Ski Trip Report 1 - First day of the season

There is one good thing about living in Colorado and skiing, and that's that sometimes you get some good deals. In fact, some of the deals are just too good to pass up. Every year, I sign up for the Colorado Gems card, which is designed to promote the smaller ski areas in Colorado. I won't call them ski resorts because they aren't resorts. They're pretty quiet, simple ski areas. They have lifts to the top of the mountain, a lodge with restaurant, a rental shop, a ski school, and that's about it. What they don't have, generally, are long lines, ski-in condos, gondolas, and all the trappings of a "ski destination." They're smaller than that, and that's where I like to ski.

The Colorado Gems card offers discounts on lift tickets at the participating areas and, occasionally other perks. One such perk was a free lift ticket at Arapahoe Basin, to be used before 11/22/06. As such, it was too good a deal to pass up. We're talking early season conditions, so there's little chance of waist deep powder. Then again, we're talking early season conditions for me as well, so we're probably talking very tired legs early in the day. With that in mind, a free lift ticket is almost perfect.

So, off I went to A Basin on Sunday November 19. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to pick the same day to go skiing. From Woodland Park, the easiest way to get there is to take US24 to CO9, go through Fairplay, over Hoosier Pass and through Breckenridge. Breckenridge seemed to be heaving with skiers. I hoped that would take some of the pressure off A Basin, but it wasn't to be. The parking lots were full.

There was only one lift heading up from the base area operating, and there was quite a line. Once I got up from the base, every lift trip afterwards involved a lot of standing in line. In fact, most of the time, I had to side step up to get to the end of the lift line. I think that I tired mysef out more getting on the lift than anything else.

I didn't get a lot of skiing done, but I did enjoy what skiing I did. I proved to myself that I can still throw myself down a mountain side on 2 planks, and survive. I don't know how I looked doing it, but I enjoyed myself. I didn't see a whole load of runs, or add up a huge amount of vertical feet, but that wasn't the point. In the end, I skied, I enjoyed it, and I walked away without injury.

Oh, and for the record the free day promotion worked. I will be back to A Basin at some point. I've skiied there before, but I had more fun this time. Soon, the snow will pile up there, and the area will open up. When that happens, I'll go again, but on a quieter day. There have to be some advantages to working for yourself.