Skiing Colorado a Rocky Mountain high

Sam Bauman

Last week's trip to Colorado to sample some Rocky Mountain skiing worked out well, except for a bit of thoughtlessness on my part.

I had made arrangements to demo Rossignol's B-1 and B-2 skis in preparation for replacing my delaminating Machete 187cms. Rossignal did its part with the fine help of local reps Steve Gibb and Scott McDill.

Heavenly snowboard instructor David Rittenhouse and I headed for Arapahoe Basin on our first day at Keystone. This was a return to where I learned to ski some 50 years ago and it was a delight to find much of the place still its natural self (although snowmaking has been added to America's highest resort, base 10,780 feet, top 13,050 feet). A-Basin was 480 acres then and it is now. It's not a mountain for lower intermediates.

In place of the old single chair which required a step up a mound of snow to mount, there is a fixed three-seater. And as a matter of note, all five chairlifts at A-Basin are fixed two- or tree-seaters, which keeps crowds on the slopes down.

The runs are much the same, with the East Wall a single black, challenging gate-controlled area, closed when we were there. New is the Pallavichini, a double black almost all bumps with the exception of Grizzly Road run. We took the Gauthier, which on the trail map looked like an outer edge reasonably easy affair. It wasn't. Huge bumps, near vertical steeps, with a skinny cat track to get back to the main area.

I was on the B-1s that day and the skiing on the easier runs was all right if not spectacular as the B-1s had been at Heavenly in the past.

Wednesday we went to Beaver Creek, which turned out to be a superb ski area, even though access is a major problem. Crowds at the base were immense, but because of the vast area there was no problem on the hill.

From the Elk Meadow parking lot a bus hustles riders up to the village, then three escalators pick up the job. The Centennial four-seat detachable takes one up to the similar Cinch express that tops out at 11,400 feet. From there one can branch out all over the three peaks. We spent a lot of time in the Grouse Mountain, enjoying the Raven Ridge and Camprobber runs among others.

Most of the Beaver more advanced runs were half-groomed, which allowed less advanced skiers and riders to enjoy the steeps without the bumps. Fine for me as my knee isn't recovered enough for the bumps.

Beaver Creek was probably the best-developed of the five areas we tried on the trip. Yet to come next week are Vail, Breckenridge and Keystone.

Lift tickets at Beaver Creek were $73, at A-Basin $47. But Heavenly season passes are good at all five resorts we sampled. The five tickets would have cost $324. That makes buying a Heavenly season ticket a special bargain if skiing Colorado is planned.

- Northstar-at-Tahoe plays host to the world's best snowboarders March 5-7, as the Vans North American Championships of Snowboarding come to North Lake Tahoe for the finale of the Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding. Danny Kass, Tommy Czeschin, Andy Finch, Steve Fisher, Tara Dakides, Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark lead the charge for the overall Vans Triple Crown Men's and Women's titles as more than 100 professional boarders vie for a prize purse in excess of $125,000 and the keys to a 2004 Ford Ranger FX4 truck.

- Lake Tahoe Cruises and Zephyr Cove Resort, both operated by ARAMARK, have introduced a new Ski Shuttle Package that bundles transportation from Tahoe's South Shore to the slopes of Squaw Valley with an apres ski dinner dance cruise. For $129 per person, guests receive luxury coach transportation to Squaw Valley Ski Resort from Zephyr Cove Resort or any casino area Stateline South Shore property, a box breakfast, an all-day lift ticket and a cruise back home across the lake on the Tahoe Queen featuring a buffet dinner and live entertainment from the Steve Walker band.

Note: Reservations are required and must be made and prepaid at least 24 hours prior to departure. Call 1-800-223-TAHOE.

Sam Bauman is the Nevada Appeal Diversions Editor. Contact him at sbauman@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1236.