There’s one place that comes to mind when I think about places that have changed over the years: Arapahoe Basin.
A-Basin wasn’t just another ski area to me. It felt like you had climbed onto the roof of Colorado. Up there on the Continental Divide, everything seemed bigger. The mountains. The sky. The wind. Even the hiking in ski equipment.
And I had something that made the whole experience even better: an employee ski pass for A-Basin and Keystone.
This was back when parking at the Beach was free.
Let me just say that again.
Free parking at the Beach.
That sounds like something from another era now.
Then There Was the Unwritten Bonus
If you knew the right people, there was another little perk that came with those days at A-Basin.
Across U.S. 6 was where you could go see the professor.
And if you knew the right people, you could get a free ride in the four-wheel-drive ambulance van all the way up to the summit of Loveland Pass.
Now, that was a mountain shuttle.
But as good as that free ride was, it wasn’t even the best part.
The Ride Back Down
The real prize was what happened after you got to the top.
You could ski off-piste from the summit of Loveland Pass back down toward A-Basin.
No groomed run.
No chairlift.
No waiting in line.
Just the mountain.
You got a free ride to the top, and then gravity handled the transportation back down.
That was the kind of thing that made A-Basin special.
I had an employee pass for A-Basin and Keystone. I could park at the Beach for free. I could hike around the Continental Divide. And if I knew the right people, I could get a ride to the summit of Loveland Pass and ski my way back down.
That wasn’t just going skiing.
That was having a backstage pass to the mountains.
Why I Remember It
Maybe that’s why A-Basin sticks with me.
I don’t just remember the skiing.
I remember the whole experience.
The mountains. The hiking. The Continental Divide. The free parking. The employee pass. The people I knew. The four-wheel-drive ambulance van climbing toward the summit of Loveland Pass.
And then that beautiful little reward waiting at the top:
skiing back down.
Places change. People change. Life changes.
But every once in a while, a memory comes along that still feels exactly right.
I didn’t just have a ski pass. I had a whole mountain adventure.
For me, A-Basin is one of those memories.
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