A Basin 06/09/2017

[dlague]

Sadly the season has come to an end. Our last trip to A Basin was another great day. While there was a lot of snow loss since we were there last (two weeks ago) that was primarily on higher terrain like East Wall which had lots of visible slide activity. Where skiing was in play there was lots of nice spring snow.

We arrived around 9:30 and I applied and brushed in a warm temp wax which had huge dividends. We then headed straight to the top for our first run but that proved to be a bit cool for shorts and t-shirts but skiing was really good. We skied the Black Mountain Express for the morning where everything skied really nice and Ramrod had very fun and soft spring bumps. Around 11:30 we ate and had beers and their well known Bacon Bloody Mary. After lunch we focused on the upper terrain off Lenawee Lift for about 2 more hours. My son and wife went in and I did a final top to bottom run as fast as I could which was a blast and finishing it up on Ramrod.

There is still a lot of snow and the pond is still not presenting yet. They claim they will not go beyond Sunday but we hope they announce a surprise for next weekend. Would be nice to ski on Father's Day.

High Moon

Ramrod

Snow harvesting

Decrums Gulch

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[dlague]

Was told that the snow is melting fast now and there is lots of run off under the snow so even while it looks like there is plenty ro last another weekend the risk associated with trail collapse is too high. Last year at this time there was one trail left to the base and three runs higher up - this year way more still open.

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[dlague]

Lake started to reveal finally on Sunday. Never had their official pond skim.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Wow, and this was an average-ish year for Colorado snow. So this is more or less normal to ski A Basin into June with a variety of terrain (but no trees ) ?

Lucky you!

 

[dlague]

Wow, and this was an average-ish year for Colorado snow. So this is more or less normal to ski A Basin into June with a variety of terrain (but no trees ) ?

Lucky you!

Average yes. According to Loveland where the average is about 350 inches and they reported 361. The difference, colder spring.

Well we got a lot of snow in April and even in May so that helped a lot. So this is our second season with June skiing there and this year was way better than last. They had planned to close Pali earlier in May and with a 2 ft storm and cold weather they never closed it until June. Last year it was closed in May. The Lake Reveal (really a pond) happened in May last year and this year it barely started showing on the very last day.

Variety of terrain - well last year they were down to one run to the base and three runs higher up for the last weekend, prior to that well that was quite a bit open heading into June. This year was much better though. Last June and this June they closed on the same weekend.

 

[bdfreetuna]

amazed how few bare patches

 

[dlague]

amazed how few bare patches

We had a great time at A Basin this year. Because the Spring was a little colder, the Spring skiing events were practically non existent such as the pond skim event and swimsuit day (always interesting) but it preserved the snow. There is still top to bottom snow on runs where they had snowmaking.