{"id":97066,"date":"2018-11-20T16:10:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T23:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-opens-to-one-of-best-snowpacks-ever-manager-says\/"},"modified":"2018-11-20T16:10:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T23:10:51","slug":"purgatory-opens-to-one-of-best-snowpacks-ever-manager-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-opens-to-one-of-best-snowpacks-ever-manager-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Purgatory opens to one of best snowpacks ever, manager says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Purgatory
Purgatory Resort owner James Coleman, center back, and his wife, Tonia Coleman, far left, celebrate first chair on Saturday morning with, from left, Tyler Jasmer, 17; Ty Matthys, 16; Ashby Lake, 8; Romeo Wilson, 8; Brad Strong, 17; and AJ Raeo, 15, on Lift One on opening day.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tyler Jasmer was stoked. It was the day before<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a first time, but it\u2019s going to be a tradition,\u201d Jasmer said.<\/p>\n

About three dozen people waited behind Jasmer and his friends Saturday morning at the base of Purgatory for a lift to the top of the mountain, the first time such a trip was possible on opening day for at least three years.<\/p>\n

Dave Rathbun, general manager, said although he\u2019s new to the resort, he thinks this is one of Purgatory\u2019s best opening days ever. Eighteen inches of snow packed seven trails that formed a path from top to bottom, including the Columbine beginners run, which was open for the first time ever on opening day.<\/p>\n

\"The
The first chairs of the season head up the mountain at Purgatory Resort on Saturday morning on opening day.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt feels like a great morning, and it\u2019s quite a mix of customers,\u201d Rathbun said. \u201cWe had everything from our hardcore park riders and I saw half a dozen families with kids renting skis.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least one of those hardcore park riders also stood at the front of the line waiting for a lift to the top. His name is Romeo Wilson, a 9-year-old, nationally ranked park skier. Romeo was up on the mountain the night before opening day and asked his father if he could stay with Jasmer and his friends camping in the lift line. But his father, Gabriel Wilson, said no.<\/p>\n

\"Purgatory
Purgatory Resort snowmakers worked almost nonstop covering ski runs so the resort could open Saturday morning.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That doesn\u2019t mean the younger Wilson was any less excited for the day. Saturday marked the beginning of Wilson\u2019s seventh season \u2013 he\u2019s been skiing since he was 3 years old, his father said. And Romeo has big plans for this year: land a backflip, take regionals and hopefully, do the same at nationals.<\/p>\n

Romeo had a great opportunity to start practicing Saturday at Purgatory. Cold, dry nights have made for great snowmaking conditions, Rathbun said. New snowmaking machines use less energy to turn water into ice crystals, making it easier for the mountain to make more snow. While there hasn\u2019t been much natural snow in the region, unlike other parts of Colorado, Rathbun said the snowmaking teams did a good job getting the mountain ready for opening day.<\/p>\n

\"Chase
Chase Wylie, and his brother Reese Wylie, 6, from Albuquerque, get their first day on snow during opening day at Purgatory Resort on Saturday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cYou gotta take what Mother Nature gives you,\u201d Rathbun said. \u201cWe\u2019re open now, and that\u2019s what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purgatory is now open every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until mid-April.<\/p>\n

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

mountain north of Durango is open from peak to base<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6328,6313],"tags":[4259,712,1660],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2-more-sports","category-sports-2","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-purgatory","tag-snowboarding"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97066","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=97066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97066"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}