Mountain Sports Club Blog

Arapahoe Basin Announces New A+ Spring Season Pass

Arapahoe Basin, CO – January 26, 2009 - Arapahoe Basin Ski Area introduces the new A+ Spring Pass which includes skiing and riding at Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge and Keystone, among many other season pass benefits. The $279 adult A+ pass is a new spring pass product available now and valid through the remainder of the 2008-2009 season.

The pass includes unlimited skiing and riding at A-Basin plus five non-transferable ski days at Breckenridge or Keystone. One of those five days can be used at Vail or Beaver Creek (some date restrictions apply). Other A+ Spring Pass benefits include a free half day lesson for the pass holder, lift ticket discounts for family and friends, and 10% off cafeteria and retail shop purchases.

"Arapahoe Basin's high alpine environment lets skiers and riders enjoy the sport long after the other resorts have closed for the season. The A+ pass is the most affordable way to ski Summit County. By getting this discounted "Spring" pass months before spring starts, our guests will get over four months on the slopes at a great value," said Alan Henceroth, Arapahoe Basin's Vice President and COO.

A+ Spring Pass Pricing:

In addition to the new adult A+ Spring Pass for only $279, A-Basin has also introduced a new A+ Family Spring Pass. The Family A+ Pass includes A+ passes for two adults and up to two free child (age 6-14) passes for only $699. The entire family will be able to enjoy the same A+ benefits.

If A-Basin is the only mountain you'd like to ski or ride this spring, Arapahoe Basin also offers an A-Basin only Spring Pass. The Adult Spring Pass can be purchased for $209, the Youth (age 15-18) pass for $159 and the Child (age 6-14) Spring Pass for only $99.

Spring skiing is legendary at Arapahoe Basin; this is when A-Basin really shines. Discover the recently opened Montezuma Bowl with 400 additional skiable acres, excellent snow conditions, spring events, concerts and parties on "the beach."

Order the A+ or A-Basin only spring passes on-line at www.arapahoebasin.com, or call 1-888-ARAPAHOE or stop into the season pass office at A-Basin. Passes valid through the end of the 2008-2009 ski season. Limited number of passes are available. Passes and benefits are not transferable or for resale.

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Leigh Hierholzer

(970) 513-5767

Arapahoe Basin in Colorado announces the opening of Montezuma Bowl for Tuesday December 30. Frequent and heavy recent storms has enabled Arapahoe Basin to open this terrain a couple of weeks early this year. Just in time for skiing and riding the New Year.

Wiinter keeps hanging out in parts of the Rocky Mountains and a few areas are keeping the the lifts open and/or extending their seasons.


Here are a couple of updates we found on the web at the Ski Area Management site:

New York State's Windham Mountain is reopening on Saturday, May 24 to host a rail jam for diehards. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the 24th. Because of the event’s location at the base of the mountain, no lifts will be running, but food and beverage operations will be open.

Utah, Snowbird will continue to operate on a limited schedule, with selected lifts through the weekend of May 30, and will shoot for a possible July 4 closing should conditions permit.

Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin is the last to remain open in the state, with a June 8 closing day. Check out recent photo galleries of spring skiing, beach party and hikes to the North Pole terrain.

In California, Mammoth Mountain has scheduled May 26 as the mountain’s final day to run the lifts.

Farther west, both Timberline’s Palmer snowfield on Mt. Hood and Blackcomb’s glacier will remain open deep into summer. Timberline’s season is expected to go until September 1, with operations on the Blackcomb glacier commencing June 9 and running through July 27.

Blackcomb resort will close on June 8 and the mountain’s Wizard Chair and Solar Coaster Chair are closed for maintenance through June 8, but will reopen on June 9 for glacier skiing.)

The holiday break for those of us in Boulder Colorado started late and extended deeper into January than I ever recall. This scheduling quirk led our family to plan and end of holiday 3 days ski and snowboard vacation that would start at Arapahoe Basin and have us spend the last 2 days at Vail.

After a very slow start in November, that had the Colorado Ski areas concerned - as there was record low natural snowfall, the skiing and snowboarding has gotten very good. December turned around quickly as many resorts reported record snowfall for the month of December. The snow has regularly been falling feet at a time and the start of 2008 has seen this same pattern of deep snow continue in Colorado. With a great base the resorts are serving up spectacular conditions with powder days being a regular occurrence. With the storms has come some very cold skiing as well. While resulting in more frequent breaks to warm up the cold temps has ensured the snow is staying dry, soft and light.

This trip was going to be interesting as we are spending a couple of nights at The Antlers in Vail. This condominium/hotel complex is one of the properties in the Lionshead area of Vail that has undergone a facelift and is walking distance from the Gondola and chairs. Having never stayed here I was curious as to the facility. The stay was a pleasant and enjoyable stay. Big rooms, great service – free movies for the kids and popcorn, heated pool, sauna, huge hot tubs with killer jets to massage out the kinks and aches from hard days on the mountain. The business center receives high marks for me as I had to stay in touch with emails and ran a conference call and demo one day. This business center had 4 computers wired and with printers. I would strongly recommend a visit to The Antlers if you are planning a visit to Vail. I know we will be back. The staff was friendly and helpful and the amenities and comforts met and surpassed our expectations.

