Yesterday morning in his blog notes from the Continental Divide, Arapahoe Basin chief Alan Henceroth looked out at the snowmaking plumes burying the mountain and offered a four-word update that I flagged in this morning’s edition of The Beacon and Probe: “I am getting excited.”
Now I know why he was smiling.
At 7:45 AM Mountain Time this morning, Arapahoe Basin dropped the hammer and announced that lifts spin today, Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at 11:00 AM Mountain Time, or 1:00 PM Eastern. With that call, The Legend takes back the crown from neighboring Keystone as the first ski area in Colorado and the first outdoor chairlift in North America to open for the 2026 to 2027 winter season.
What Is Spinning Today on the Divide
If you are anywhere along the Front Range or up in Summit County with your skis tuned and your boots in the trunk, here is the opening-day layout at Loveland Pass:
First Chair: 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM Mountain Time today, followed by daily operations through the spring and summer.
Lift and Terrain: Black Mountain Express is spinning to serve the intermediate High Noon run down to the base area, while snowmaking crews keep working the upper and mid-mountain pitches as cold windows allow.
Base Area and Mug Club: 6th Alley Bar and Grill opened its doors at 9:00 AM Mountain Time for breakfast and annual Mug Club pickups while supplies last, with Black Mountain Lodge opening at mid-mountain this afternoon alongside live music and lift-line giveaways.
Parking: No parking reservations are needed today. Reservations at A-Basin only apply on weekends and holidays starting January 2 through May 2, 2027.
80th Anniversary Perks: Founded in 1946, A-Basin is kicking off its 80th season by offering Wednesday anniversary lift ticket specials all winter long, and any skier who is 80 years old skis free on Wednesdays.
As Henceroth put it in this morning’s announcement, turning 80 is a major milestone, and the crew up on the Divide remained a scrappy ski area that works fast and goes far together to get the season started ahead of everyone else.
Why the Opening-Day Race Still Matters
Every October, people who do not ski roll their eyes at the ritual of lining up for a single white ribbon of man-made snow flanked by autumn talus and brown tundra. Any skier who has stood in the Black Mountain Express maze in late October knows better.
Opening day on the Divide is not about skiing three thousand vertical feet of untracked powder. It is the starting gun for the entire North American winter. After one of the leanest western starts in memory last year, watching A-Basin’s snowmakers turn a string of cold October nights at 10,780 feet into a skiable top-to-bottom pitch before Halloween is the best piece of news on the mountain calendar.
If you cannot make it up Highway 6 before 11:00 AM Mountain Time today, you can watch the first chairs load live on our North American Ski Cameras Directory and track the next wave of Halloween weekend storms across Colorado and Utah on our Mountain Weather Desk.
The countdown is officially over. Check your beacon, point ‘em downhill, and drop in.
