Frosty rolls in

The big freeze is on. Friday night’s forecast from the National Weather Service is/was calling for a low of minus seven degrees in Aspen, with wind chill values as low as minus 20. Whoa. That’s cold. Saturday is not expected to be much of a picnic, either.

The forecast is calling for a high near 30 degrees on Saturday, but is also saying that wind chill values could be as low as minus 25 (!) degrees, which seems weird, but believable after the last two days of severe nipperlyness. I could see it feeling like minus 25 degrees around 5 a.m. on Saturday if the wind was really up. And indeed, the winds are expected to be out of the south between 5 and 20 miles per hour on Saturday. So heck, bring the face mask and the full down body suit.

Then there is some snow in the forecast, with one to two inches in the forecast for Saturday night and another two to four inches on Sunday, with a high of 22 degrees. By the sound of the forecast, we could see more snow than that moving into next week, as the weather service is saying that “it appears all the necessary ingredients will be present for substantial and widespread snowfall.” Just love that kind of talk. And at least one local hill rat is thinking Monday morning is going to be good.

This week saw Copper Bowl open up on Aspen Mountain, providing two routes off the top. And the Sam’s Knob lift is expected to open Saturday in Snowmass, although the lift will primariy access Banzai Ridge and not the runs directly below the Knob toward Campground. Sam’s Smokehouse will also open.

The Aspen/Snowmass area was doing pretty well in the “Colorado Terrain Derby” on Friday. Between Aspen Mountain and the Snowmass Ski Area, it had 693 acres open, with 200 on Aspen Mountain and 493 at Snowmass. On Friday, A-Basin had 130 acres open, Beaver Creek had 368 and Breckenridge had 374 acres open. Crested Butte had 118 while Vail had 413 acres and Steamboat had 134 acres open. Hopefully the winter storm will grace all of the Colorado areas with snow and based on the forecast, that may well happen.