{"id":4667,"date":"2015-10-29T16:27:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T22:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.powder7.com\/ski-blog\/?p=4667"},"modified":"2016-03-13T11:17:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T17:17:10","slug":"opening-day-at-arapahoe-basin-the-fiestastravaganza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.powder7.com\/ski-blog\/opening-day-at-arapahoe-basin-the-fiestastravaganza\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Day at Arapahoe Basin – The Fiestastravaganza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ski Season is OPEN in Colorado<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening Day at A-Basin: The Fiestastravaganza\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"basin-from-pass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

10\/29\/2015 – Arapahoe Basin, Colorado.<\/p>\n

Ski season in Colorado opened today, and I selflessly went skiing so that I could share the details with you.<\/p>\n

You’re welcome.<\/p>\n

Opening day is about more than just making turns. \u00a0It is a celebration of the season to come and of seasons past. \u00a0It’s a celebration of every ski story you’ve shared with friends over beers or hot chocolate. \u00a0It is a reawakening of your unused skiing muscles (I refer to mine as “baby necks” –\u00a0they aren’t strong enough to support me for the first few ski days, maybe I should do more conditioning in the offseason…). \u00a0 The sights, sounds, and smells you’ve missed since hanging up your boots last spring come flooding back with gusto, and will leave your face sore from smiling.<\/p>\n

If I can only share one piece of advice, let it be this – \u00a0Get there EARLY. \u00a0As most Denver metro area skiers know, beating I-70 traffic takes some guts, and this time it meant getting up before everyone else. \u00a0I was out the door at an ungodly hour, and ended up with a spot in the 2nd row of the main lot at about 7:00am. \"open-day-road-2\"<\/a>\u00a0Not even first row, 2nd row. \u00a0Geez. \u00a0A glance toward\u00a0the chair showed that there was already a sizeable line, and chairs wouldn’t start to spin until 9:00. \u00a0Rather than wait in the life line, I headed in to the A-Frame to scope the scene. \u00a0Turns out there was an even longer line for the A-Basin Mug Club than there was for the chair. \u00a0The mugs cost $45 and hang in the bar all season, individually numbered so nobody else gets to drink from your mug, and you get $1 off your drinks, all season.
\nAt the end of the season, you get to take your prized mug home with you. \u00a0Because there are a limited number of mugs, many seasoned Opening Day veterans skip the jostling for first chair in favor of the jostling for mugs. \u00a0Based on the line for these coveted mugs at 7:15am on opening day, the A Basin crowd is looking for serious commitment to both skiing and partying, be it in the parking lot or at the 6th Alley Bar\u00a0(where you can find one of the best Bloody Marys you’ll ever have. \u00a0My advice: get one with regular vodka and\u00a0add bacon as a garnish.\"bar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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After braving the mug line and securing my mug for the season, I walked\u00a0outside just in time for the countdown to first chair. \u00a0Cheers and poles clanking ushered in the first chair of the season. \u00a0I stopped at the car, struggled into my boots, clicked into my early and late season skis – the Kastle XX80 Colby, 80mm underfoot, symmetrical, soft flexing twintips – and skated to the singles line, of which there were 3. \u00a0The crowd, despite the palpable excitement, was very well behaved and alternated without guidance from the lifties, and in less than 10 minutes, I was on my first chair of the season.<\/p>\n

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\"first-chair\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As usual, opening day features limited terrain options, and in this case at A Basin, a single blue run – High Noon – is the only option for the baying crowd of turn-starved snow devotees. \u00a0Crowding over-excited skiers and snowboarders, of all ability levels, onto a single run, creates a unique and potentially\u00a0dangerous ski experience. \u00a0As such, opening day skiing is known as braving the White Ribbon of Death. \u00a0I’d say it’s like the lovechild of Chinese Downhill and the last hour of an open-bar wedding featuring a really good mariachi band. \u00a0Stay with me here. \u00a0Everyone is so excited to be skiing that they approach the slope as though they’ve been training like an Olympian, but their ski legs are about as strong as baby necks, which leads to plenty of close calls and shouts from patrol to slow down. \u00a0Add\u00a0the fact that many participants are liberally imbibing either in the bar, their car, or even in the lift line – both discreetly with flasks and blatantly shotgunning Silver Bullets, plus the popularity of wearing costumes, and you get\u00a0the Opening Day Ski Fiestastravaganza found nowhere else. \u00a0If you’ve never been to opening day, do yourself a favor and go next season.<\/p>\n

Things I Saw at the Opening Day Ski Fiestastravaganza, an Incomplete List:<\/p>\n