FIRST TRACKS: A-Basin’s opening weekend gets the engine revving
I’ll admit it. At first I was a skeptic. When a friend described the early season skiing experience at Arapahoe Basin as riding “the white ribbon of death” – far too many people sharing one run of sketchy man made snow – it did not serve as the best advertisement.
I even drove past it on Saturday, choosing Loveland Pass instead of the tunnel, mainly to fulfill a voyeuristic need to see the first weekend of the 2007 ski season with my own eyes. It wasn’t encouraging. A long lift line sat below what resembled the aftermath of someone kicking over an ant hill. A dark cloud had settled over the continental divide, and fat, wet snowflakes fell in barely freezing temperatures. I moved on without regret for not stopping.
But waking up the next morning on my buddy’s couch in Denver, looking out, seeing the blue sky and the snow-covered mountains above the city, that unmistakable motivation took over. Next thing I knew, I was back on the interstate.
Slapping down the credit card for the $43 lift ticket prompted revenge fantasies against the corporate ski world. But I was operating on blind faith.
Funny how all it takes are a few GS turns down a steep pitch to take away any misgivings. Something as simple as muscle memory and a sharp edge digging into snow and all that matters is the next run. Back in the lift line, breath heavy with exhilaration, all I could think was “it’s good to be back.”
Further affirmation that I made the right choice came when I overheard a lady in line say ‘this is so much better than yesterday.” Sure enough, the wet, forbidding snow that fell the day before had added just enough natural stuff to A-Basin’s man-made 18 inches that it was possible to forget it was early season.
Sharing the laps with some friends from Summit County made the day feel even more like the real thing. Staring up with hunger to the craggy chutes above the Basin that wind their way down the continental divide has officially put me in the winter mindset. Unfortunately, in my hometown of Aspen, the lifts don’t start spinning for another six weeks. But give it a few more feet of snow and the chutes above A-basin will be mine for the taking. The ski season is on and it is now only a matter of time.
It is truly good to be back.
