Open ski season? An open question

So now it's Thanksgiving. Nearly December. The start of the holiday shopping season. And as good a time as any to ask, "When does the ski season start, really?"

Sure, technically - theoretically - the ski season started Oct. 15, when Loveland and Arapahoe Basin each opened a slender ribbon of man-made snow to the ski-starved masses willing to pay $44 for a couple of overcrowded runs. And Keystone and Copper and Breck followed suit Nov. 7, opening what little they could.

But come on. Last week it was 73 degrees in the Springs. People were wearing shorts and flip-flops. That ain't ski season.

Now, obviously, 73-degree late-November weather is an anomaly. But ski purists never get excited about the slopes until early December. In some years, January. After all, it's not really ski season until ... well, until what?

We asked dedicated local skiers and snowboarders how they decide when the time is right to get serious about the snow:

Jeff Meyer, a Summit County pro snowboarder who has been the first person on the chairlift opening day every year since 2002- "I think the season starts when the resort is 100 percent open. Think about it: It closes with 100 percent of the area available. This preseason stuff is fun, but not until there is top-to-bottom powder does the season start.

Real Coloradans should know that the ski season is Jan. 2 to May. Start late, end late. That's when it's good. Preseason is good for warming up the muscles for when it counts."

Rick Uhl, owner of The Ski Shop- "Normally, the first time I shovel my driveway, I'm ready to go."

Mike Miller, manager at Mountain Chalet- "When I come into the store and I smell the wax. All the sudden, one day I'm like, ‘Oh, the waxer's on.' I'm not too antsy about it quite yet - you go up to the ski resorts, everybody's fighting to get down the two runs that are open, the white ribbon of death."

Brian Fasterling, president of the Sno-Jets Ski Club- "For me, personally, it's when I take my snowbike down off the storage hooks in the garage and start fiddling with all the lights and sirens on it to make sure it's ready to dazzle on the slopes. I may not have been any further west than I-25 at the time, and it may still be 65 degrees here in town, and my golf clubs may still be in the back of the car so as to be prepared for any spontaneous golf emergencies I may happen upon, but once the bike is off the hooks ... oh, sorry, I drifted off for a moment there as I was vicariously chasing my snowbiking friends through the trees on a great powder day."

Jon Easdon, owner of Blindside ski and snowboard shop- "I've been up eight times already. I'm ready as soon as it ends."

And here's what Out There readers had to say on the Out There blog:

• "Ski season starts when the police in Alma on Colorado Highway 9 start manning the speed trap."

• "Ski season starts when you and your friends invite each other at the same moment for a trip! That moment means there is powder enough and everything is waxed!"

• "The season starts when you have that first run with a little fresh snow, 6-8 inches or more and the true feeling of skiing hits you harder then catching your heel edge at high speed. This is when every part of skiing makes sense, the drive, the cold, the lines, the cigarette smoke from the chair in front of you, the absurd prices, all the people with their pants around their ankles in the middle of winter, all this doesn't matter when you have that first moment of floating down the mountain ... BTW, the sound of avalanche bombs gets me really excited about skiing as well."

• "Ski season starts when the free parking lot at Breck is full by the time you get there at 8:10 a.m. and you have to pay to park."

• "Since I rarely go to the areas it starts for me when there is enough snow to slide up a backcountry Jeep trail into the great white beyond."

• "Ski season starts when the good Earth provides, but not before. I'm not into the man-made stuff."

• "Skiing is about soul ... the season starts when Ullr provides enough fluff to stoke your spirit and put a grin on your face."

• "You are all wrong. Ski season starts when riff-raff like all you idiots get up here and start colliding into people. (Which normally means Christmas week - maybe sooner with this new pass)."

• "Ski season never ends. Just rests between turns."

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0275 or awineke@gazette.com

What's open, what's not:

Loveland, A-Basin - Oct. 15
Keystone, Copper, Breckenridge - Nov. 7
Wolf Creek - Nov. 14
Vail, Winter Park - Nov. 21
Crested Butte, Steamboat - Opened Wednesday Nov. 26
Monarch Mountain, Ski Cooper - Dec. 5
Ski Cooper, Aspen, Snowmass - Today (snow permitting) Nov. 27
Silverton Mountain - Saturday Nov. 29
Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk - Dec. 13