Very Interesting

It could be kind of fun around here on Wednesday.

 

4 More Inches Of New Snow

So we reported 4 inches of new snow this morning, there are a couple more inches sitting on the snow stake now and we might welcome June with another 4-8 inches on Wednesday. It has been a beautiful morning. My buddy, Matt Renoux, of 9News stopped by. He was taking pictures of me and I was taking pictures of him. With Memorial Day being the unofficial start of Summer, we will enjoy a strong final week of snowy, sunny, Spring/Summer Skiing at The Basin.

Sunday, June 5 will the final day of the season.

 

Pride

A-Basin's first Pride Day was a big hit. There were lots of smiling, happy, dancing, skiing people in top form. A crew of employees and guests skied the world's largest Pride Flag down High Noon. There was a DJ led dance party on the Black Mountain Lodge deck. It was kind of a scheduling quirk that had Swimwear Day and Pride Day occurring at the same time. I think those two events are forever married. I look forward to hosting Pride Day again next season.

Lenawee Express

Parts and pieces of the Lenawee Express detachable six-person chair are starting to show up at The Basin. While some of the components are manufactured in Europe, most of the lift is being built in Grand Junction.

Lenawee definitely needed an upgrade in capacity to reduce lines and move people around the mountain more quickly. Current Lenawee has a design capacity of 1800 people per hour. Since the lift serves a wide variety of skiers, it starts and stops often and probably has an actual capacity of about 1200 people per hour. The new lift will be easier to load and has a capacity of 2400 people per hour. We will see a very noticeable improvement in lift lines, loading and riding.

 

Re-Opening Terrain

A few of you have asked why we did not re-open lifts and terrain following the storm. In the Fall and early Winter, we spend days and sometimes weeks getting terrain ready to open. While it would be fun to re-open, it is unrealistic for us to think we can reasonably re-open terrain in late May while maintaining an acceptable safety standard.

Most of the areas currently closed, have been closed for days or weeks. All of the safety equipment has been removed and stored. Most of our Lift Operators have moved on to vacation or other work. The Lift Maintenance crew has even started their off season maintenance work. Most of the closed areas had little or no snow especially at lower elevations. I know it looked great, but the closed areas were not up to our standard. As always with us, employee and guest safety comes first. Today the temps should get in the 50's again and many of those areas will be bare ground by day's end.

The amount of work it would required to re-open for such a short window of time with very questionable conditions is just not worth it. I love that everyone wanted to go skiing, but re-opening closed terrain was not a sensible option for us.    

It was a very good storm.

27 Inch Storm - Fun Weekend Coming

That was a great storm dropping 27 inches of snow since Saturday. It was a great bonus for conditions between now and our June 5 closing day. The coming holiday weekend  is going to be good fun.

Saturday will be a wonderful day to enjoy Spring and celebrate friendships. It will a combination Pride Day and Swimwear Day. Celebrate our LGBTQ+ community and bring your most colorful Spring outfit or bathing suit and have some classic A-Basin fun.

Sunday is Festival of the Brewpubs. Join a dozen of Summit County and Colorado's finest breweries for some A-Basin beer tasting. For more info and to buy your mug click Festival of the Brewpubs.

Lastly, Monday is the last day to ride the Lenawee Triple. While Black Mountain Express will remain open thru Sunday, June 5, Tuesday we start the removal process on Lenawee. The old lift is heading to Sunlight Mountain Resort to be replaced by the Lenawee Express, a high speed detachable six-person Leitner Poma lift.  

Another Late May Powder Day

We reported 5 inches of new snow this morning.  All of it fell overnight. If the forecast comes through, we might get a few more inches later today and tonight.

I took a few runs first thing this morning. It was absolutely beautiful with fun powder skiing. The weather is in that zone when the sun pops out followed by snowfall followed by a little blue sky with dramatic light. It was a good morning to ski. Tomorrow morning might be the same with maybe a little more sun.

The Family That Drives Snowcats Together........