Denver's First Snowfall

Denver had its first snowfall of the season this past Saturday into Sunday, dropping 7 or 8 inches of the white stuff in the city and a foot in some of the suburbs, including Louisville to the north and Castle Rock to the south. Fortunately, at least around my condo across the street from the University of Denver, the streets were fairly clear, making driving on Sunday much easier than I thought it would be. Denver, by the way, is in a valley (the Platte River Valley), and 14,240 foot Mount Blue Sky (formerly Mount Evans) is just to the west of the city. I am no meteorologist, but it seems to me the city is protected from larger snow amounts by the location of that peak. However, if an upslope occurs, where the storm comes from the east instead of west, it is a different story, and we can get hammered. Of course, the mountains get the most snow, and yesterday Arapahoe Basin became the first Colorado ski resort to open for the season. They had people waiting in line as early as Friday. And let's face it, it gets pretty damned cold up in the moutains at night. It was 10 degrees here in Denver last night. God knows what the temperatures were up there. Perhaps Arapahoe Basin should hire a psychiatrist to talk to all those deranged people standing in line two nights in a row. And will I be heading up to the slopes this year to ski? As humorist Dave Barry likes to say, "the problem with winter sports - follow me closely here - is that they take place in the winter." I very much concur.