A big storm hit the Colorado skifields during the week. Vail (North America’s largest single-mountain resort) has had 175cm of snow so far this season, leaving a base of 60cm for skiing. Vail has opened 270 hectares of the resort. It is being seen as the best season opening for decades, a bit like the season just passed in Australia, but equivalent to the season starting in mid-May.
The falling Australian dollar makes lift-ticket prices a bit grim. $62 pre-season rising to $122 a day in peak season at Vail and Beaver Creek, and slight lower at Breckenridge and Keystone. But you get a vertical drop of 1000m at Vail and 1200m at Breckenridge.