Cross-Country Skiing: A Halloween Tradition on Grand Mesa
Today (October 29), I went skiing for the first time this season. Yesterday I drove up to the top of the Mesa to check out conditions, and the ground was completely bare in the sunny spots, with just an inch or less of snow in the shady spots.
What a difference a day makes! When my dog, Leia, and I got up to the Mesa this afternoon, the forecasted six inches of snow had arrived. I just tried to have as much fun as she was having frolicking in the fresh powder.
We’re predicted to get more snow in the next 24 hours, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have enough to do some early season pre-grooming of the trails by Halloween on Thursday. I think of Halloween skiing as a Grand Mesa tradition, but since I’m a data nerd, I decided to look back at the numbers I could piece together to figure out if that’s really the case.
I am not one of those people who use Strava or religiously track kilometers skied or training numbers, but I do have records of the date of my first ski from the last 12 years. I’ve pieced these dates together from my minimal training logs and (mostly) photographs.
2024: October 29
2023: October 13
2022: October 24
2021: October 13
2020: October 27
2019: October 31
2018: October 21
2017: November 18
2016: November 18
2015: October 22
2014: November 14
2013: first ski day unclear, but I have photos of groomed skiing at Skyway on Halloween.
According to these numbers, we’ve had Halloween skiing on nine of the last 12 years. (This assumes we’ll be skiing this Thursday, which seems pretty certain.) Some of these years we’ve had grooming, some years it’s just been backcountry trail-breaking like I did today.
OpenSnow is forecasting 8 inches of snow tomorrow (October 30) so the Halloween skiing should be great! Now I just need to get my costume ready!
Image: Halloween skiing at Skyway in 2009