Anybody here ever skied ABasin?? Booked a last minute trip out there to Ski Friday & Saturday, maybe Sunday. Looking like we should get some Powder. Would love any info, advice, etc. on the mountain since I've never skied there, or anywhere in CO for that matter. Thanks
It is where the locals ski. If you can get a local to buy your ticket you can save money. Lots of steep runs. Ski Pali just so you can say you skied it. Back side has a faster lift. If you can spend a day in Denver to get use to altitude do it. I am leaving Denver tomorrow. Little wet today.
I skied the Basin on 5/4 on a 60 inch base. They advertised powder / packed powder conditions -- and to my amazement that is exactly what it was!
The entire hill was open. For steep blacks, double blacks and two blues (including the steepest blue you're likely to see -- The West Wall) ski the Palavacini lift. For a mix of blacks, double blacks and blues go to the back bowl (Montezuma Bowl and lift). If you're really good, fearless, and in superb condition hike up from the top of the Leanwee lift and ski down one of the east wall (rocky) chutes. Otherwise enjoy the blues off of the Norway and Lenawee lifts.
Oh, it only got better after I left -- with 18 more inches of snow on Sunday thru Wednesday of last week.
The 4th was likely the last day of my season. A_basin is scheduled to close on 6/3. But if it keeps snowing and they extend for just one more week, I'll ski on 6/9. It has happened in the past. The Basin was open til July 4 in 2011.
Skied on Friday 5/10 and it was amazing. There was a 12 inch dump on Wednesday night so we were a day late, but still got to ski some untouched on the east wall when it opened after lunch. The Montezuma Bowl was a lot of fun. The vibe of this place is awesome and the people were very nice. Saturday was a little warmer, but still great and live music at the base of the mountain and Odells craft brews. Cannot believe I skied conditions like that in Mid May. I attached a link for a picture from the top of the Montezuma bowl, You can see Keystone to the right and Breckenridge way back in the middle. [img]
http://imgur.com/aG9l9F9[/img]
You experienced "normal" mid May skiing at the Basin. Maybe the snow was better than "normal," but there's almost alwasy losts of snow (last year being the exception when the area closed on May 7 -- the earliest I ever remember it closing) although spring condtions are more normal.
In 2011, you would have seen what you saw last Friday -- in mid June. Palavacini was closed then even tjough there was more than enough snow to ski any run off the lift. That was the area's reaction to an inbounds June slush slide off of Pali that killed a skier four or five years ago.
Incidentally, my best day ever of skiing in Colorado happened on May 3, 1993 -- at the Basin. There was a 24 inch dump. I-70 was closed so Denver couldn't get there. About 100 people shared 24 inches of fresh -- all day.
Skied on Friday 5/10 and it was amazing. There was a 12 inch dump on Wednesday night so we were a day late, but still got to ski some untouched on the east wall when it opened after lunch. The Montezuma Bowl was a lot of fun. The vibe of this place is awesome and the people were very nice. Saturday was a little warmer, but still great and live music at the base of the mountain and Odells craft brews. Cannot believe I skied conditions like that in Mid May. I attached a link for a picture from the top of the Montezuma bowl, You can see Keystone to the right and Breckenridge way back in the middle. [img]
http://imgur.com/aG9l9F9[/img]
Gorgeous!!
Jim, I recall skiing Pali in Mid May in 2011, so no, this is not the first year since the avy death that it has been open. Mid May 2011 was the first time in many years that I skied the place late season so I can't comment on whether or not Pali was open 2006-2010. Pali was closed in mid-June 2011 when I skied again. Only Black Mountain Express and Lenawee were open.
A few years ago, about 08, I skied Pali on its last day. I met a friend, an astronomer from U Colo, and we had a blast. The rest of A basin was open for a few more weeks. It was a Sunday after a business trip to Lakewood. On Saturday I had skied Loveland pass.
