Howdy,
The last two days at Abasin have been epic. I'll be back next weekend for the closing. Here's some pics and vids.
Friday June 7
Top left to right. The HIPEVAN is at home at the Basin. First thing was a stop in at their awesome retail shop - Arapahoe Sports - which sells licensed Grateful Dead merch. I must have good karma. Because I scored a wonderfully perfect t-shirt that's staying in my drawer! "Spent a little time on the mountain, spent a little time on the hill" are lyrics from New Speedway Boogie, a favorite Dead song. Score! Coming up the Exhibition lift you can see there's still a lot of snow left for this time of year, although the run under the lift isn't open. Then you see the top of the Exhibition chairlift. There was one run open off of Exhibition - High Noon. It had good coverage.
Top left to right. High Noon has good coverage from the top to the bottom. I had a chairlift ride with this nice fella. He's skied every month of the year for 5 years straight. I believe he said his streak prior to COVID was 11 years. Impressive. Great to talk to ski bums. The top had basically 3 runs open - Humbug, Lenawee Face, and the West Wall. All with good coverage. I did a couple laps on Humbug and Lenawee Face then went over to the West Wall where just about no one was skiing. For my money this is the best view from any ski area I've been to. So beautiful. A nice person took a couple of pictures of me.
Top left to right. Panorama of my favorite view. Like I say, only a couple skiers skiing the West Wall side. Some nice giant bumps to have fun with on the lower West Wall. Did a couple more laps then went over to Black Mountain Lodge to hangout. It was lively. They were barbecuing (ew, yuck), good vibes. Then I skied down, called it quits. Saw this colorful character, which there are plenty of at the Basin. Then I saw Alan Henceroth, Abasin's COO. Alan is one of the good guys left in ski business. Such a good soul. Then I did apres at the HIPEVAN. Great day!
Saturday June 8
It wasn't quite as warm to start off the day when I got there at 8:00. So I caught a few Z's. I got on the Exhibition Chairlift at about 9:30 and immediately went back up to the top to ski the West Wall. It's the weekend, so more crowds. But still not crowded at all.
Then it was time to head over to Lake Reveal for some pond skiing. OMG. The Lake Reveal scene was off the hook today. Here's my first trip across but didn't get on video. However. As you can see, I have witnesses!
For my 2nd trip across, some a nice young lady I met on the chairlift offered to film me. She and her crew were awesome. I'm 3rd.
Like I say, Lake Reveal was going off today. There was even a DJ.
Such a good vibe at Lake Reveal today.
Top left to right. Nice young folks everywhere at the Basin. The 2nd is the young woman who took my pond crossing video and her crew. Great vibes all around. Panorama of Lake Reveal. From there back to Black Mountain to check out the scene. It was goin' off too. Back to the HIPEVAN for apres.
What a great two days of June skiing. Abasin is like no other. There's a reason why it's called the Legend - because it's legendary. I love the Basin, been skiing there since I was in grade school. So many trips. Looking forward to heading back next weekend for closing weekend.
tty next time,
