Thick and Thin

Thick and Thin is one of the new gladed trails in The Beavers. It will be easily accessible by getting on the Davis trail in the West Wall saddle. This can be done from either the top of Pali or the Summit. Skiers and riders will find some incredible tree skiing. The trail has a North facing aspect. Not only will it hold a lot of snow, but the snow quality will be superb.

When the A-Basin founders started building the ski area in 1946 they built a sawmill on the flat portion of middle Sundance (aka Sawmill Flats). Pictures of the sawmill can be found on the walls of the A-Frame. In an effort to make the logging process a sound venture, they formed the "Thick and Thin Lumber Company."

Lingering Snow

There is still a bit of lingering snow in the very highest reaches of the ski area. Looking at the forecast, the Upper Mountain should see a lot of sunshine the next few days with highs in the 50's. I suspect all or most of the remaining snow will be gone soon. The snow is kind of a wake up/reminder that winter is getting closer. We are looking at the temperatures every morning. It was 33 F when I arrived today. Probably in another week or two I will be writing a blog saying that snowmaking has started.

Zuma Bearings

Our Lift Maintenance crew is in the process of completing another very big project. This time on Zuma Lift. The team de-tensioned the lift at the top terminal, lowered the bullwheel down to some cribbing, replaced the main bearings, re-attached the bullwheell and re-tensioned the lift. It is a difficult job requiring lots of patience and precision work. Always, hug your friendly lift mechanic.

A Little Snow

Check out the snow on our webcams this morning !!!!

Fall Color

It is definitely Fall up here in the valley of the North Fork of the Snake River.

Loafer and Davis ????

OK, some, but not all of you, have to be wondering where the names Loafer and Davis came from. When Ralston Purina bought A-Basin in 1978, they did a wonderful job overhauling the lifts, renovating the buildings and, generally speaking, giving The Basin a great boost. They also caused a little grumbling by changing a lot of trail names including all of those on the Lower Mountain.

Wrangler was Lark. North Fork was The Brook Trail. Sundance was Davis. High Noon was Loafer. Ramrod was Molly Hogan.  Being nostalgic and tipping our hat to the original founders, we are bringing back some of those original names with Loafer and Davis. I am not sure the origin of Loafer, but Davis is named after Slim Davis. He was one of the original Forest Service Rangers at A-Basin and he was very involved with ski area development throughout Colorado. He was a true Colorado Ski Pioneer.

Below is a 1965 Ski Patrol Work Map showing many of the old names. And, yes, the T-50 Poma ran from near mid-mountain, up Radical to near the top of Pali. Enjoy the map.

Davis Grading

We have now completed our grading on Davis. This trail starts at the West Wall Saddle. It is easily accessible from either the Top of Pali or The Summit. The upper portion of Davis is a graded cat walk. The trail will provide access to some tremendous tree skiing in Face Shot Gully, Thick and Thin, Bailey Brothers and all the terrain in between. There are some good lines above Davis (far skiers' right of Ptarmagin) that will be impacted by the cat walk, but with the exceptional tree work our saw crew has done below, we have, overall, really, really enhanced the skiing. Skiers can come off the Summit, ski the far right side of Ptarmagin, negotiate the Davis crossing and have a ripping run through the glades below. If you have the legs and lungs, this will be a sweet, 1,500 vertical foot, non-stop ski to the bottom of The Beavers Lift (2018-19 season).

The trail crew has done some really fine work re-vegging this grading. Our excavation contractor made the cat walk as small as possible. The staff saved a lot of the original tundra sod and replanted it. Native seed was spread across bare soil and re-veg mats were installed. The mats provide shade for seedling and allow moisture to stay in place. They also slow water and minimize erosion. The mats are quite visible now, but over a year or two, the plants regrow and the mats degrade naturally. 

Zuma Cornice

It was a very nice back in Montezuma Bowl.