• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

A Basin 05/21/16

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
A Basin

Conditions: perfect!

Trip Report:
With much anticipated swimwear parade day happening, we excited to see what type of party was going down. We arrived around 9:30 and the place was hopping. In fact we had to park in the upper parking lot. In fact, they have a spill over lot 3 miles away that got full and they were having people parking at Keystone. You would think that the slopes, eateries and bars would be packed but it never really was that bad. The shear size of A Basin with it 90% open allowed people to spread out and you will see in pictures. The bar and deck mid way up was very busy but we did not go there. I think most were there for the party more than the skiing. The entire place had a real cool party vibe going.

Oddly enough we only did one run in Montezuma Bowl. We skied the front side the rest of the time. The conditions, while not your dry PP, we're awesome. Every thing skied really great. I think the natural snow skies better than the MM under warmer conditions. The temp was in the 60's and pretty much full on sun. So with every things skiing fairly fast, I was amazed. Maybe it was the wax (Swix yellow - 32 to 50 degrees).

I did not ski many bump runs but did ski The Gulch (a narrow tree run), Exhibition (nice soft 2-3 ft bumps), and South Chute or something around there. There was a smaller run North Fork that is a blue bump trail that is narrow which was fun as well.

We are actually just enjoyed skiing anything. It was an absolute blast and we were like kids in a candy store. Had to pinch myself a few times to make sure it was real.

Now the decks were a cool place to hang out and we never had trouble getting a chair or a beer. Our faces paid the price - forgot sun block (dumb). The parade was a mad house run down Sundance and people kept coming and coming. Set a record for Colorado. Only problem - 70% were guys. The band was great and was a bluegrass/rock sound.

Overall, it was one of our best days skiing. And easily one of our best this season. I am looking forward to skiing into June.
 

Attachments

  • 1463938834751.jpg
    1463938834751.jpg
    60.1 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463938861663.jpg
    1463938861663.jpg
    100 KB · Views: 122
  • 1463938883367.jpg
    1463938883367.jpg
    47.1 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463938899991.jpg
    1463938899991.jpg
    81.2 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463938923307.jpg
    1463938923307.jpg
    58.5 KB · Views: 125

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
Oh ya and this happened!
 

Attachments

  • 1463939027166.jpg
    1463939027166.jpg
    39.9 KB · Views: 122
  • 1463939052432.jpg
    1463939052432.jpg
    17.3 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463939064951.jpg
    1463939064951.jpg
    45.7 KB · Views: 126
  • 1463939079851.jpg
    1463939079851.jpg
    23 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463939096169.jpg
    1463939096169.jpg
    74.8 KB · Views: 121

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
And more! I threw one in for shock value!
 

Attachments

  • 1463939159887.jpg
    1463939159887.jpg
    20.3 KB · Views: 127
  • 1463939181522.jpg
    1463939181522.jpg
    22.1 KB · Views: 127
  • 1463939250224.jpg
    1463939250224.jpg
    27.5 KB · Views: 128
  • 1463939278031.jpg
    1463939278031.jpg
    82.8 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463939350997.jpg
    1463939350997.jpg
    72.1 KB · Views: 128

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
A few more snow pics!
 

Attachments

  • 1463939544018.jpg
    1463939544018.jpg
    32.3 KB · Views: 127
  • 1463939564540.jpg
    1463939564540.jpg
    46.3 KB · Views: 127
  • 1463939577510.jpg
    1463939577510.jpg
    39 KB · Views: 125
  • 1463939615730.jpg
    1463939615730.jpg
    40.4 KB · Views: 127
  • 1463939637044.jpg
    1463939637044.jpg
    99.9 KB · Views: 127

Cornhead

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2010
Messages
2,836
Points
48
Great pics, all but one, thanks for posting, jealous.
 

Rikka

Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
143
Points
18
Location
NH
Very nice!


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone mobile app
 

4aprice

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Messages
3,892
Points
63
Location
Lake Hopatcong, NJ and Granby Co
The mtns are still so WHITE. And so are some of the bodies:flag:

Hey here's a topic of discussion, Did the El Nino under perform? Certainly for the east. But Colorado prospered. Awesome spring in that the beginning of May looked like the beginning of April. Snow out lasted most of the skiers.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
 
Top