For those wild about skiing and snowboarding, Colorado extends its welcome mat as early as October. With over two dozen major ski resorts, Colorado attracts over 12 million guests a year. A few big reasons; snow may last for three quarters of the year, with 32 thousand acres of skiing terrain and six of Colorado's ski resorts rank among the nation's top ten.
     Pictured here is the Arapahoe Basin, affectionately called The Legend. With the highest ski terrain in North America, its slopes open mid October and sometimes hold snow into early July. The A-Basin summit tops 13,000 feet and sets up a vertical drop over 2,200 feet, with its longest run of a mile-and-a-half. The basin collects over 360 inches of snowfall annually; the BIG reason Colorado is number one in skiing.