Previously the drivers had track packed Davis. The snow from this past (and still kind of going) storm filled in the cat tracks nicely. Using the winch today, Trevor set a nice till on 95% of the trail. Ryan and I skied the trail just as he was finishing up and we found nice, beautiful, soft snow. It is not super deep, but it was very good skiing.
With Grizzly Road and West Wall open, the Pallavacini Chairlift will open Monday, Christmas Day, for the season.
This morning Louis and I took a spin down Loafer and Davis. Mostly, those trails look pretty good. The snowfences above treeline have caught a good amount of snow. There has been some strong snowcat work on both of them. They are solidly packed and awaiting tomorrow's night's storm.
Wandering around this afternoon, I found some good skiing on Cornice Run, Grizzly Road, Norway and Powerline. It was a beautiful Colorado mountains kind of day.
One of the original single chairs has returned to Arapahoe Basin. After lift construction in 1947, the chair served dutifully until about 1960. It spent the late 60's and early 70's carrying skiers at Fun Valley, one of Colorado's Lost Resorts, on Deer Creek Canyon Road in Jefferson County. From there, the chair bounced around a bit, but ended up in Rob Diehl's back yard for several years until he sold it back to The Basin this past Fall. This morning, the refurbished chair was hung from the rafters in Marnie's. It feels special to share this bit of history with the friends of A-Basin.
Beside Rob, a number of people brought this project to life. I owe a special thanks to Brian York (aka "Bumpy"), Don Starks, Mountain Powder Coat in Eagle County, the entire Arapahoe Basin Lift Maintenance Team, Ben Hickman and Tim Finnigan for making it happen.
Note the background picture of Marnie Jump riding the single chair. Enjoy.
Today we hosted limited openings on Cornice Run, West Wall, Slalom Slope and Grizzly Road. Skiers and riders had to start at the Summit, ski Cornice Run and hike up to the top of Pali. It was high on the adventure dial. Pali Lift isn't quite ready to open, but these openings give people a chance to spread their wings a bit and cover some ground. Good fun.
