It can feel like everything to be said about 2021 is already out there...
It was the tail end of the hardest ski season this team has ever managed. But through a year of digesting loss, unforeseen challenges, and unending change, the beautiful mountains of A-Basin remained steady. Our hope was to continue stewarding them to provide some rays of light in the forms of skiing, riding, hiking, climbing -- to keep our people employed and our greater Basin family playing outside.
It still turned out to be a good year, all things considered. We stayed open for skiing and riding into June, as planned. In the summer, we opened North America's highest-elevation via ferrata, completed the Wheels Up downhill mountain bike trail, brought back summer events like outdoor concerts and supper clubs, and started construction of a new on-mountain restaurant (Steilhang Hut is due to open in spring 2022).
We hope you found something here that you needed -- solace, joy, peace, thrill, community. And, of course, we hope you had fun! We certainly did; working here is a unique and fulfilling experience for everyone from lift maintenance to human resources and, in 2021, many of us felt an intensified appreciation and love for this place. When we couldn't do much else, we could at least go ski (or snowboard, or hike, or bike, or whatever).
Whether it was your first season or your 40th, we hope you felt at home at Arapahoe Basin last year. Thank you for sticking with us through all of 2021's twists and turns. Please enjoy the year in photos as selected by our supremely talented photographer Ian Zinner. From our family to yours, we wish you the best in 2022.
January - Showing off in the Treeline Terrain Park
January - View of the East Wall and Lenawee Lift
January - Lenawee chairs over freshly groomed snow
February - Pallavicini Lift over the Roller Coaster run
February - Pizza on pizza (aka living the good life in ski school)
February - Skiing the Steep Gullies
February - Montezuma Bowl
March - On the East Wall with Tanner Rainville
April - Sunset uphill skinning on Grizzly Road
April - The Mug Club mug, best enjoyed with a cold beverage on the 6th Alley deck
April - Colorado Blackpackers make their first group visit to A-Basin
May - Team Summit in the spirit of spring skiing
July - The aerial adventure park has its second season
July - Grand opening of the Arapahoe Basin via ferrata guided climbing experience
July - Grand opening of our new mountain bike trail, Wheels Up
August - We welcomed back the A-Basin trail run race series. Passing under Lenawee Lift on Upper Summer Road.
October 9 - A welcome Autumn snowfall with the snow guns in position on High Noon. A-Basin would open 8 days later on Oct. 17.
November 4 - Early-morning snowmaking with Tyler Magann
December - Skiing with patroller Lindsay Wiebold
December - Participants in the Rise n' Shine Rando race series on the bootpack
December - A-Basin Ski Patrol's newest member, Penny, on the shoulders of her handler Tim Walsh
December - Summit local Kelly Gafa surfing 6 inches of fresh powder in the Pali terrain
Celebrating a very Colorado Christmas on the A-Basin Beach
December 27- Fresh tracks in the newly opened Beavers terrain
