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Colorado A-Basin Reopening on Wednesday, May 27

James

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Checking Google photos I had a "Four years ago today" notification about this super fun day at A-basin June 1st, 2016 back when the snow was much better and life was much easier!


Hey Dean and Zach!
Pretty cool! That’s a lot of snow.
Zach suffered from soft and bent up tails. Though it could’ve been worse without perhaps.
 

SBrown

So much better than a pro
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... aaaaand closing again on Sunday.

They also announced a plan to sell one $10 Pali chair for $20 entries, which I think is nice. (I would think selling a couple more would be even nicer, but they didn't ask me.) I bought two chances.
 

Tony

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A friend went to A-Basin on 6/1. He was 0/4 trying to get a reservation on his Ikon pass, but his friend on an A-Basin pass was 1/8 and shared the two tickets with him. His also won the drawing for reservations for today, but not sure if that means 2/9, 2/10 or 2/11.
See https://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14229 for detailed report with a lot of pictures.
 

ski otter 2

Making fresh tracks
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I suspect you posted that ironically, but I'm totally thinking "we could ski around those bare spots."
Actually, you're giving me too much credit. I just dimly wanted to show the spectacle of what is going on, the parking lot lack of being full, and maybe, to stretch my awareness slightly, the condition of the snow where it wasn't being maintained during the season.

Also, I was so involved in trying to take some pics skiing, for the first time - and then the next day trying to figure out how to post them here........
 

ski otter 2

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Here are a couple more pics from this week. Trip report to be provided by the pugster that was actually there.

Plenty of social distancing for the lucky 600.

View attachment 103856



Found some in the lift line! :roflmao:

View attachment 103857
This is way more crowded than I experienced.
Guess I avoided the upper lift after 10:30 a.m. for good reason.
 

palikona

Getting off the lift
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Won the lottery for today. Man, that did a lot for the soul. ABasin did an amazing job setting it all properly.
Fun slush bumps plus at least 20 mountain goats came down from the ridge to hang with the skiers near the Montezuma Lift. And there was great pond skimming going on, and a guy in waders fly fishing!!
 

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surfandski

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I'm really stoked some of you won the lottery and got a day in! A page or 2 back I read about the class action lawsuits which unfortunately were expected.....but I sure hope those litigious people realize they are biting the hand that feeds them and hope the couple hundred (or less after the lawyers get their money) they get back is worth them having less options moving forward as their lawsuits potentially force some resorts to declare bankruptcy and go out of business. I purposefully only used 1 A Bay day during our 8 week Ikon road trip, knowing that I'd be making at least 1-2 trips out during the Spring and I even had non-refundable airline tickets in May that I couldn't use but there's no way I'd ask for a dollar back as season passes, and especially Ikon and Epic multi resort passes, are so ridiculously cheap for what you get.

When I graduated from college and left Tahoe, taking a 2 decade ski hiatus, lift tickets were getting close to $100 and I figured we'd never be able to afford to take the family skiing so I kind put that out of my mind. Then after a severe motocross injury left me contemplating fusion or even possible amputation of my ankle, we put life on hold and took an 8 week trip out to Colorado 4 years ago so I could teach my wife and our kids to ski in case the inevitable happened (thankfully it didn't and I can still sorta ski). When we started researching passes, I could not believe how expensive window tickets had gotten but I also couldn't believe how cheap season passes had gotten. It's way cheaper to ski now than it was back in the early 90's when I was in High School in S. Tahoe as an Ikon pass is cheaper than a single mountain pass was back in '92. For the past 4 years, our family that has lived in Florida has figured out how to ski for $21-23 a day on average and this year that included, Taos, Copper, WP, A Bay, Aspen (Highlands, Buttermilk, Snowmass), Steamboat, Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Alta, Snowbird, Deer Valley, Solitude, Brighton, Squaw Valley, Alpine. And keep in mind this is a family who lives in Florida during the winter. I honestly can't believe how cheap it is to ski as we never thought it would be possible.

