Skiers head up the Lenawee Mountain lift at Arapahoe Basin on their reopening day May 27, 2020. Skiers and snowboarders must ride up with those they came with or will ride the lift solo. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)
ARAPAHOE BASIN — Sarah May got a little teary-eyed on her first trip up the Black Mountain Express chairlift Wednesday as skiers and riders attended reopening day at Arapahoe Basin following a 10-week shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
May and her boyfriend have ridden their snowboards in the backcountry a few times since Gov. Jared Polis ordered ski areas closed on March 15, but this was different. This felt like a step toward normalcy.
“I got a tad emotional on the chairlift,” May said after her first run down the mountain on mashed potato spring snow that felt nice and cushy under her feet. “We’ve really been working for our turns, hiking for them, but the privilege of being able to ride a chair is amazing, and I am very thankful.”
Cheri Paul of Silverthorne was so excited about getting to ski again that she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep, so she got up and made a thank-you poster for Alan Henceroth, A-Basin’s chief operating officer. Using a combination of stickers and hand-drawn letters, the sign said, “I never stopped believing. Thank you, Al! To ski is My Colorado’s High Country Healing So Love this place like a local, It’s our karma #Hope & #Love.”
Skiing and riding is by reservation only and is capped at 600 guests per day under terms of a public health variance allowing the area to reopen. A-Basin officials initially set up a first-come, first-served online system, but that crashed Monday night when 4,000 hit it at once.
RELATED: Skiers overwhelm Arapahoe Basin’s reservations system ahead of reopening
“We took the reservation thing live, and in Google Analytics you can actually see in real-time how many people are on a certain page of your website,” said communications manager Katherine Fuller. “That number was moving so fast, it was like a slot machine.”
On Tuesday, officials replaced that system with a lottery that gave hopeful skiers two hours to register. Winners were notified later by email.
“I felt like I won a golden ticket, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Paul said of the email congratulating her for winning a spot.
Ella Anderson and her sister Finley, of Evergreen, got dropped off by their mom for the day. The girls have been bored while stuck at home since quarantine began, especially after school ended for summer.
“It feels like things are going back to what they used to be, just by opening one ski resort,” said Ella, 12. “We just finished school and we have nothing to do. My mom was like, ‘This is our chance, you’ve got to go up.’ ”
It felt like healing.
“It really does,” said Finley, whose eighth-grade continuation ceremony was canceled because of the pandemic. “I didn’t have a continuation — or all the stuff we do at the end of the year, which is kind of upsetting — but at least I’m not a senior.”
First in line at the lift was self-described Leadville ski bum Billy Burkhardt, who said it took him only 50 minutes to make the trip here.
“But don’t tell the state troopers,” said Burkhardt, who logged 90 ski days for the season when the areas shut down and now hopes to break 100. “Leave it to A-Basin to give us this wonderful treat. It’s just a special day.”
In the lift maze, yellow signs marked off 6-foot increments for social distancing. Singles had chairs to themselves, but friends and family members could ride together. Before lift loading began, operations director Tony Cammarata addressed those in line, asking them to abide by the rules.
“If we all do this the right way, we can prove that we can do this,” Cammarata said later. “Everybody’s got to play their part. Everyone is going to have some responsibility, and I know these folks will. This is going to be awesome. I know it’s only 600 people, but boy, it feels good to get some folks back out on the snow.”
For now, A-Basin restaurants remain closed, but that could change later this week, Fuller said.
“It’s hopeful but still to be determined,” she said. “We want to see how skiing goes for a couple days and see what Summit County restaurants are doing before we make an official decision.”
A-Basin staffers celebrated the reprieve of the 2019-20 ski season and say they’re determined to make it work, despite new restrictions.
“Obviously a lot of people really want to get out on the hill and get riding,” Henceroth said. “We’re just so excited to be taking these first few steps. We’ve got a lot of people set up to be monitors. People are going to have to act responsibly, behave well and be cooperative. I think we’ll be just fine.
“We have to do this well,” he said. “Everybody’s watching.”
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An emotional day at Arapahoe Basin as the ski area reopens after coronavirus shutdown - The Know
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