Arapahoe Basin Is Asking Skiers To Help Clean Up Trash on the Mountain

At Arapahoe Basin, that detritus might include phones, AirPods, beer cans, and, as the ski resort’s communications manager Shayna Silverman noted in an email, Fireball shooters. It’s not just trash, though. Poles, gloves, and goggles have appeared at previous mountain clean-ups, too.

“Generally, if someone has brought it on the mountain, someone else has found it during a summertime clean-up,” she wrote.

Each year, Arapahoe Basin picks a different part of the mountain to focus on for the clean-up. This August, that will be the Front Side area.

The day starts with a check-in between 8 and 9 a.m. at Arapahoe Basin’s guest services area. Then, participants will ride two chairlifts up the mountain—the Black Mountain Express and the Lenawee Express—before hiking back down and grabbing trash along the way. Lunch is at 1:45 p.m.

Other mountains across North America also spend the summer picking up trash deposited by skiers and snowboarders during the winter.

In June, more than 150 employees at Breckenridge, Colorado, scoured the slopes and retrieved 780 pounds of trash. Among the waste were some interesting finds, including a message in a whiskey bottle and an iPod Nano.

The lesson is clear: while ski resorts might feel like amusement parks sometimes, they’re still a part of the natural landscape. “Leave No Trace” rules apply.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean you should leave your sandwich or pocket beverages at home. Just don’t chuck their remnants off the lift once you’re finished, because after the snow melts, someone else will have to cart your garbage out of the mountains.