Only At The Basin

Where else, except The Basin, can you find the Easter Bunny climbing and skiing a double black diamond chute at nearly 13,000'?

Beavers Bottom Terminal

The skiing, both tree skiing and Loafer and Davis, out in The Beavers continues to be excellent. The cat drivers groomed Loafer top to bottom last night. Yesterday during the snowstorm, Jager was over the top incredible powder skiing. Today, in the sunshine, a shaded Thick and Thin had deep winter conditions. It feels like being in a private ski area. This year's hiking program is truly unique. I don't see too many people when I am skiing although I usually end up hiking out alongside a few folks. Very fun. Very cool.

Skiing With The Marketing Folks

The Colorado Ski Country USA Marketing and Communications Committee meets 2-3 times per year. Today was A-Basin's turn to host one of the meetings. After getting through the obligatory power point sessions, the crew wolfed down some food and went skiing. We were excited to show off some great powder skiing in The Beavers and The Steep Gullies. It was a beautiful, snowy day and those Marketing/Communications folks love to ski.

Continental Divide Recreation, Wilderness and Camp Hale Legacy Act

This afternoon I went to a meeting hosted by U.S. Representative Jared Polis. The topic was the Continental Divide Recreation, Wilderness and Camp Hale Legacy Act proposed by Representative Polis and Senator Michael Bennet. The proposal includes protecting nearly 100,000 acres of wild areas in Summit and Eagle Counties. There are multiple protection designations including Wilderness Areas, Recreation Management Areas, National Historic Landscape (Camp Hale) and, specifically, the Porcupine Gulch Wildlife Conservation Area.The Porcupine Gulch area is just Northwest of The Basin between US Highway 6 and I-70. A-Basin and several other resorts have written letters of support for this proposal. I encourage you to check out the link below for more information and share your support with your local Congressperson.

https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398559

More Upper East Wall Season

More images from Upper East Wall hiking. Typically, snow conditions up there peak in April or early May. The few inches of snow we have been getting a couple of times a week are pointing us in that direction.

Snorkel Nose

2nd Notch

Comparing The Steepness of Ski Trails

OK, this one is for ski nerds. Check out this really fun article about steep trails that I found on skibum.net. The article shares all kinds of interesting facts and trivia about comparing steep terrain. I have always thought Pallavicini was one of the longest, continiuously steep trails around. Low and behold, skibum.net had Pali at the top of the list for select trails over 2,000 feet long.  Enjoy.

http://www.skibum.net/do-it-up/comparing-steepness-of-ski-trails/

Beavers Kind Of Day

Willy's Season

It looks like it is getting to be "Willy's Season." There were some wonderful, albeit a little socked in, views from Borgy Rock up there today. Some good skiing up there too. We seem to be getting there a few inches at a time, but we are still getting there. You know, from Borgy Rock, you can just about see the Snorkel Door. That might be my favorite spot at The Basin. Won't be long.

Skiing MGD With Robbie

Yesterday, it pretty much snowed all day. This afternoon, after a beautiful and easy ride on the Lazy J, Lift Maintenance Manger Rob Ware and I enjoyed some fine snow and turns in the MGD zone in Montezuma Bowl. I am looking forward to this next storm rolling in Thursday night.

Happy First Day Of Spring - 4 F and Snowing

No wonder our snow stays so good and our season lasts from October to June.

Stormy Images

Well, we haven't quite scored the big March snowstorm just yet. We did have some great skiing today with a very deep 3 inches of new snow. Skiing in the Steep Gullies was particularly good. We do appear to have several days of unsettled weather coming. A couple of inches here and a couple of inches there always helps. One of things about the rapidly changing Spring weather that I really like is the images the clouds and snow and sun give us, particularly at sunrise and sunset.

Sunday Fun Day

Kay and I enjoyed a great day off skiing up at The Basin today. First thing in the morning under sunshine and blue skies, we slipped in half a dozen runs on the North Side. No surprise but, we found good skiing on the Spine and The Face. As the clouds rolled in we enjoyed a couple of North Pole hikes and followed that with a ski and hike in the 4th Steep Gully. As we skied a bit more on the North side, snow started falling. We finished the day in Marnie's with friends, a burger and a beer.

.........And it is snowing right now.

Beaver Bowl

Beaver Bowl was very positively affected by our recent snow and wind. When I was in the Bowl yesterday, snow was just billowing in over its West ridge. The skiing was very good this morning. We have another good forecast for snow tomorrow afternoon and evening. A couple of Monday laps in Beaver Bowl could be just what you are looking for.

A Day Of Extremes

What a crazy day of extremes. This morning was full blown raging winter. We reported 2 inches of new snow and probably received another couple more after report time. As the day wore on, the clouds blew out and we finished with glorious sunny weather. An afternoon Beavers tour was full of sunshine.

My Favorite Movie

A Snowy Forecast

I just went for a nice little skin up to the Summit. It was snowing heavily at mid-mountain as I passed Black Mountain Lodge at 6PM. The Opensnow forecast for tonight and tomorrow still looks good. I think I am going to plan on skiing some North facing trees out in The Beavers on Friday.