So you locals who didn't CHOOSE to use your passes enough that you feel you got ripped off by the resorts (especially when A Basin could have remained closes) either need to get more creative, make skiing a bigger priority (we have missed out on a lot of income by making our ski trips a priority but we know the kids will be out of the house in a few years so money means nothing compared to memories), or just plain quit your bitching as the opportunity was there for most of the season, whether you took advantage of it or not. Sorry for the rant but damn, life sure is hard for us in America! :doh:
 

Ken_R

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And so it goes. The end of another season. I just got the "Hope to see you this summer" email. No you are not skiing on closing day. I was 0 for 12.

:( :bikewheelie: :beercheer:
 

Monique

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Euro resorts are on the verge of opening bikeparks for instance, but there are certainly non neglible risks out there.

What's the status these days? I saw that Trestle (Winter Park) is operational this summer. There was never much of a crowd on the trails, but of course there's always the lift line, cafeteria, etc ...
 

ski otter 2

Making fresh tracks
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So, I've wanted to make another report here, just been busy. First, mia culpa, my last count should have been 1 out of 8, not 1-8. So it was actually 1 success, 7 failures, 8 total - as of last Wednesday. Then it changed.

I got Thursday (went and skied; 2 of 9 tried), skipped trying for Friday (since I've been an "every other day" old guy), and then I got Saturday also!! (and skied in a cold sleet and rain, with very high winds up top - still nice; 3 of 10 tried). I skipped Sunday, the last day, again because of my usual "every other day" routine - I was tired. So I finished still with 3 successful days in a row at the lottery, skiing 3 out of 10 times I submitted, overall. A real comeback.

I'm not sure just what day A Basin switched over to having two lottery boxes for the two types of season pass holders - one for A Basin unlimited season passholders, one for Ikon's more limited passholders, but It sure made a huge difference in my case. After 7 failures, I got 3 out of 4 of the last times I tried, ending Saturday.

I think maybe towards the very end fewer and fewer people may have been submitting for "reservations," as the snow got worse, and as they perhaps got tired or discouraged. Don't know.

At the same time, my suspicion that my odds got way better towards the end, rather than that I was just lucky, was reinforced talking with those socially distanced around me in the lift short lines, especially before the lift opened, many of them skiers I've known and skied with repeatedly. At least half of the skiers I talked to then, seemed also to be A Bay season passholders who had been as lucky as I in the number of times they had skied, a few doing slightly better, a few doing slightly worse, with outliers in both directions, some more, some less. I think there were probably a lot fewer folk applying at the end. A lot. But just a guess.

My tentative conclusion is that, generally speaking, it paid off to be a full A Basin season passholder.
 
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Ken_R

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We do not really know how the "drawing" was executed each day. Was it an automated and randomized process using software? We have no clue.

Either way even if I were an Ikon Pass holder I would not have been mad if only A-Basin Season Pass holders were allowed to participate being that Ikon only gives 5~7 days of skiing at A-Basin.

Also, being that A-Basin is mostly a day ski area for Front Range and Summit Co skiers they really do not need to join a superpass to attract visitors they will always have plenty. There are other pass deal alternatives, just ask LL.
 

ski otter 2

Making fresh tracks
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Front Range, Colorado
Oh, well. I almost got that right.

Then on Saturday, fog, sleet and rain. A bit cold, but great.

And one thing I noticed was, most folks had cruiser skis out, so preferred the upper slopes. But they avoided down below, because "the snow was harder" [on those skis]). So there were relatively fewer skiers down below, even though there was less wind, it was warmer, and there was more coverage.

But I had FIS slalom skis this day (and shorter radius skis also on Thursday), so for me, the top was a bit flat for making tight turns, whereas the lower slopes where a bit steeper, more built up/cruddy, and responded better to those same tight turns. I had more elbow room on the lower slopes, even though for me they were better.

IMG_0726.JPG
IMG_0725.JPG IMG_0733.JPG

In the last pic, that's Rick ("Pup") of Pup's Glide Shop in Breck. I got to ski with him a bit this day, fun.
 
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