I guess they just closed Pali area at A-Basin after this past weekend:
http://arapahoebasin.blogspot.com/2013/05/pali-trail-closed.htmlThey are still worried about the risk of inbounds avalanches, but closing the affected runs differs each year depending on weather and snowpack. This was a good cold, snowy spring out there so they were able to keep everything open longer than some years in the past since they began this policy after 2005.
I'm convinced that on most days the most dangerous thing about skiing Pali is the narrow traverse back from the bottom to the main base. The hard core locals will buzz past on both sides at eye watering speeds. It's worse than the High T at Alta.
Yup, it appears that the steep stuff to the right off the top of the Palavacini chair is done for the year, but the chair is still open, and there's some decent, shorter, less steep, black terrain to the left off the top of the chair.
I was most encouraged by one thing that Al said " Black Mountain Express, Lenawee Mountain and Zuma Chairlifts will be open until June 2 (at least)." I liked the "at least" part. There's still hope for my getting in a day on June 9.
I am surprised that current plans include keeping the Montezulma chair open until at least June 2. The terrain is south facing and snow will disappear rapidly with warm sunny days.
Loving this thread. I last skied A-Basin 15 years ago or so. Great, great area.
And that is why it is called "The Legend".
It'll be more of a legend in a few years after they get the new chair in. Take a look at the areas master plan.
The new chair (probably Norway relocated) will start WAY WEST of the top of Palavacini and will end at the top near where Norway Lift currently ends. There should be lots of new tree skiing.
http://arapahoebasin.com/ABasin/mountain/master-development/default.aspx#prettyPhoto/0/I'm a bit ambivilent about removing Norway. It's only used when it's busy, but it's very useful when Lenawee's crowds get heavy.
yeah, but it doesn't run at all most of the time, so i think it's better if it serves some unique terrain. hopefully a lot of the main face crowds will go over to the new area.
meanwhile... zuma open until June 2 !!!! wow.
order the green chili.
I just spent a second looking at the master plan, and just realized they plan to replace the Palavacini lift, too. I can't image that they'd plan on a second high speed quad. Maybe it'll be a fixed grip triple -- which is how they replaced Lenawee a few years back.
I think it depends on what the words mean. I read Norway - remove and Pali - replace.
Sorry, I misinterpreted Bob's post.
Thinking about it some more, that will give them 2 beginner chairs and 4 more chairs each on a separate face (Pali, Lenawee, Zuma, Beaver). That is a pretty damn impressive ski area. And not a condo in sight. Go 'basin !!!!!!!!
I know opening Zuma was a little controversial, and I am sure there will be laments for Beaver also, but as a tourist skier, I admit that I just love that new terrain.
The Basin just announced that they will extend the season for one more weekend. They'll be closed on June 3-6, but Black Mountain Express and Lenawee will be turning June 7-9 - not surprising since it's still snowing up there -- 4 inches yesterday.
I'll ski a few hours on the 9th.
man, you're killing me.
ok, what is the historic latest date for AB ?
The latest date the Basin has ever been open is July 4. The Basin always tries to be open til that date, but they only achieve that goal 10% or 20% of the time. It's a much harder thing to do now than it was 20 years ago.
20 years ago the Basin had no problem staying open even if you had to download on Exhibition (now Black Mountain Express) at the end of the day. I skied it in the middle of June 1993 on it's last day open and they had to bring snow down off the upper mountain and create a trail the width of one groomer to get skiers back to the Lenawee Base.
A-Basin's current philosophy is that the area has to be open top to bottom to remain open -- no more downloading at the end of the day. It is hard for them to keep that lowest 600 feet of vert snowy, although they have snowmaking now. They didn't 20 years ago.
I skied there the end of March this year. By then the place was nearly 100% open - except for the east wall. The season started slow for them, but March and the rest of the season has been really good. If anybody has a chance to ski there, they should go for it. You don't have to be an expert to enjoy the place. The elevation might be a problem for some, but luckily for myself I'm not affected by it. The day I was there, the ski patrol was doing blasting all day for avy control. Very surreal hearing the booms all day long, we counted at least 1/2 dozen that day.
