Slopes and Suds

"It's snowing right now. It has been since about three o'clock yesterday," Kristin Lee, marketing manager at Arapahoe Basin, said from her office last week. A-Basin is the only ski area still open, and it expects to stay open into June this year. Even the new Montezuma Bowl, which was supposed to close at the end of April, has stayed open because of the snow.

"Our elevation helps, and we just always had this niche for spring skiing," Lee says. And a niche for spring parties. Today, the beach -- where snow meets parking lot -- should be packed with people grilling for the seventh Festival of the Brewpubs and Memorial Weekend Beach Party. Summit County breweries, including Pug Ryan's, Breckenridge, Dillon Dam, Backcountry and Wolf Rock, will be pouring unlimited tastings for those who pay $20 for the plastic beer mug or $40 for the limited-edition, stainless-steel souvenir version. Tribute group That Eighties Band will provide the drinking music.

Lee suggests that people come to ski in the morning, before the beer-pouring starts at noon, and carpool with a designated driver. "Or it's pretty easy to hitchhike around here," she says. There will be music on Saturday and Monday, too, but no breweries. For information, go to www.arapahoebasin.com.
Sun., May 25, 11 a.m., 2008