Arapahoe Basin celebrated its 80th year Wednesday by becoming the first resort in Colorado and all of North America to begin operations for the 2026-2027 winter. What’s great about it is they snuck the whole opening by everybody.
On Tuesday, the resort posted a short note: “OPENING DAY ASAP BUT TBD” The as soon as possible designation had been the only thing close to a timeline A-Basin had shared in recent weeks as temps dropped and resorts started to fire up snow guns across the country. Even as speculation spread about neighboring Keystone opening over the weekend of October 24 — a guess, at best, by the fact that Keystone had made lift tickets available for the date without announcing plans to open. A-Basin’s ticket portal had no tickets available until November 1. The resort shared another message hours later on Tuesday giving a simple shoutout to its snowmaking crew and another “ASAP” reminder.
And then, suddenly, everybody woke up Wednesday morning to news that Opening Day had arrived. The resort shared an announcement on social media, sent out a news release, and updated its website and blog: “WE WILL OPEN FOR WINTER AT 11AM ON OCTOBER 28!”
“Turning 80 is a major milestone, and we just couldn’t wait to get the anniversary season started,” Arapahoe Basin President and COO Alan Hencerorth said in a news release. “We’re still a scrappy ski area that works fast, goes far, and does it together — that’s what allowed us to open so quickly, and we couldn’t be more excited to invite you all back.”
According to POWDER, Ski Ward in Massachusetts did open up one of its bunny slopes over the weekend, but the ski area is not officially operational for the winter. They are currently closed until further notice, POWDER says. That makes A-Basin the true first U.S. resort to kick off operations for winter 2026-2027.
