FRISCO, Colo. – Most of the snow on ski slopes in the mountains this holiday season has been made by machines, rather than falling from the sky, but that hasn’t kept crowds away, and a storm could bring a real boost of snow soon.
“The good news is we do have some stormy weather on the way, and that includes some snow for our northern and central mountains Friday night into Saturday night,” said Denver7 meteorologist Stacey Donaldson. “We could see potentially up to a couple feet of snowfall.”
Denver set record highs on Christmas this year, reaching 71 degrees, and the warmer weather has led to lower snowfall totals in the mountains, too.
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“Definitely we have seen a slow start here for the season, and so it’s mostly man-made snow that’s keeping the resorts going in the high country so far,” said Donaldson.
Still, businesses in ski towns say visitors are showing up. At Bagali’s restaurant in Frisco, server Jacob Strauss said tables have been busy in recent weeks even though fewer ski runs are open.
“Crowd wise, it’s getting a little tight because there’s not a lot of runs open,” said Strauss, who snowboards in his free time. “It’s not the best, but there’s still snow… The ones who don’t know how to ski say it’s great. The one who do, obviously say it’s disappointing, but for the most part everyone’s still going out there.”
“Bad snow and bad skiing is better than no skiing,” said Anil Mundra, an out-of-town visitor hitting the limited slopes this past week. “The silver lining is, you’re not freezing up there.”
For families, the holiday was about being together more than the conditions underfoot.
“We’re all together, and we're all celebrating Christmas together,” said Mundra.
