Even as our food has become some of the best in the business, even as we have grown to include summer operations, A-Basin is-ultimately-still run by passionate skiers and riders who want this place to be about an awesome experience. Our commitment to the joy of skiing and riding is unwavering, as is our desire to steward this special landscape. But, we still feel just as passionate as our founders did when they first laid eyes on this place. Marnie would later say that it was "Larry's courage and heart that kept Arapahoe going." Much has evolved over the years, from major terrain expansions to unique restaurant additions, and A-Basin now operates one of the youngest lift fleets in the country with a winter-season staff of more than 400 people. When the 1946-47 season ended, a total of 1200 people had visited and A-Basin was $45,000 in debt. Nicknamed “The Monster,” skiers got three rides in the hulking 4x4 for a $1.25 lift ticket. A-Basin was the first post-WWII ski area to open in Colorado and is the oldest in Summit County (home to 4 major ski areas). That first season, skiers were transported to the base of the rope tow in a surplus Army weapons carrier pulled by a four-wheel drive vehicle. Forest Service ranger Wilfred "Slim" Davis, A-Basin opened after just five months of prep work with one rope tow from mid-mountain to the summit, and grew to become one of the most beloved ski areas in the country. With the help of his eventual wife, Marnie, plus Thor Groswold, Dick Durrance, Max and Edna Dercum, and U.S. Larry sank his life savings of $25,000 into A-Basin. In the basin below Loveland Pass, they saw potential to re-create the high, steep, snowy skiing they loved in the Alps. The two former ski racers and WWII veterans (10th Mountain Division) had been hired to survey Colorado’s winter sports potential. Larry Jump and Sandy Schauffler formed a ski company and put together a proposal for Arapahoe Basin only a few months after laying eyes on our location. The History of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area A Legend in Colorado Ski History Since 1946 Arapahoe Basin came to life in 1946 not as a corporate fever-dream or calculated business venture, but as a scrappy, shoestring passion project literally hand-built and partially funded by our ski-obsessed founders.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |