A-Basin first resort to open in the US

19th October 2012, by Abi Butcher

One run opened in Arapahoe Basin on Wednesday

Around 2,000 skiers and snowboarders visited Arapahoe Basin in Colorado this week, the first US ski resort to officially open for the 2012-2013 ski season.

Arapahoe, near Keystone, is an exceptionally high day ski area — with pistes at an altitude of between 3,285m and 3,800m. It opened on Wednesday with one chairlift, Black Mountain Express, operating for an intermediate run.

The area, known locally as “A-Basin” has been snowmaking for around 12 days to build a base of 46cm, though around 3cm of snow fell on Tuesday night.
In Europe, the following resorts are open — and the figures in brackets are their reported based depths.

In Austria: Kaprun (90cm), Hintertux Glacier (65cm), Kaunertal glacier (49cm), Mölltal glacier (70cm), Pitztal glacier (52cm), Saas Fee (133cm), Sölden (52cm) and Stubai glacier (70cm); Tignes in France (40cm); Val Senales and Passo Stelvio (100cm) in Italy (30cm) and Zermatt in Switzerland (110cm).

Other European resorts, such as Cervinia, are currently opening on weekends only.

• snow
• colorado
• glacier
• arapahoe basin

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