On the weekend of November 16-17, Aspen Mountain opened early for the weekend, thanks to the incredible amounts of snow lately. On Saturday the 16^th, it was dumping snow all day long, which made it a great opening day with lots of powder skiing.

“It was definitely the best opening day ever because it was snowing all day and it was just a fun time,” sophomore Giovanni Velasquez said.

Aspen Mountain had over fifteen runs open for the first weekend of skiing, and also had over ten inches of fresh powder on Sunday morning. There were only two lifts open, along with the gondola. On Saturday, it was not as crowded as Sunday because Saturday was a flat light day, and Sunday was a blue sky day. There were a ton of people from up and down the Roaring Fork Valley that came to Aspen to come enjoy the special early skiing weekend.

“I took the bus from El Jebel all the way to Aspen just so I could go skiing with friends for the day,” sophomore Nick Hanle said.

November 23rd is when Aspen Mountain and Snowmass opened for the rest of the ski season. Then on December 14^th, Highlands and Buttermilk open for the season. A lot of people are excited that Snowmass is open because it has a little bit of everything, and it is one of the two mountains that have terrain parks.

Overall this season is looking very promising, with two of the local four mountains opening earlier than usual. With the crazy amounts of snow, it will be a great season for a powder skiing.