Arapahoe Basin 04/12/2014 Photo Album

As mentioned in the previous post, Jane was unable to accompany John, Dan and I to Vail on Thursday, so we planned to make a compensatory trip to A-Basin on Saturday. A-Basin is a small high elevation ski area on the west side of Loveland Pass, and it represents a much shorter drive than the other areas available to us on our Epic Pass. We also agreed to take our time and arrive late and then limit ourselves to three hours of skiing.

Skiers Appear as Tiny Ants on the First East Wall Chute

We held to these commitments and had a very enjoyable day at The Legend, the marketing term that Arapahoe Basin advertises. It was sunny with the air temperature in the high 30’s when we arrived and began skiing at approximately 10:30AM. We warmed up with a few runs on the front side and then climbed over the incline to Montezuma Bowl where we executed another three runs in the bowl. We finished our day with three or four runs on the front side and then packed our skis and returned to Denver.

Dave at Top of Montezuma

The bottom one-third of the mountain had soft spring snow, but above the Black Mountain Lodge we were dealing with winter snow conditions. It was fun to have the option to choose between winter or spring skiing on the same day at the same area.

Looking Northeast Toward Loveland Pass

Skiers Hike to the Top of East Wall

My favorite aspects of the day were enjoying the companionship of my wife, sweeping down the wide open Montezuma Bowl on fast firm snow, and ending the day with three strong bump runs on the soft moguls populating Ramrod near the bottom of the mountain.

With colder weather and more snow forecast for today, I suspect there will be a few more skiing posts mixed in with fly fishing entries in April.