The start of this mini vacation was a day at Arapahoe Basin. We arrived at the basin late morning on Sunday the 6th. There had been several inches of new snow each of the last several days ensuring soft broken powder throughout the mountain. WE skied pretty much all around the mountain including the alleys on the far side of Palivaccini. Snow cover is excellent and the entire mountain skilled very well. After a nice casual day of skiing we headed over to Vail for the next part of our mini ski getaway. Of special note was how the area emptied after 2 PM . Most of the crowd was trying to beat the I-70 traffic and the area was quiet. We are usually part of the crowd trying to avoid the traffic, so it was a treat to heading the other direction – westbound.

The next couple of days we spent skiing at Vail Mountain. Monday and Tuesday saw fresh snow each day. The first day reminded me of one set of reasons why Vail continues to be such a world class resort for all. My two sons who are taking up snowboarding and have not exactly been pushing it were who I would ski with. They had yet to snowboard down a blue run, either of them, but the decision this day was we would ride the Gondola and try Simba which is a manicured and relatively easy blue intermediate run. This would prove to be a breakthrough day. The snow was soft and silky as well as freshly groomed. The corduroy was the kind of ego snow all skiers and snowboarders need when there is some trepidation and one needs to get over the proverbial confidence hump. This day was one to remember for each of them. They loved the corduroy and reveled in their truns and the fact they were both now cruising blues. As a Dad really looking for the breakthrough in our skiing/snowboarding family this was the right set of runs and the day we had been looking for.

Tuesday was the better of the days in my book as I got to go and enjoy a full on powder day. We were able to hit the Gondola area by 8:40 am and were able to stay ahead of the crowds. This is a key strategic move, if you wish to avoid huge lines and cut up snow in the back bowls. Our approach was to take the lifts next to the gondola and head into Game Creek Bowl. After a quick run here we jumped into the back and had an epic run down Ricky’s Run. There were huge swaths of deep untracked snow. We eventually made it back to Blue Ski Basin and were surprised to see the one lift was not running. When speaking to one of the patrollers we were informed this chair is not running all the time due to staffing. We approached this by coming back again anyway. It was along traverse out but the pow in Champagne Glades was well worth it, and the fact the chair was not running preserved a few extra runs in the powder.

One note was the small restaurant at the top of Blue Sky Basin, does not even have hot water and the grill is on allowing you to bring your own meat to barb-que. From here we went back to the front side. One surprise was how untracked and deep the runs were off the Rim Runs. A few runs, here and then more fresh lines in Riva glade. By this time of the day my legs were becoming jelly and it was time to head back down until the next trip back to the mountains.

We, my son and I, were finally was able to get back up in the Colorado mountains and ski this past weekend. We left Boulder Saturday AM for Arapahoe Basin. I had not been to the mountains for several weeks. It was before the last several rounds of significant snowfall. It has been a major transformation of ski and snowboard conditions. The day offered mid winter conditions and cold, with lots of terrain open. It was cold crisp day with soft snow and broken powder available for those in search of soft snow and variable powder conditions. We started the day going directly to the top of the mountain. First the Exhibition lift and then over to the Lenawee lift. We jumped into nice soft corduroy to start once we slid off the lift. Compared to several weeks ago when it was hard and you needed to search for soft snow, now one could let the skis run and turns just flowed like a hot knife through butter.

After a top to bottom run mixing up groomers wiht broken snow, we decided to head for the Pali chair that was serving runs off of the west wall. It sure looked inviting and off we went. One of the great beauties of this day and many of my weekend days is I get to enjoy it with my skiing/riding buddy, my son Nicky. He is 10 and made the conversion from skier to boarder when he turned 7. He now rides the entire mountain as he loves to freeride, search soft steep snow and get off the beaten track. Once in a while he will jump into the park, but he enjoys the snow, different runs and exposures the mountain has to offer. We are still at a comparable pace and in a few years I am confidant it will be me struggling to keep pace.

The snow off the west wall is broken soft day old powder. Great cover and not very crowded. After dropping down and hitting the cruiser back to the bottom we decide one more shot at Pali for a different line before taking a warming break. Temps were high of 10 at the top and with the wind much colder.

In the afternoon as we had lunch we saw they had opened the main Palivacini run. We immediatley headed for the Pali chair after lunch. Patrol was at the gate letting us know there were exposed rocks, a thin snow pack for this time of year and to use caution. We gladly nodded our heads and off we went. The snow was very good. there were spots with some rock exposures, but to be expected. For December 15 it was excellent. One run here was adequate as the family we skied this with did not love it quite like we did.

The rest of the day was spent looking for different exposures of soft broken snow across the top of the mountain. We headed out around 3 to beat the I 70 traffic and had a quick easy ride home. The legs had some burn and it sure felt good to get a day of all mounains kiing and riding in.

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