A Little Strange

Roller Balls

Following all the deep snow of Friday and Saturday, today was sunny and beautiful and quite warm. The next few days might be even warmer. We are seeing roller balls tumbling down North Glade, The East Wall and The Steep Gullies. If the forecast holds true, we may return to temperatures in teens next week. AHHH, spring at A-Basin.

Missing The East Wall Season

Friday Afternoon

Candid Talk On Opening

I want to have a candid discussion on the possibility of us re-opening. I am concerned a few of you may be getting the wrong message. A re-opening will not be happening soon. As a community we have more work to do battling COVID-19. Hospitalization and fatality rates need to continue to fall. We still need to follow all the social distancing recommendations. Culturally, to open we have to be comfortable travelling and driving again.

That said, you know when conditions are right, we will try and re-open. That time is at least a few weeks away. We are working on plans of HOW to open. There is still no plan for WHEN to open. There are no plans to open uphill access at this time.

Don't be discouraged. This is a marathon and A-Basin is a marathon runner. What other area stays open from mid-October to July 4th? We all need to do the right things now if we want to get open again.

Nice Spot

The Black Jewel is an amazing part of The Basin. So is this.

The Black Jewel

I believe Larry Jump was the first to call Pallavicini "The Black Jewel" of Arapahoe Basin many, many, many decades ago.

Lazy J Is Buried

Pallavicini and Molly Hogan Chairlifts

We are moving forward with our plans to replace Molly Hogan and Pallavicini Chairlifts for a number of reasons. 1) We signed a contract to do so, 2) We have already paid for about 40% of the lifts, 3) The lifts are substantially manufactured and sitting out in Grand Junction and 4) By doing so, we can put about 8-10 more people to work this summer.

The COVID-19 Pandemic certainly tweaked our plans for selling off the actual chairs. We have every intention of doing a lottery to sell chairs and doing auctions to sell a few more. Those auction will be used to help three local non-profits (The Summit Foundation, Summit Community Care Clinic and the Family Intercultural Resource Center) as well a couple of our employees with medical needs.

In the coming weeks, we will be developing a new timeline for the chair sales. There will be lots of notice before we do anything. Pay attention to our social media channels for Pali updates. Click on the link below to sign up for email updates.

Pali Chair Sales Updates

 

Much of the new Pallavicini Lift in Grand Junction

Arapahoe Basin - A Colorado Legend since 1946

For many years, the idea has been kicked around about writing an A-Basin history book. We all agreed that was a good idea, but none of  us had any idea how to move it forward. Out of the blue in early 2017, Cathleen Norman walked into my office selling her services as a writer of history books. That started a great journey that I thought would take about 6 months. Cathleen did an extraordinary amount of research conducting many interviews, reviewing thousands of old photos and articles, diving into the Larry Jump Collection at the Denver Library and reading Larry's personal, unpublished memoirs. Despite actually taking 3+ years, working with Cathleen on the the project has been pure fun. The writing is now complete, the design and layout is finished and the book is off to the publishing house soon. I don't quite know how long that phase will take, but, maybe by mid-summer, you can look forward to reading, Arapahoe Basin - A Colorado Legend since 1946.

Mid-Mountain This Afternoon

Some Interesting Comments

It is another snowy day at The Basin. I am guessing 8-10 inches has fallen since the storm began last night.

I feel compelled to write about some recent blog comments a few of you have made. I have taken the time to write this blog to provide some insight, imagery and fun about Arapahoe Basin. The blog is written for people that love A-Basin. Obviously right now, I am not writing about the skiing because I have not skied at A-Basin since before the ski area closure. I have been up on the hill a few times on the snowmobile just to keep an eye on the place. Many of you want hear about and see images of The Basin. Many people have told me this makes them happy. I have continued to post photos and comments about Basin Life.

For some reason, this makes a few of you angry. I don't really get that. I want to continue to share Arapahoe Basin with the people that want to stay connected. If you don't want read about or see pictures of The Basin, this might be a time to take a little break from the blog. If you still want to stay connected, I will do my best to bring a little Basin sunshine to you while we wait out this pandemic.

Upper Mountain

The Upper Mountain is looking pretty nice with snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

Cornice Run circa 1950s

Very nice view of the Cornice Run from an earlier era. One of my favorites.

The mountain is still looking great. We have had about four feet of snow since the closure in March. The forecast for the remainder of the week calls for some generous snowfall. Just want to let everyone know the mountain is still here and it is still snowing. Can't wait until we can bring all of you back.

Howling

A little 8:00 PM howling with my neighbors (and their dogs).

Howling

A little 8:00 PM howling with my neighbors (and their dogs).

Gore Range and Lake Dillon

Well, it isn't A-Basin, but it is just 10 miles down valley, west of here. Pretty nice morning and pretty nice view of the Gore Range and Lake Dillon.

Tree Chutes to Loafer

A friend shared this photo with me over the weekend. It is another view that many of you might not have seen. It takes in the Tree Chutes, East Wall, Lower Mountain, Pali, Alleys, Steep Gullies, The Beavers and Loafer.

April Update

Just over a month ago, I did a blog post on the “State of the Basin” following our big change in partnerships. After a slow start to the season, business had picked up nicely since Martin Luther King weekend and we had even begun worrying about crowds on Saturdays. The first 10 days of the 2020-21 season pass sales had been terrific. It is amazing how rapidly COVID-19 has completely turned our world upside down. Today is the 23^rd day we have been closed.

The core of what we do at Arapahoe Basin is providing opportunities for people to have extraordinary mountain experiences. Not being able to do that is very frustrating and it is very hard on our business and our staff. Our primary action since the closure has been taking care of our employees, helping them get through this crisis. Secondary to that we have been trying to figure out when we can get our business started again offering those mountain experiences.

This evening Governor Polis extended the "Stay at Home" Executive Order through April 26 and the Ski Area Closure Executive Order through April 30. Our average closing day is in mid-June. Whether we are able to re-open again this spring is yet to be seen. I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is still a lot of time and we will not give up on trying to re-open. If it makes sense to re-open and if our community is ready for us to re-open, we will re-open. This closure has forced us to change and re-think many issues. No doubt the pot will be sweetened for 2020-21 season pass renewals. Please bear with us as we work through the very challenging months ahead.

Perhaps what I miss most through this closure is seeing our guests and employees having fun at Arapahoe Basin. I am thankful that over the past three weeks I have received a number of very kind messages of support from many of you. The Basin is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people. I look forward to seeing all of you on the slopes and trails soon. We miss you.

From A Cat Driver's Point of View

Here is a beautiful image from Friday morning.

New Name For Pali Lift

Kudos to Unofficial Networks for their brilliant, investigative reporting on the new name for Pallavicini Lift. If, by chance, you didn't realize this was an April Fool's joke, I think you owe me a beverage in the 6th Alley when it reopens. Thanks Unofficial Networks. I love it.

New Name For Pali Lift

Snowmobile Tour

I did get out and about on the hill today, taking a little snowmobile tour. It was a bit blustery, but the views were exceptional. The snow is deep and the place looks great. Being on the summit warmed my soul. I have actually only been on the hill twice since the shut down. I have been busy doing other things and today reminded me how I (and I know most of you) enjoy getting out and about. We still have a ways to go working through this pandemic. Hang in there everyone.

Pali-Prof View

Here is a photo I took a while back. I think it is a pretty cool view of the Top O' Pali and the Professor. It is from a perspective that I have not seen photographed very often. I thought some of you might enjoy a different vantage point.