What’s next for Arapahoe Basin after sale to Alterra Mountain Company?
Summit County ski area known for unpretentious, old-school vibe. Will that change?
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Since he was 3 years old, Leon Joseph Littlebird has skied Arapahoe Basin every winter. That’s 71 years. He cherishes the unpretentious vibe of the area, founded in 1946 by two World War II veterans who trained with the 10th Mountain Division ski troops near Leadville. Some call A-Basin “The Legend.” Littlebird calls it his “fountain of youth.”
“That’s still the feeling I get every year,” he said. “I walk up and go, ‘I’m a kid again, here we go.’ I have real emotional roots there. That place is just magic to me.”
So when Denver-based Alterra Mountain Company announced in February that it planned to buy the classic ski area, located along U.S. Highway 6 at the foot of Loveland Pass, Littlebird had some serious misgivings. “My initial emotional response to the sale was negative,” said Littlebird, whose ancestors include 19th-century Colorado pioneers and members of the Navajo and Ute tribes. “It was like, ‘Here we go, it’s going to get expensive, they’re going to raise the price of everything. Are they going to make this into a luxury-resort-priced place?’”
Those concerns were understandable. A-Basin’s owner at the time was Canadian real estate developer Dream Unlimited, which had run it since 1997, greatly expanding the mountain’s skiable terrain while preserving its old-school charm. Alterra, on the other hand, is owned by KSL Capital Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm, and Chicago-based Henry Crown and Company, owners of a vast array of assets including the Aspen Skiing Company. In 2024, Forbes ranked the Crown family as the 30th richest in the U.S.
Formed in 2017, Alterra acquired five ski areas from Intrawest Resorts, including Steamboat. It also took over management of Winter Park, which is owned by the city and county of Denver and had been managed by Intrawest. Alterra now owns 19 resorts in North America, along with Ikon Pass, which is the primary competition to Vail’s Epic Pass.
Littlebird felt better, though, after talking to A-Basin’s longtime chief operating officer, Alan Henceroth, whom he considers a friend he can trust.
“Al says everything’s going to stay the same, and that they’re coming to preserve the magic of A-Basin, not to change it,” Littlebird said. “Al said he was relieved that the sale had gone through. I was like, ‘OK, well, he’s looking forward to it and he’s staying on board. It looks like the leadership and direction is going to stay consistent.’ I have to just wait and see what happens.”
Thousands of loyal A-Basin skiers are waiting to make their own decisions now that the sale has gone through (it closed in November). But it may take some time. New ownership will submit a new 10-year plan to the U.S. Forest Service this winter outlining its goals. But unlike some other Colorado resorts, the mountain doesn’t have much room to grow.
That’s just fine with Littlebird.
Arapahoe Basin has always been a place to ski, not to pose, he said. “It was the place where you weren’t going to show off your fancy silver one-piece suit, you were going there in the gear you’ve had for years to ski and ski hard. There was almost a secret handshake.”
Planning for the future
Henceroth seems convinced that won’t change under Alterra ownership. “They love The Basin,” he said. “They understand our culture and vibe. They know it’s something really, really special, and they know the mountain is really special. We’re completely in sync.”
Now that the sale to Alterra is final, Henceroth and his team are putting the final touches on a new “master development plan” for the area.
Master development plans are required by the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the land on and around Colorado ski areas. Typically the ski slopes are owned by the forest service while the base areas are situated on private land. In the case of A-Basin, the forest service owns both.
Ski areas file new master plans every 10 to 12 years, outlining improvements they may want to pursue in the future. Once the forest service “accepts” a plan, specific elements must go through environmental reviews before the agency will actually approve them.
A-Basin’s existing master development plan took effect in 2012, and leaders there were well into the planning process for a new one when the sale to Alterra was announced. At that point, planning was put on hold pending a review of the sale by the U.S. Department of Justice, but it resumed after the deal closed in November. Henceroth plans to submit the new plan to the White River National Forest in a couple of months.
Under the current plan, Dream nearly tripled the skiable terrain from 490 acres to 1,428. That included opening the massive backside of the mountain, Montezuma Bowl, in 2008. A decade later there was an expansion into what had been a hike-to area on the frontside, known as the Beavers and Steep Gullies. A lift was installed in 2018.
