A-Basin, 4/7/07

[johnnash]

Sadly, I'm filing this TR from home; my family's spring ski/snowboarding trip is history. We skied our last day (yesterday) at A-Basin, and it was excellent. If you're lookin' for powder, this is the place to go. Consistent with Tony's evaluation of it's snow-preservation qualities, winter is still very much alive at A-Basin. Off the Lenawe lift, all of the runs were loose powder, and even at the base, the runs were mainly packed powder, although there was a bit of underlying iciness in a few places. We spent most of the day on the Lenawe runs, where there were no lines at all. The one time we had to go back up the mountain from the base at mid-day, there was a bit of a line at the bottom (say, 10 minutes), but this may have been due to the wedding taking place at the mid-mountain lodge. (Guests were going up the lift in their shoes, and then getting off the lift at the top, running down the ramp!) Otherwise, we had a fantastic day, the only problem originating from the deep powder, for those of us MASH skiers who are powder-challenged. My wife and I were (at her suggestion) sking the East Wall, when on a traverse, I got stuck on a flat area, and decided that it would be easier to click out and walk. WRONG! Sarah has a picture of me floundering in the knee-deep powder. I'll never do that again!

At least in our experience on this trip, A-Basin had the most uniformly wintry snow conditions of the resorts we skied (including in addition to A-Basin, Keystone and Vail). We loved it and, in the words of the Governator "I'll be back".

 

[lookn4powder]

Sadly, I'm filing this TR from home; my family's spring ski/snowboarding trip is history. We skied our last day (yesterday) at A-Basin, and it was excellent. ... We loved it and, in the words of the Governator "I'll be back".

Glad to hear you enjoyed A-basin. Although I don't ski A-basin often, I don't think I've ever had a bad day there, and I've had several really great ones.

Your report has me stoked up. Through a work obligation, I'm tasked to work in Denver in 3 weeks. I plan to spend 3 days skiing A-basin (May 3-5) and perhaps Loveland. Yep, this might prove to be spring skiing rather than the powder you praise here. For me that is no problem. But I've also been a the 'basin on powder days in early May too. Either way it's a nice opportunity to extend my season a little.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[Tony Crocker]

A-Basin averages 33 inches snow in May. Powder is not out of the question. The real question about A-Basin is how long the snowpack is deep enough to keep Palivaccini open.

I know johnnash and family would not have skied it, but perhaps they rode the chair up and observed other skiers?

 

[johnnash]

Yep, Tony's correct that we didn't ski Pallavicini (after all, we want to have something new we can look forward to on our next visit :wink: ), but it was open and with the new snow and colder weather, I'd guess it'll stay open for quite a while.

 

[Judz]

I'm a big A-Basin fan myslef, I love the "oldschool" feel, and its such a beatiful, fun and diverse mountain: not to mention it's STEEP. The Palivaccini chair has some awsome terrain, and its epic on a powder day.

I remember reading that A-Basin had a terrain expansion proposal drawn up, was wondering if anyone here had any updates on that.

 

[Admin]

The Montezuma Bowl expansion was approved this winter. I'm not sure if they're starting construction this summer or not, I can't recall.

 

[Judz]

The Montezuma Bowl expansion was approved this winter. I'm not sure if they're starting construction this summer or not, I can't recall.

good to hear

 

[EMSC]

The new lift is scheduled to be installed this summer. Quite awhile ago riding the lift with a patroller in December he mentioned they had already ordered the lift from the manufacturer - before the public protest/comment period had even ended - they were that confident of approval.