… Skiers and snowboarders had a rare opportunity to get on snow in early October, courtesy of — well, last year’s snow. … Aspen Snowmass opened the Makaha Terrain Park for the weekend, giving skiers and riders a chance to ski and snowboard on about 300 feet of snow that had spent nearly five months beneath insulated blankets. … Despite a dry winter that forced Aspen Snowmass to close some terrain early and a summer that broke historic drought records, the snow survived. Roughly 85% of the snow volume stored at Snowmass remained when the blankets were removed late this summer. … That matters in a place where the past two winters have been difficult for snowmaking and this summer brought record-setting drought conditions to the Roaring Fork Valley. The pilot is part of a broader effort to prepare for increasingly unpredictable conditions rather than simply react to them.