“We’re not looking at any expansions at this time,” Henceroth said, “and a major expansion like Montezuma Bowl or The Beavers seems really unlikely.”
Ardent locals needn’t worry about condominiums, lodging, retail or fancy restaurants ruining the vibe.
“Our base area is on public land and is tiny,” Henceroth said. “Any kind of dramatic, large commercial base area development, that’s just not possible here.”
Instead, the master development plan “is going to be focused on really improving the skiing experience,” he continued. “That’s going to involve an expansion of some of our buildings and facilities. It’s going to include some very nice improvements to our guest arrival experience. We are going to add a little bit of parking, not a lot, and we’re going to try to move people around a lot easier and better. We’re going to do some upgrades to snowmaking. We’re going to continue to be really focused on the ski experience.”
A forest service spokesperson said the new master plan would only cover potential improvements within A-Basin’s existing permit area, adding that A-Basin’s owners have committed to hosting a public meeting and making their plans publicly available before they submit them to the USFS.
Che Caballero, who has served on the ski patrol for eight years, has heard good things about how Alterra manages its mountains.
“We have the opportunity to talk to all of our colleagues from around the state about what it’s like to work for Alterra,” said Caballero, who is involved in efforts to unionize the ski patrol.
“From what they’ve told me, and what they’ve told some of my co-workers and friends, they (Alterra) don’t come in and steamroll your operation,” he added. “They want Arapahoe Basin because it has such a (unique) product that they like.”
“In some ways, it’s been really good”
Alterra chief executive Jared Smith backed up that notion, telling The Denver Post that the reasons his company wanted to buy A-Basin were its “uniqueness,” as well as the connection it has with its loyalists and how well it has been run.
“We don’t anticipate many changes,” Smith said. “In our operating models, since the very early days of Alterra, we honestly believe that decision-making is best made as close to our guests and our employees as possible. The authenticity of the mountain and the best decision-making comes from those who are most intimately involved in the day-to-day operation of these really unique businesses and really unique communities.
“I can’t think of anyone at any ski resort or ski area in North America that makes that true more than Arapahoe Basin and Alan Henceroth and the team that’s there,” he added.
Since acquiring Steamboat seven years ago, Alterra has spent more than $220 million on improvements that include a 655-acre expansion on Mahogany Ridge, which made Steamboat the second-largest ski area in Colorado behind Vail.
Other projects included a new two-stage gondola, moving a beginner area out of the base area to a location higher on the mountain in order to relieve base area congestion, improving the base area with a new food and drink hall, and a skating rink.
Andrew Stoller, who has lived in Steamboat for two decades, is mostly supportive of what Alterra has done there.
“You can tell Steamboat is an important resort to them, and the amount of dollars they’ve put into it is pretty huge,” said Stoller, general manager of the Ski Haus, an independent ski shop.
“In some ways, it’s been really good. To move the beginner area to its own separate location that isn’t where everyone comes down at the end of the day, that has been a really good improvement. It helps the flow of the mountain. With the new gondola, they have definitely alleviated congestion at the base. That was a huge issue.”
Management of the resort hasn’t changed much, Stoller said. “What’s changed,” he added, “is that they’re giving them money to do things.”
He says inadequate parking remains a “huge issue” that hasn’t been addressed, although resort officials are working on plans to alleviate that.
That Alterra has left the management team in place at Steamboat may reassure A-Basin regulars.
“From Day One, Alterra has put an emphasis on the autonomy of the resorts to remain true to their brands,” said Steamboat spokeswoman Loryn Duke, who has worked there for 16 years. “It has prided itself on making sure resorts stay true to who they are and their audiences, empowering the resorts to lead their organizations the best way they know how.”
“A great sign”
Littlebird is hoping that’s how things work out at A-Basin, and he was encouraged recently by something he saw that most people might overlook.
While skiing there in early December, he watched the Alterra corporate helicopter land at the base.
“Alterra’s helicopter showed up with some of their muckety-mucks to take a tour,” Littlebird said. “But then, the helicopter took off with the ski patrol and a load of explosives and bombed chutes (for avalanche control), all the East Wall Chutes and the Steep Gullies. It’s a very expensive operation, but Alterra has the money to come in and do that.
“That really saves the patrol a lot of time, doing all that in one day instead of over the course of a couple of months,” he pointed out. “I think that’s a great sign.”
