Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Arapahoe Basin Ski Resort, also known as A-Basin, is a popular ski destination located in Summit County, Colorado. The resort boasts over 1,400 skiable acres of terrain and offers a wide variety of runs for skiers and snowboarders of all abilities. The ski season at Arapahoe Basin typically runs from October to June, which is longer than most surrounding resorts due to A-Basin's higher altitude. A-Basin is known for being one of the first ski areas to open in North America, and one of the last ski areas to close, offering an extremely long ski season to enjoy.
In addition to its extensive skiing and snowboarding terrain, Arapahoe Basin also offers several other features for visitors to enjoy. These include numerous terrain parks, ski and snowboard lessons, on-mountain dining, and even events during the summer months like lift rides and an adventure park.
We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Arapahoe Basin Ski Area stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area is a part of the Mountain Collective network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the Collective.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Terrain Overview
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has a total of 147 ski trails, which are serviced by 9 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 1,428 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 578 hectares, 2.2 square miles, or 5.8 square kilometers.
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area's slopes see on average 350 inches (8.9 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 29 feet every year!
Total Runs
147
Lifts
9
Skiable Acres
1,428(6 km2)
Annual Snowfall
350"(889 cm)
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Elevation
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has a summit elevation of 13,050 feet, or 3,977 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 10,520 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,530 feet (771 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 13,050 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
13,050'(3,977 m)
Vertical Drop
2,530'(771 m)
Base Elevation
10,520'(3,206 m)
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
80.9out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has 1,428 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Seeing as Arapahoe Basin Ski Area is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 93% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 7% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Beginner
7%(100 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
20%(286 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
73%(1,042 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Arapahoe Basin Ski Area good for beginners?
This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Arapahoe Basin Ski Area ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 73% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Location
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Dillon, CO.
Address:
Dillon, CO 80435 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
arapahoebasin.com
GPS Coordinates:
39.72000, -104.79000
Getting to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Arapahoe Basin Ski Area), its coordinates of 39.72000, -104.79000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Dillon, CO to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver International Airport | DEN | Denver, CO | 12 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport | COS | Colorado Springs, CO | 63 mi |
| Cheyenne Regional Jerry Olson Field | CYS | Cheyenne, WY | 99 mi |
| Pueblo Memorial Airport | PUB | Pueblo, CO | 100 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buttermilk | Larkspur, CO | 9,900 ft | 34% | 34 mi |
| Echo Mountain Resort | Idaho Springs, CO | 10,650 ft | 28% | 39 mi |
| Eldora | Nederland, CO | 10,600 ft | 50% | 44 mi |
| Hoedown Hill | Windsor, CO | 5,000 ft | 1% | 51 mi |
| Winter Park Resort | Winter Park, CO | 12,060 ft | 86% | 52 mi |
| Ski Granby Ranch | Granby, CO | 9,202 ft | 32% | 55 mi |
| Loveland Ski Area | Dillon, CO | 13,010 ft | 65% | 59 mi |
| Keystone | Dillon, CO | 12,408 ft | 76% | 62 mi |
| Breckenridge | Breckenridge, CO | 12,998 ft | 83% | 68 mi |
| Copper Mountain | Frisco, CO | 12,441 ft | 69% | 76 mi |
| Vail | Vail, CO | 11,570 ft | 79% | 84 mi |
| Ski Cooper | Leadville, CO | 11,700 ft | 56% | 84 mi |
| Beaver Creek | Beaver Creek, CO | 11,440 ft | 64% | 93 mi |
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 13,050 ft |
| Base Elevation | 10,520 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,530 ft |
| Trails | 147 (7% Beginner, 20% Intermediate, 73% Expert) |
| Lifts | 9 |
| Skiable Acres | 1,428 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 350 inches |