Inside the little-known US ski resort with one of the world's longest winters

Winter is coming, is the much quoted phrase from Game of Thrones but for one particular resort in the United States, it’s never left. Little known to Brits, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado has announced the resort will be fully operational, seven days a week, until June 2.

After that date it will be open from Friday to Sunday for as many long weekends as possible in June. It means A-Basin, as it’s also known, will end up having one of the longest seasons of any resort in the northern hemisphere, having welcomed its first skiers seven months ago on October 20.

Just 68 miles from Denver, A-Basin is able to keep its doors open to business thanks to its lofty altitude - the ski area stretches from 3,200m at the base to 4,000m at its highest point. It’s considerably higher than the highest resorts in Europe, Val Thorens and Tignes, where the slopes reach a comparatively modest 3,200m and 3,450m respectively.

The longevity of A-Basin’s season is also thanks to the resort receiving a hefty average snowfall. Up until April this year just under 8m of snow had fallen on its slopes and with average May snowfall of 76cm by the end of the season the figure is likely to be closer to 9m. It places A-Basin in the same league as the snowiest resort in Europe, Warth Shröcken in Austria, with a seasonal average of 10.5m

A-Basin has benefited from the snow falling consistently throughout the season with a big spike in October and November when just over two metres fell enabling the resort to open two weeks early. A further 1.5m fell in the first nine days of March followed by another 55cm during the rest of the month.

The resort’s chief operating officer Alan Henceroth says, “The March skiing was absolutely, unbelievably, over the top incredible.” Equally importantly it provided the resort with more than enough snow coverage to stay open through May and into June. It’s been a slightly better than average year for A-Basin but for others in North America it’s been record breaking. The California resorts of Mammoth Mountain and Squaw Valley enjoyed 5.8m and 8m of fresh snow respectively in February alone, thanks to it being the US’s wettest ever recorded winter.

A-Basin’s long season is only one of the reasons it has been in the spotlight this season. As I experienced first hand on a visit in late February, the Colorado resort has considerably enhanced its appeal to locals and international visitors by doubling the size of its ski area. For a European scale equivalent, think Les Gets’ local ski area, although unlike this French family-friendly resort Araphaoe Basin has more of a cult, hardcore vibe, similar to the French resort of La Grave,  thanks to its many hike-to double black diamond runs, equating to the steepest and toughest of European black runs.

Many of the most challenging are found on A-Basin and Lenawee mountains, connected by a ridge and forming a dramatic crescent shaped backdrop to the resort’s original ski area. Here predominantly single black (European tough red) and double black diamond runs lie next to a smattering of blues, all served by three chairlifts.

The resort first expanded its terrain in January 2008 with the addition of Montezuma Bowl on the backside of the mountain. The 400 acres of additional terrain, served by a newly installed chairlift, was the biggest terrain expansion in North America in 2008. In keeping with A-Basin’s hardcore image, the runs accessed by the lift are mostly double-black diamonds.

A-Basin’s latest terrain expansion, created in its 72nd year, is located to the right of the front ski area as you look at the piste map, and has the evocative title The Beavers and The Steep Gullies. It adds 468 new acre acres, 34 new runs and a new chairlift servicing the Beavers area. The terrain expansion, featuring rolling trails, open bowls, runs through the trees and rocky chutes, was the largest in the US for the 2018/2019 season and grew A-Basin’s acreage by nearly 50 per cent, bringing the total to 1,428 acres.

I was particularly taken by the 22 new single black runs in the The Beavers area, mostly through the trees. They are well spaced to make them relatively easy to navigate, though tight enough to mean you have to stay fully alert. My favourites were Peaceful Valley, Dreamcatcher, Big Horn and Glockenspiel Glad for the length and relatively gentle pitch of the runs, the quality of the snow and for being flattering enough to make me feel like I was really getting to grips with tree skiing.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the long, flowing blue pistes, Loafer and Davis where on these reassuringly quiet slopes we sped up and carved long arcing turns, well at least it felt that way.

After each of these runs we’d ascend up the new $4m Beaver quad lift to take us back to the top from where you are perfectly located  to ski back to The Beavers, into Montezuma Bowl or down the front side of the ski area. One time we chose to ski from here down The Steep Gullies, an area previously accessible but now avalanche controlled as its officially part of the ski area. There are five to choose from with imaginatively titled SG1 to SG5, each heading through rocky terrain, and at a vertigo-inducing post 35 degree pitch. From the bottom of our run of choice, SG3, we joined the Grand Portage trail, turning into Steep Gullies Hike Back - it takes 20 minutes -  to access one of the resort’s main arterial lifts, the Pallavicini.

This current increase in ski terrain has been a long time coming. According to Henceroth the resort took its first tentative steps to expanding the ski area 20 years ago. First it had to get approval from US Forest Service as the ski resort’s terrain is on National Forest land which, among other things, involves creating a master development plan and environmental impact statement. The development was approved in late 2016 and during the following two summers the lift was installed and 26 acres of trees were cleared to accommodate the Loafer and Davis blue runs. To minimise the environmental impact helicopters were used to clear felled trees.

Hencerorth says the numbers of skiers to A-Basin has doubled in the previous 15 years to 550,000 this season with four per cent made up of international visitors. “We created this terrain to keep up with demand and create plenty of space for visitors. We knew our guests would love it.”

For the previous 10 years A-Basin was covered by Vail Resort’s Epic Pass, covering many North American resorts and a handful of international ones too. But the resort has become a victim of the pass’s success. In an interview with the Colorado Sun, earlier in the year, Henceroth said, “We are pretty darn full on weekends and we don’t need any more people on weekends. If anything, we could probably whittle those numbers down a little bit.”

As for the future A-Basin is not planning to rest on its laurels, this year building a via ferrata and an aerial adventure park for summer visitors, and in the summer of 2020 upgrading two existing chairlifts the Molly Hogan, serving a beginner area, and the Pallavicini.

Welcome though these further developments are, the real game changer for skiers and snowboarders is this season’s terrain expansion. While A-Basin’s still relatively limited ski area means its unlikely to be a one-stop destination for international travellers, its significant expansion makes it extremely appealing if doing a road trip to Colorado’s best ski areas, or at least as a day trip or more if staying in neighbouring Keystone or Brit-favourite Breckenridge a 50-minute bus ride away.

This season two European resorts are hoping to have increased their appeal by expanding their terrain too. La Rosière in France has invested £15 million to increase the size of its ski area with two speedy new chairlifts and a network of red pistes. There has been a massive £1.2 billion investment in Andermatt over the last couple of seasons and this season saw the final piece in the jigsaw – a gondola linking Andermatt’s ski area with neighbouring resort Sedrun.