As a substantial snow system takes aim at Colorado’s mountains, rumors are circulating that Arapahoe Basin could become the first ski area in the state to open this weekend.

A-Basin marketing director Jesse True stopped short of confirming that a weekend opening is in the offing, but hinted it could happen. Snowmaking operations began there on Oct. 9.

“We are getting closer by the day,” True said. “We’re going to open as soon as we possibly can.”

Weather forecasters are predicting significant snowfall in the mountains beginning Saturday night and running through Monday morning. OpenSnow founding meteorologist Joel Gratz said accumulations could be from 5 to 20 inches.

“One impact of this storm will be winter driving conditions with snow-covered roads on mountain passes on Sunday and snow-covered roads in many valleys by later on Sunday and into Monday,” Gratz wrote in a forecast posted Thursday morning. “Another impact of this storm will be significant snowfall, but it is still too soon to ‘lock in’ amounts and which mountains could win.”

Last year, Arapahoe Basin opened on Oct. 17. Earlier this week, officials at Keystone and Loveland said it was unlikely they would be able to open this week. Both have been conducting snowmaking operations.

Breckenridge announced today that snowmaking operations have begun there in hopes of opening on Nov. 11.

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