SCALING THE EAST WALL PEAKS FOR EXTREME SKIING

Arapahoe Basin has snow. A lot of it. But to call A-Basin a ski resort is an insult to other resorts. There's no town. There's no lodging. There's no mid-mountain chalet. There's no summit lodge. There's just a parking lot on the side of the road. And there's just 6 lifts. And on the day I skied there, only five were running and one of them was the 3 pole lift on the kiddie hill and another was the "magic carpet" surface lift for the ski school, so really, there's just 3. A-Basin, however, has snow. Did I mention that? A lot of snow. The reason is that the base of the "resort" is 10780 feet, almost as high as any point at Vail.

To get to A-Basin, you head down the I-70 east from Vail towards Denver. Pass Copper Mountain. Drive through Frisco (Breckenridge). Continue on past Silverthorne (Keystone) and follow the winding road up into the mountains towards the Loveland Pass. Pull into the dirt parking lot, get your gear on and get you ass on the hill. It's that kind of place (aka no-nonsense).

Take the lift up. At mid-mountain there are two lifts, but one, the Norway Lift, is out of commission, so there's only one. But this one lift services a massive bowl so while I the whole day on this on lift, I never got bored.

The weather was perfect. Almost too perfect. I was dressed for chilly weather, but since there wasn't a cloud in the sky nor any wind to speak of, I headed down at lunch and exchanged my ski jacket and few layers for my Dale of Norway sweater.

DALE OF NORWAY AND I AT A-BASIN

From the top of the lift at A-Basin, you have a few choices. After you take in the amazing scenery of the natural bowl that gives A-Basin it's name, you can go left to the West Wall where you can get a view of both Breckenridge and Keystone and some steep terrain off the terrifying cornice. You can go right and hit the trees and some nice cruisers. You can go way right into to the traverse of the East Wall where there's a huge open bowl with lots of steeps and plenty of rocks. The truly hearty can hike to the top of the East Wall and navigate through the fresh powder of the rock lined chutes.

There didn't seem to be many skiers on the hill. Maybe something like 200. There were no lift lines despite only one lift running at the top. I took 20-30 rides and only had company on the lift three times. I'd hate to see what A-Basin is like on a crowded day.

I'm not sure I'm going to rush back to A-Basin, unless it's sometime in July when I get the urge to ski and it's the only place open, but it was a fun day and I'm pleased I got to experience some of the majesty of the high Rockies before I left Colorado.