{"id":25216,"date":"2024-10-21T18:26:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T00:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wolf-creek-kicking-off-its-85th-year-slated-to-be-first-ski-resort-in-the-u-s-to-open\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:13:05","slug":"wolf-creek-kicking-off-its-85th-year-slated-to-be-first-ski-resort-in-the-u-s-to-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wolf-creek-kicking-off-its-85th-year-slated-to-be-first-ski-resort-in-the-u-s-to-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolf Creek, kicking off its 85th year, slated to be first ski resort in the U.S. to open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Wolf
Wolf Creek Ski Area is scheduled to open Tuesday making it the first resort in the nation to start spinning lifts. The ski area received 26 inches of snow over the weekend. (Courtesy of Wolf Creek Ski Area)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wolf Creek Ski Area, the beloved independent resort on the Continental Divide northeast of Pagosa Springs, is slated to be the first ski resort in the U.S.<\/a> to open this year. The ski area announced Monday that lifts would start spinning <\/a>Tuesday following a weekend storm that left slopes covered with more than 2 feet of snow.<\/p>\n

The ski area, which celebrates its 85th season this year, is typically in competition with Araphoe Basin and Keystone Resort to start the bullwheels. Both resorts are busy snowmaking, according to social media <\/a>and news reports<\/a>, and neither has announced an opening date.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re busy skiing powder,\u201d said Wolf Creek CEO Davey Pitcher on Tuesday morning in between runs on the Treasure Stoke chairlift.<\/p>\n

The resort sits in a sort of catcher\u2019s mitt for winter storms and enjoys the honorific of the resort that receives the most snow in Colorado. Wolf Creek has not fired up snowmaking operations yet this season.<\/p>\n

Three lifts will start running Tuesday, opening access to about 30% of the mountain\u2019s terrain. About a dozen trails are machine-groomed. Pitcher said the first 21 inches of snow was heavy and supportive, while an additional 5 inches deposited Sunday night left a lighter layer on the surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remaining cold and just beautiful,\u201d Pitcher said. \u201cThe groomers have done a great job of knocking down a bunch of it, and then we got the 5 inches on top. So, we\u2019re very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weather on the pass is forecast to be clear with temperatures reaching the mid-40s during the day, according to the National Weather Service. <\/a><\/p>\n

The three lifts will be open daily every week and the price of lift tickets will be set at the resort\u2019s \u201cLocal Appreciation Rates\u201d: $68 for adults, $49 for seniors and $34 for children. Pitcher said he expects the discounted rates to remain in effect \u201cfor a little while,\u201d until the next major storm hits.<\/p>\n

Purgatory Resort has announced plans<\/a> to open Nov. 18. Further north, Silverton Mountain posted pictures<\/a> of \u201cearly-season product testing\u201d over the weekend, but is not scheduled<\/a> to open until late December.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center is also putting early season skiers on notice after backcountry skiers triggered a small avalanche<\/a> north of Silverton on Sunday. Daily avalanche forecasts will begin Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

announced Monday it would begin daily operations Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,28,1164,372],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-headlines","tag-snow","tag-wolf-creek-ski-area"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78848,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25216\/revisions\/78848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25216"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}