Dozens of volunteers step up to help with summer cleanup effort at Arapahoe Basin

Year-round employees and volunteers at Colorado's ski resorts are getting ready for another season of skiing and snowboarding, and that includes some cleaning up now that the snow is mostly melted.

At Arapahoe Basin in Summit County, that effort is particularly robust this summer.

"We don't always invite other people to join us but we had so many requests to come and do this that we decided to invite some others," said Alan Henceroth, COO of Arapahoe Basin.

Henceroth said that the cleanup efforts are usually done on the front side of the mountain. This time, up on the Montezuma Bowl, they are getting to the further reaches of the resort. It's not a spot everyone always sees but one that definitely needs some clean up.

The resort says they have had about 50 people who stepped up to help out this summer. Some also come upon some unexpected items that were formerly hidden by feet of snow.

"Wherever you have people gathering you tend to have people drop things here and there, anything a skier would carry we might find. Might be candy wrappers, might be cans or bottles, might be their wallet or cellphone, we will find a few treasures out there," Henceroth said.

Like most resorts in the state, A Basin lies on U.S. Forest Service lands. But it's A Basin that brings the crowds to the mountain, so the resort feels a responsibility to keep the area as clean as possible.

"We are the stewards of this place and really the whole community are the stewards of this place and we want it to look its best," Henceroth said.