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A Basin 4/2/2017

dlague

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Conditions: Powder/PP

What a night and day difference between Friday and Sunday! After our last experience at Keystone (not that good) and hearing that A Basin was skiing great, we headed that way. With the recent upslope storm, places along the Continental Divide fared the best so we were looking forward to skiing some freshies. While A Basin as a whole got 2-3 inches, the East Wall and Montezuma Bowl got 6-8 on Saturday into Sunday. They proved to be the places to ski. Once again like last week, the vibe was really cool. Lots of people hiking to the top of North Pole and Upper East Wall and to the far reaches of Zuma Cornice. That is something I hope to get in better shape for next season. Also on our way there and on our way out there were so many skiers and boarders making runs from Loveland Pass and then hitchhiking back up – another milestone that we want to tag. Rather have two cars for that and not deal with hitchhiking.

We arrived and warmed up with a Bacon Bloody Mary – they are well known for these and at 9 am that was pretty much the scene. Once on our way we lapped Lenawee Lift on runs like Half Moon and West Gully and based on the snow we were more than excited. Both runs skied great. That led us to East Wall for a couple runs beyond Land of Giants where the powder was very surfy. A bit denser than last weekend but skied really well. Based on those conditions we went over to Montezuma Bowl to see what conditions were like and opted to take Mountain Goat Traverse and skied down Tieze’s Claim which is a gladed area with very short trees. This area was mostly untracked and was a first for us which was a blast. Unfortunately, my wife tweaked her knee a bit so we headed back to the other side and skied Lanawee Face to Dercums Gulch to High Noon. My wife went inside to get Advil and my son and I skied Pali lift for a couple runs. First Run was on Pali Face which was another first for us. The pitch is pretty steep with only moderate bumps. The 2-3 inches of fresh seemed to have covered the trail pretty good but was crunchy in spots. Up Pali lift again (no choice since Pali Way leads you there) and this time we skied Wildcat which was untracked but had fresh covering some frozen chop which made it interesting. After that we went in for an early lunch and drinks.

Now with my wife with 3 Advil on board and beverages, East Wall became the focus. It seemed to have the best conditions so we lapped runs in that area - 1 run where we traversed the entire wall and headed into some glades on Lower East Wall and 2 runs through the Land of Giants which is a great natural playground. My son was hucking all over while I opted for chutes and smaller features. My wife just enjoyed skiing some of the steeper sections as well. We then ended our day with 3 top to bottom runs skiing various combinations and as usual I included Ramrod and Exhibition on a couple runs. Exhibition was pretty scrapped off but had some soft pockets. Ramrod was softening up nicely and had nice spring bumps by mid-afternoon.

It had been cloudy much of the day which kept the trails in great shape but by 2:30-3 the sun came out so we headed for the deck and soaked in the sights and rays with a nice Elevation IPA before heading out the action on Loveland Pass. Loveland Pass was really something to see. Even picked up a hitchhiker on the way and brought him close to the top.

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Last edited:

skiNEwhere

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Love A-Basin, they have some terrific terrain.

BTW, not sure if you heard but they are expanding over the summer. Only took 5 years from concept to approval, pretty damn fast by NFS standards.

a-basin.jpg

Edit: That pic is pretty small, full version here
 

dlague

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Love A-Basin, they have some terrific terrain.

BTW, not sure if you heard but they are expanding over the summer. Only took 5 years from concept to approval, pretty damn fast by NFS standards.

View attachment 22368

Edit: That pic is pretty small, full version here

Was reading about that earlier. Looks interesting - easier access to Zuma Cornice. The surface lift to Montezuma Bowl is a little ridiculous.
 

skiNEwhere

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Was reading about that earlier. Looks interesting - easier access to Zuma Cornice. The surface lift to Montezuma Bowl is a little ridiculous.

It's like an 80 yard traverse that's about a .5% grade to get to zuma from lenawee, I'm a little surprised as well. There are some good blues in zuma bowl though, and I think A-Basin wants to appeal to the intermediate skiers since blue runs typically don't entail the "hike-to" aspect. Although in reality it's "walk-to for 3 minutes" terrain.

I am glad to see the steep gullies being brought inbounds. That's some really avy prone terrain and I'm glad to see that risk will be mitigated.
 

dlague

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We noticed when skiing Pali Face that people had skied off in the direction of the new area. I assume that is a popular technically "lift served" BC area.
 

4aprice

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How come you weren't there on the 1st? The Boy went for "Gaper Day". Sure it was a good time.

The expansion plans were in the Denver Post back in February. They are actually pretty lucky (according to the DP) as expansion plans at some other ski areas around Colorado have been shot down by the state.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
 

skiNEwhere

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How come you weren't there on the 1st? The Boy went for "Gaper Day". Sure it was a good time.

The expansion plans were in the Denver Post back in February. They are actually pretty lucky (according to the DP) as expansion plans at some other ski areas around Colorado have been shot down by the state.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

From what I've heard, the major reason it went through so fast was due to lack of typical opposition from local community or pretty much any environmental groups. Usually when there is any sort of opposition, more time is needed to analyze the feasibility or extend the length of an environmental impact survey.

Crested Butte got shot down a few years ago with expanding to Snodgrass Mtn due to local community opposition who preferred to keep it in the backcountry.
 

deadheadskier

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I look forward to going back someday and checking out the Beavers terrain under Avy control. I almost got to ski those gullies with some locals, but on the way out there the lead skier on the traverse set off a big fracture line. We were lucky it didn't slide and were able to tip toe out of there back to the Alleys.

That same trip and with the same locals I got to ski down from the pass as Dlague described only at night under a full moon. Pretty cool

Sent from my XT1565 using AlpineZone mobile app
 

dlague

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Nov 7, 2012
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8,792
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CS, Colorado
I look forward to going back someday and checking out the Beavers terrain under Avy control. I almost got to ski those gullies with some locals, but on the way out there the lead skier on the traverse set off a big fracture line. We were lucky it didn't slide and were able to tip toe out of there back to the Alleys.

That same trip and with the same locals I got to ski down from the pass as Dlague described only at night under a full moon. Pretty cool

Sent from my XT1565 using AlpineZone mobile app

Skiing that under moonlight would be very cool!
 
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