A-basin or Keystone for couple hours?

[Dr. Crash]

I will check out the zoo at SIA tomorrow morning then head to Frisco. Where should I ski on my way up, between A-basin and Keystone. Thinking A-basin will remind me of my home Alpental.

[raisingarizona13]

You already know the answer

[Vets]

A-Basin

[GPP33]

A basin. You'll spend half of your alloted time just walking across the little town at the base of Keystone and the the other half getting to something worth skiing.

[Benny Profane]

Yeah, holy crap. I never ski there, but picked up my pass there a week ago. Man, they make you walk a mile just to get to a lift at that place.

Is that cat skiing up on top any good?

[hatchgreenchile]

Cat terrain is quite flat, and it's a long walk from North Peak.
A-Basin for sure. Great steep trees and the upper mountain is always fun on a sunny day. Enjoy!

[jvskinn]

Personally, I'm headed to a-basin for the day, might be interesting with all the wind and little bit of snow that's falling right now

[The SnowShow]

ABasin no question. Pali Lift is 15 steps from the parking lot, just lapping that for a few hours will put a smile on your face. So will Zuma Cornice.

[adrenalated]

Of those two, A-Basin no question. Laps on Pali.

If you're buying lift tickets, I'd suggest Loveland too. Even less driving = more skiing, and chair 1 is plenty entertaining for a few hours.

[BetweenBenders]

"and chair 1 is plenty entertaining for a few hours."

No its not, go to Basin, ride Pali

[galibier_numero_un]

For a couple of hours, you'll waste quality time if you ski anything other than Pali. Make sure you explore the runs, skiers left of Palivaccini - the Alleys (David's Run, 2nd-4th Alley).

Pali Lift bonus gnar points: West Turbo. Ski under the Pali lift (Turbo) and about 40% of the way down, duck into the woods on the left (there's a trail sign). It's about 50 yards of delicate tip-toeing around, maybe one kick turn, some downward side-stepping (so you don't catch an edge on any exposed tree roots and take a fall that I'd rather you don't take). That's the most technical part, and then you're in a nice chute which doesn't tend to get bumped up until the bottom. It sees relatively little traffic.

If you have say 3-4 hours, you can sample some of Montezuma bowl. The best way to do this (while enduring minimal flat riding) is from the top of the Pali lift:

• Drop into Slalom slope off the back side of Pali.
• Ski down Slalom Slope and continue trending right and down, past the Black Mountain Lodge (mid-mountain restaurant), trend right, down to the Lenawee lift.
• From the top of the Lenawee lift, it's a short skate/shuffle to the back side (top of Montezuma)

Two good options for 'Zuma - 'Zuma Right and Left:

• For 'Zuma right (Zuma cornice), take off your skis and walk up about 100 yards toward the weather towers. You don't have to go as high as the weather towers. Put your skis on where the snow fence ends. This lower traverse merges with the upper one.
• For 'Zuma left, cross over to skiers left of the top of the chair and take the Mountain Goat traverse. Fun, short pitches. If you head further along in a left trending zig zag (drop off the traverse into a short pitch, traverse left, short pitch, traverse left, etc.), and depending on how high you stay, you'll cross over into Elk meadows (very mellow). From there, trend leftward into three tree runs (Torrey's, Gray's and Bierstadt - named after three nearby 14-ers).

Cheers,
Thom

[MontuckyFried]

Is this a rhetorical question?

[Leshphilling77]

as I drove past keystone on my way to the basin today I was like damn no way would I do that.

[eras94]

No its not, go to Basin, ride Pali

This is pretty on point with anytime I think going to another epic pass mountain will be more fun than A-Basin.