this (sorry for quality, cineframe pisses me off, and quality was lost removing 3:2 and i dont know why it's not 16:9)

Opening Day Edit from Ryan van den Meerendonk on Vimeo.