A-Basin’s base elevation of nearly 11,000 feet gives it one of Colorado’s longest ski seasons.
ARAPAHOE BASIN
RECOMMENDED BY Candace Horgan
It was on a drive back from another ski resort that Candace Horgan discovered Arapahoe Basin. “When I graduated from college on the East Coast, I wanted to be a ski bum out west,” she said. “But by the time I made my way out to Colorado, I had quit skiing. My skiing in the Northeast had come to feel like a merry-go-round. The goal was to track runs, and I’d go up and down as fast as I could. I’d taken up ice climbing in lieu of skiing, and was getting out sixty to seventy days a year. I happened to go to Winter Park one day and saw a friend telemarking. It was so graceful, like she was dancing. I tried it and quickly fell in love, and got a pass at Winter Park.
“I was still doing some ice climbing, and I went over to Vail to climb. On the way back home, I was driving over Loveland Pass. As I’m winding along, I looked up, and there was the Pallavicini Face at A-Basin (what regulars call Arapahoe)—wide-open, steep, and grand. The higher up I drove on the pass, the more intimidating it looked. I wanted to try it, and soon I did. I skied all the runs off of the Pallavicini lift, many of the tree runs. I liked the intimacy of the place and the high-alpine feel, which seems a little more wild than many of the Colorado areas. I was instantly drawn to it. I came back later in the season and skied the trails off the East Wall. The next season, I got a pass at A-Basin.”
Summit County, an hour and change west of Denver along the I-70 corridor, is not devoid of ski areas. The region is home to Keystone, Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain; Vail and Beaver Creek are nearby. Though A-Basin sits among a number of big-name neighbors, there are several characteristics that set it apart, as Candace described. “First, it’s the highest resort in Colorado, with a base elevation of 10,780 feet, and a summit—with a little hiking—more than 13,000 feet. This gives A-Basin one of the longest seasons of any resort in the United States. Some years, you can begin skiing in mid-October, and continue until late June. This creates a unique spring skiing scene. There’s a parking area right at the lift, and in the spring they call it ‘the Beach.’ People will pull out barbecues, take a few runs, hang out in the parking lot, play Frisbee. It’s like a tailgate party. There aren’t any condos at the base of the mountain, no lodging on premises at all. That gives A-Basin an old-school feel. Because the area is so high, there’s a lot of old-style intermediate terrain. Much of the upper half of the mountain is wide-open blue terrain. Less-seasoned skiers can get that big-mountain, high-alpine experience, instead of being stuck on the lower half of the mountain.” (This big-mountain experience is enhanced by the proximity of several peaks eclipsing thirteen thousand and fourteen thousand feet.)
Arapahoe Basin has been in operation since 1946, though today’s area is a far cry from the single tow rope operation that Larry Jump, Max and Edna Dercum, and a handful of other proponents established. (The tow went from midmountain to the top; the first season’s 1,200 skiers were conveyed to the tow rope in an army weapons carrier; a lift was installed the following year.)
In 2008, A-Basin saw its terrain nearly double (to nine hundred acres) with the opening of the Montezuma Bowl on the backside. “When Montezuma opened, it took a lot of pressure off Pali,” Candace added. “It’s a high-alpine bowl on the west side with cornices where you might have to drop as far as fifteen feet. On the east side, there are blue cruisers, much mellower than the west.” The area’s 108 trails see an average of 350 inches of snow a year; snowmaking on select trails abets the long season.
Pallavicini (or Pali, as it’s affectionately called) is A-Basin’s marquee run, though many would call it a headwall rather than a run. (Pali takes its name from the Pallavicini Couloir on Grossglockner, which is Austria’s highest peak at 12,457 feet.) Pali Face—and for that matter, the other trails off the Pallavicini lift—are all double black diamond, with pitches approaching forty degrees. Monstrous moguls face you on the left side of the face; a copse of trees marks the right—choose your poison! “On a day when I’m not ski patrolling, I like to get in one intermediate run to warm up and then start running laps on Pali,” Candace said. “I’ll take main face first, which has the steepest drop, and then go to a run called the Spine. There’s usually some great snow in there. If Upper International were open, I’d head over there next. It’s a little run that skirts a cliff. I’d ride up Pali again and go over to the trees on the right. There are some nice chutes in the trees, called the Alleys [Upper, Lower, and West], and Gauthier, which has a steeper drop than the Alleys. Pali has lots of little places where you can find great terrain.”
A-Basin has not one, but two iconic areas, the second being the East Wall. “It’s all hike-in terrain,” Candace said. “Depending on your line, it’s twenty to forty-five minutes. It’s very steep, but it looks worse than it actually is. One of the runs up there is called North Pole. At the top, you feel like how I imagine it would feel to be in the Alps. My favorite run on the East Wall is called Snorkel Nose. It’s accessed by a forty-minute hike up from the top of Willy’s Wide [a precarious run in itself]. There’s a forty-degree drop at the top, but it soon opens up, and usually has great snow. With all the traversing you need to do on the East Wall, you might only get in five runs a day over there. But it’s worth it.”
CANDACE HORGAN is the communications director for the National Ski Patrol. A patroller at Arapahoe Basin since 2008, she attended the National Avalanche School in 2011 and 2012. She competed on the Extreme Telemark Tour in 2011, and has done some ski mountaineering in Colorado.
If You Go
Getting There: A-Basin is ninety-six miles from the Denver airport, which is served by most major carriers.
Season: A-Basin has a long season, beginning in October and, in many years, extending into June.
Lift Tickets: Day tickets at A-Basin (888-272-7246; www.arapahoebasin.com) begin at $79.
Level of Difficulty: A-Basin is known for its expert terrain but has plenty for less-seasoned skiers. Terrain is classified as 10 percent beginner; 30 percent intermediate; 37 percent advanced; and 23 percent expert.
Accommodations: There’s no on-site lodging at A-Basin, though there are many options within a five- to fifteen-mile radius. The area lists lodging partners at www.arapahoebasin.com.
