Ski resorts ready to fire up the snow guns

FRISCO - Sitting at her desk at the Loveland Ski Area, employees like Kathryn Johnson are being treated to a ringing racket from a chorus of phones buzzing to life.
It's still the morning hours of September 24. Most of the calls are from excited skiers wanting to know when the ski area will open.

"We get phone calls, e-mails, they want to know when we'll open, if we're making snow and how much snow we're making," said Johnson.

The ski season sirens are a result of the weather, which had temperatures dropping in the high country along with snowflakes, thanks to a late September snowstorm.

"We're getting a little bit of dusting from Mother Nature, which definitely gets everyone in the mood a little quicker," said Johnson.

For snowmakers like Mark Abrahanson, the weather means he has just enough time check his snowmaking equipment.

"It's a test right now. We're just making sure everything is running," said Abrahanson.

Then, he flicks a switch, lifts a lever and gives the thumbs up sign as one gun screams to life, hurling water into the cool air were it instantly turns to snow,

"Looks like this weekend and this week will be our first opportunity to make some snow," said Abrahanson.

If all goes well with snowmaking and Mother Nature, Loveland plans on opening at least one run by mid-to-late October, a time Arapahoe Basin shoots for as well.

Annually, the two ski areas race to see who gets the honor of opening the ski season. Last year A-Basin won, so snowmakers at Loveland are hungry to regain the title.

"The race is on, but the important thing is that we get open so people can come up and ski," said Abrahanson.

Copper Mountain also plans on firing up their snow guns the same night as Loveland, but at Copper, the race to get a run open is for ski race teams training for the season. The resort doesn't plan on opening to the public until early November.