Oct
25
Arapahoe Basin on Opening Day October 25 2010
Let me get right to the point. It was opening day at Arapahoe Basin ski mountain today and RippinSkiers.com was there skiing. The plan was to arrive for before first chair to film the new BMX lift as I heard the maintenance crew refer to the new high speed quad chair that replaced the XO lift. Ok…so BMX stands for Black Mountain Express and XO stands for Exhibition Lift. I like BMX and I certainly liked the speed today. Putting chair lift speed in perspective for you…I stood in line for the past six seasons for at least 30-45 minutes waiting to get on the XO lift during early season. Today…I got in three runs in about an hour.
The lines were no smaller than any time in the past. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout on a Monday during blizzard like conditions in the mountains. It certainly did not feel like October 25, 2010, more like February. After about two hours in the car listening to a great Phish show from 1996, I arrived to find myself luckily getting a spot just in front of the ski patrol building. The lift was running already and I wasn’t even close to being there for first chair. Getting out of Denver this morning was not easy, but I did get to see a great double rainbow.
A little more talk about the lift. It’s nice. Really nice. You have your own seat cushion and it’s fast. Really fast for A-Basin. Not Breckenridge fast, but for A-Basin, quite impressive. It was snowing the entire time enough that my hood was required to go over my helmet to keep warm and dry.
The terrain park was slammed with boarders making it nice for us skiers to take many turns and not coming close to a collision with a snowboarder. No offense…but snowboarders have a huge blind spot and it’s simply nerve racking when you’re trying to go left and the boarder has no idea you’re even near him or her. Anyway…the snow was very nice for opening day. I definitely felt my skis blow through some nice powder. Near the bottom, it was skied off and the ice made it slippery. I didn’t fall, but sure came close each time at the end of my runs.
Overall, it seemed to be a quiet crowd in line. My expectation was for a much rowdier crowd. Maybe it was the euphoria of skiing at A-Basin on opening day, the Sunday hangover, or maybe everyone was out of breath? I know I made it from top to bottom each time without stopping trying to find that burn. I found it, and I lost my breath. The only goal I didn’t accomplish was straight-lining with the intention of going so fast, my eyes tear. There were too many people around to open up the speed, so maybe next time.
Finally, I really liked seeing that Arapahoe Basin is still utilizing wind power. Making a ski resort green is not easy, but can be done. For more information about making a ski mountain as green as possible, visit Mountain Riders Alliance.
