More Snow

Still snowing here. It looks like there has been a 56" of snow so far in April with another snowy day to go. Half of that has been in the last week. Today the Patrol opened Willie's Wide and North Pole with epic conditions. I think the photo says it all.

North Pole and Willie's Wide

The forecast came through with 21" in three days. Saturday was epic. Dumping with a whiteout in the morning and bluebird skies in the afternoon. We had surreal alpenglow on the East Wall and Black Mountain for our snowshoe dinner. The recent snow really set things up nicely for a good hiking program in North Pole and Willie's Wide. The ski patrol is all over this terrain. Although I am not promising anything just yet, look for some great hiking and wandering opportunities this week. Standing atop Little Lenawee (on the North Pole hike) or near Arizona Rock (big rock in the middle of Willie's Wide) are some of the coolest experiences at The Basin. If you haven't done so, put that on the list this week. If you have, you know it is time to get on up there.

April Surprise - 5"

What a nice surprise to wake up this morning with no snow at home down valley and 5" new up at the ski area. I hate to jinx it, but the forecast has been really upgraded, with perhaps as much as 2 feet new by the weekend. The following link is a pretty good weather forecast for A-Basin.

http://forecast.weather.gov//MapClick.php?site=BOU&llon=-106.644588&rlon=-105.167088&tlat=40.290417&blat=38.810417&smap=1&mp=1&map.x=131&map.y=110

Check out the pictures the HR department took this morning. You can tell the work of our HR department is a little different from most other HR departments.

Exo Chairs For Sale

Now is the time to have that very special piece of Arapahoe Basin in your backyard. For several months folks have asked about purchasing the old Exhibition chairs.. Well, we will start selling them online at 8 AM on May 1. Be sure to purchase early. In 2001, we sold out of the old Lenawee chairs in 3 hours. Details can be found on our website:

http://www.arapahoebasin.com/ABasin/mountain/exo-chairs.aspx

For fund raising purposes, eight of the chairs will be donated to The Summit Foundation, High Country Conservation Center, Team Summit, Summit County Community Care Clinic, Colorado Avalanche Information Center, The Family & Intercultural Resource Center, Friends of the Dillon Ranger District and the Keystone Science School.

Save Our Snow Celebration

It has been a great week of skiing. Two storms passed through early dropping about 19". The North facing terrain still has great winter snow while spring is catching on back in Montezuma Bowl. Early in the week, there was great powder skiing off Founder's Ridge, Long Chute, The Spine and The Face. Today Pali had beautiful packed winter snow.

Today Arapahoe Basin enjoyed its 2nd Annual Save our Snow Celebration, an environmentally friendly fundraiser for High Country Conservation Center. Sponsor booths provided opportunities for skiers and riders to learn about what companies are doing to help our environment. Sponsors included Clif Bar, High Country Conservation Center and New Belgium Brewery.

It's Dumping, Season Passes, and A-Basin Charge

It has been snowing heavily for the last six hours. At report time we had 1" new, but I think we are at around 6" now. The patrollers are telling me the Spine and Face are skiing really well. I'll find out soon.

2010-11 Season Passes are on sale now. Being the best value in skiing, The Bonus Pass has unlimited skiing at A-Basin and five days at Keystone or Breckenridge with one of those five days being valid at Vail or Beaver Creek. There are some restrictions on the Vail Resorts' days. For more details or to make a purchase go to our website.

A-Basin Charge is a new product now available at The Basin. You can now link your Arapahoe Basin season pass to your credit card and use it for purchases at any of our sales locations. This is a tremendous convenience for many people and one that folks have asked us to implement. You can connect all of your family members' passes. Now if for some reason you don't want to connect your kid's pass to your line of credit, you can load your kid's pass with a stored value. For example you could put $100 on his pass and tell him these are his lunches for the year. We are trying to make your visit here as simple and hassle free as we can.

All of this might get confusing with the Vail's Resort Charge. These are two completely different products. We cannot load your Vail Pass with the A-Basin Charge. We can, however, simply give you an A-Basin Charge card to use in addition to your Vail Pass. Again, this is an easy way to feed or outfit both you and the kids.

Under a Fuji Full Moon

Last Saturday we had another great full moon dinner and snowshoe hike at Black Mountain Lodge. With an Asian theme, Chef Rybak outdid himself again. The snow and clouds were intermittent, but lightened up just enough for everyone to enjoy the walk down. Hard to beat a night like this.