Arapahoe Basin and Montezuma Bowl

Saturday, Jen and I headed up to ski Arapahoe Basin, or A-Basin for short, with our good friend Tim. This was our first time going there. We have had season pass to A-Basin for a while, including all of last year, but for some reason we never made it up there. We should have! The terrain is great. The vibe is local; think Mary Jane, and it is a far cry from what Vail have been and is becoming even more these days. The place isn’t big, but has lots of exciting terrain to ski, and with the Montezuma Bowl opening this year the skiers at A-basin will be spread out even more so than previously.

The Montezuma Bowl

The Montezuma bowl lies adjacent to A-Basin and is a completely new area now lift served and connected to A-Basin. We headed up to the Zuma bowl first thing in the morning. This being only the second day it had been open. We hoped for steep terrain and good untouched snow. We didn’t quite find either, but it wasn’t bad. We did a couple of runs and found some nice fresh tree runs bordering the half of the Zuma bowl that wasn’t open yet. We did yet another run in the bowl hoping that the ski patrol would open up the remainder of the bowl. They had clearly been working getting it ready all morning, but we weren’t that lucky.

Tim getting some air!

We ducked down into the A-basin side again and skied all the way to the bottom along the east wall. I love the scenery at this place! At the bottom, Jen went inside in order to rest, not overdo it, and stay on the recovery side of the nasty cold she had been battling for several days. When we were getting our ski stuff ready Friday night, neither of us really thought that Jen would be skiing, but Saturday morning Jen’s health seemed to have changed for the better and she to my delight decided to head up with Tim and I. As Jen went inside, Tim and I went up the Pallavicini chair and did a couple runs down David’s Run and 2nd Alley. Both have a pretty aggressive pitch for Summit County and I knew I needed to get Jen on some of these exactly because of that. This was not like anything we had been skiing at Copper, Vail, Winter Park, etc.

Jen finding fresh stuff in the trees

Tim and I joined Jen at the cafeteria, had a quick lunch, and then headed out in the cold again. During lunch we heard that the remainder of the Zuma bowl, or at at least close to that, had opened up, so we of course went right back up the lift to go check it out. At the top of the Lenawee lift we started hiking out along the Zuma cornice. We passed a ski patrol who gave us the expected warning: Steep terrain, first day open, and likely to find lots of rocks and cliffs hiding in the snow. No problem, that’s what kneepads and P-Tex is for, so we continued. We went almost all the way over to the “End Zone”, just before the trees, before pointing the tips down. The snow was chopped up, heavy and not quite as delicious as it had looked from a far. It was good, though, and yes, there were rocks and cliffs everywhere. With the aspect of the Zuma bowl mostly facing South, South-West, this will be spring skiing before spring!

After the second go at Zuma, we went back into A-basin proper, and did some runs over by Pallavicini; 3rd Alley, West Alley, and David’s run. This is awesome terrain, and makes most of the rest of Summit county look less steep. Arapahoe Basin is definitely a great destination, and that seems to be a consensus among fellow telemark skiers.

We will be back!