Arapahoe Basin
The highest base area in North America, where the season runs until July.
Our Take
A-Basin is not Vail. It is aggressively, deliberately not Vail. There's no village, no ski-in/ski-out luxury condos, no parking valets -- just a big parking lot where people tailgate in lawn chairs until June and a mountain that sits so high the snow refuses to melt. The base lodge sits at 10,780 feet, making it the highest base area of any North American resort. The summit at 13,050 feet puts you legitimately above treeline on rocky tundra-adjacent terrain that rewards precision and punishes laziness. The East Wall is A-Basin's signature: a row of named chutes off the Continental Divide that drop 500 vertical feet through rock bands and convex rolls. You hike 20 minutes for 3-minute runs and consider it a good trade. The Beavers is the gladed expert zone that dumps you back into the main runs if you don't get cliff-barred first. And then there's the Montezuma Bowl expansion -- 468 new acres of above-treeline terrain they opened in 2008 that roughly doubled the resort's skiable footprint. A-Basin switched from Epic to Ikon in 2022. The regulars barely noticed. They were already in the parking lot.
Nerd Stats
Summit Elevation
13,050'
Base Elevation
10,780'
Skiable Acres
1,428
Avg Annual Snowfall
350"
Fun Facts
- A-Basin's season regularly runs into June -- occasionally July. Midsummer slush skiing in a parka is a rite of passage.
- The base area at 10,780 feet is the highest of any resort in North America. You're at altitude before you even click in.
- The East Wall chutes were accessed by bootpacking long before they installed the Lenawee lift. Old-timers still prefer the hike.
- A-Basin left the Epic Pass after 20+ years and joined Ikon in 2022. The tailgate lot threw a party.