Geography and Climate
The A-Basin East Wall has a summit elevation of 13,050 feet (3,978 m). It is widely regarded as the highest in-bounds skiable terrain in North America, but the Telluride resort boasts Palmyra Peak (13,320 ft (4,060 m)) and Silverton Mountain has terrain up to 13,487 feet (4,111 m). Due to its high elevation (at tree line) and its mostly north-to-northeast face, the Basin's ski season is much longer than most Colorado resorts. Arapahoe Basin is known for a clientele of hardcore, yet relaxed folks that like simply to ski and avoid the glamour associated with resorts like Aspen. It has been known to stay open until July and opens for the season in mid-October, often making it the first ski area to open in North America.
A-Basin is located just below Loveland Pass and offers a spectacular view of the Continental Divide (which it borders) from the lifts. From the top of the East Wall and the North Pole there are great views of Lake Dillon, Breckenridge, Keystone, Montezuma, and Loveland Pass.
The Basin is located about 68 miles (109 km) west of Denver, where Loveland and Eldora ski areas are somewhat closer, at 53 and 45 miles (72 km) respectively.
Read more about this topic: Arapahoe Basin
Famous quotes containing the words geography and, geography and/or climate:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)