That Means It Is Going To Snow

It was a beautiful early Spring-like day. Great skiing was found on Larkspur, Land of the Giants, West Wall, Lower International and lots of other runs. The Black Mountain Lodge deck was in fine form. Skiers and riders were soaking up the sun and enjoying the BBQ. It was a wonderful, sunny day.......which only means one thing. It is about to snow. Look for 2-5 inches of new snow Thursday night and a powder day Friday.

Center Of The Universe

There are some people out there who think the Top of Pali is the "Center Of The Universe." I am one of those people. It is such a special place. The kind of place where friends gather and laugh and have fun. It is also the kind of place where great adventures begin. With access to The Face and The Spine and, now, The Steep Gullies and The Beavers, a lot of great stuff begins here. And the view isn't too bad either.

Different View

While there are a gazillion things I like about the new Beavers and Steep Gullies terrain, one my favorites is taking in all the new viewpoints and perspectives. There are especially cool images of The Steep Gullies. In the bottom photo, a skier is coming out of the Bald Spot with The Steep Gullies prominently visible in the upper right part of the photo. A similar kind of view is visible from Lower Loafer.

Somewhere In The Beavers

Finding the steep and not quite deep somewhere out in The Beavers.

Snowy Day

This Saturday, we have enjoyed a very nice snowy day. We reported 2 inches of new snow at 5 AM and have probably another 2 inches since. The snow is good all around. I found excellent skiing on the North Side as well as on and near Loafer out in The Beavers. Beautiful day.

West Of Loafer

So for this season, we opened The Steep Gullies and about 2/3 of The Beavers. West of Loafer we still have another pod of about 100 acres to add next season. We plan on enhancing several gladed lines out there. There won't be any conventional trails like Loafer or Davis or the Davis. This will simply be great tree skiing. 

This afternoon Patio and Louis and I spent several hours skinning and skiing and pondering and tracking and generally looking around out there. I think you are going find beautiful, beautiful tree skiing West of Loafer next season. These gladed runs will lead into a traverse or collector trail that brings skiers right back to the bottom of The Beavers Lift. This will be much like the Alley Traverse or Montezuma's Revenge. Very cool skiing.

Skinning In Daylight

This afternoon I went for the first skin of the season that I did not have to use a headlamp. Halfway up the mountain, I enjoyed beautiful light on the East Wall. From the top of Zuma Lift, I enjoyed a dazzling sunset over the Gore and Ten Mile Ranges. It was still light out when I reached the bottom. And next week is Daylight Savings Time. Even more daylight, at least for an after work skinner like me. Might be a little dark next week for the morning crew.

Skin Etiquette: Whenever you are on the hill in the dark, use a headlamp. This is for your safety so you can see the snow and grooming marks and closures and equipment, etc. It also for the others on the hill, both working and playing. Make sure they can see you. In particular, people wandering around without a headlamp is very hard on the cat drivers. Make your neighborhood cat driver smile, use a headlamp.

Falcon and Dragon

Falcon and Dragon are a couple of fun runs on the East side of the Upper Mountain adjacent to the East Wall double strand closure. They are actually gullies and are typically treated very well by the wind. Often, that very velvety surface can be found there. Whether skiing Lenawee or exiting Montezuma Bowl, these lines are a regular treat for many. As you get lower, you can always sneak into Land of the Giants on the East Wall.

Still Looking For A Single Chair

Back in 2016 I did a couple of posts about our two original single chairlifts. One was roughly where Black Mountain Express is and the other was about where Norway is. One of the chairlifts went to Fun Valley, a now closed area just outside of Denver. I believe the chairs were sold as souvenirs in the mid '90's.

I am still looking for one of these chairs. I believe I found one, but the owner did not want to give it up. If by chance you have one or know of someone that has one, let me know. It would so cool to refurbish one of them and display it at the ski area. Still looking.

PURRRRR - Fect

The skiing was good all over the mountain today. I may sound like a broken record, but The Spine was simply amazing today ................. again. It was buffed and soft and carve-able and kind and easy and fast and fun and on and on and on. Sometimes it is hard to get enough of this. This morning other great skiing was found on The Lower Mountain, Falcon, Wildcat, The Face and The Steep Gullies. Very nice.

2nd Steep Gully

Certainly not for everyone, but I found some very good skiing in the 2nd Steep Gully this morning. Accessing the Gully on the left side is a bit tight and very, very steep with a few rocks. As I rounded a right turn and dropped off the ridge line and into the Gully proper the coverage was fantastic. The snow was very packed, but also very carve-able.  Again this line is not for everyone, but, boy, was it fun today. And the skin out was a pleasant cruise through the woods.

Lower Beavers Liftline

These photos are taken looking downhill from the approximate location of Tower 7 of The Beavers chairlift. You can see where the lift line crosses Lower Davis and terminates at the bottom lift station. This pitch is a bit steeper than the photo really portrays and it is an excellent ski. In total the new chairlift will have 15 towers. The area from approximately Tower 11 to the Summit is above timberline.