Aspen-Snowmass-Arapahoe Basin-Colorado FEB 2017

Part I: Denver-->Snowmass - Roaring Fork Valley

As many of you may have heard from my other post looking for CO advice, my wife and I headed out for presidents week (yeh, I know, crowds, but she's a teacher so I'm stuck!(but I was wrong about crowds)).  This would be her first western ski experience, certainly not a first for me.  However, I've skied many of the other ski-able western states including Arizona! But, oddly, never Colorado, so it was a new experience for me as well.

Driving out to Aspen on I-70



Glenwood Canyon


Having spent alot of time in Utah, and while it's one of my favorite western destinations, I was looking forward to the change of scenery in CO, as I figured it would be much different without the backdrop of a major city down canyon, as you see frequently in Utah's LCC/BCC.  Colorado definately had that more remote feel, although it was pretty odd to have a major highway (I-70) bisect several ski resorts, almost running right through the parking lot! (Loveland, Vail, Copper)




Being that it was a holiday week, and after collecting alot of info here and on TGR forums, I came up with a crowds avoidance plan that consisted of flying Sunday into Denver, heading out to Assssspen, banking on families not wanting to make the 4 hour-ish drive and instead sticking to the Front Range to use their EPIC passes.  We would then work our way back East toward Denver after a three day stay in Aspen, stopping at a few different points for one night stays and ultimately skiing A-basin (my #1 ski must-do in CO) toward the end of the week, followed by a free stay at my wife's roomate's from college house in Denver before flying home Saturday.

Driving into Snowmass village

Snowmass base area

Some more snow would have been nice, but cool photo still


The weather for the trip was a little bit of everything.  I usually would compulsively check multiple weather sources/blogs/reports as fast as they could be refreshed, but this time I tried a different approach of not giving a shit, as to let the anti-jinx soak in.  The fact that I was skiing Whiteface and touring in the ADK within 15 hours of my flight to CO also helped keep me not focused on weather reports that never seem to check out anymore. (Another interesting story here that involved a bad radiator cap not venting properly, almost causing me to never make it home from the ADK to even get to CO...roadside diagnosis and a $9 pitstop to Autozone in Glens Falls fixed that tho.)

Saturday 12:00PM EST - Top of Wright Peak, ADK

Sunday 12:00PM MST - I-70W, CO !


Unfortunately, the not giving a shit method didn't totally align with big dumps...when we arrived in Denver it was 60 degrees.  As any skier would, I started getting kinda worried about what may be going on up in the mountains.  There is a happy ending for the second half of the week, so read on.  The first part of the trip (Sun-Wed) featured above average temps and below average snowfall for the past few weeks in Aspen.  Of course I would have loved to see whiteness everywhere, especially since my wife had never been west and I wanted her to get the full experience, but we had a couple good groomers and sun (35 degrees or so) ski days none the less.  I was actually pretty surprised how well the snow quality held up, given the warm temps.  We skied one day at Snowmass (where we were staying in a ski in-out (Out of the norm for me, my usual accommodations tap out around the Super 8 level)) and one day at Aspen Highlands.

The plan pretty much worked out.  Aspen was completely empty not just for a holiday, but empty like mid-week skiing style.  Ski right onto lift. Zero line.

Despite having a family friendly intermediate appeal, Snowmass turned out to be alot of fun.  Huuuuge place (like 3400 acres +) and to my surprise, highest vertical drop in the USA (4400 ft!).  There were alot of really nice intermediate pitched wide open trails, as well as some good steeps and nice long runs.  A poma services the upper portion of the mtn called the Cirque.  This is where the above treeline stuff was, mostly.  On a powder day, I could see this being a ton of fun on the wide open trails with pods of trees spaced around.

Snowmass Groomers and Sun
Wife:



Wife:


Cirque:



Backside, out of bounds:

Snowmass scenery:



For this trip I agreed to skiing every other day, with off days in between to "do other stuff" or travel.  She really wanted to go to a hot spring.  With the weather continuing to be spring like, we weren't missing any pow days, so we did some research and actually got info on Avalanche Ranch, which was much more private, and limited occupancy, as opposed to some of the larger ones available in the area.  We drove about 50 mins out of Snowmass, down canyon and then up through Carbondale.  Pretty scenic and cool area.




Next day we were skiing Aspen Highlands...

Part II - Aspen Highlands

Wednesday was another warmer day, sun out.  We headed over to Aspen Highlands via the free bus from Snowmass.  The free bus system they have in town is pretty seamless, worked great.  Again thinking it might be crowded, we got up pretty early and caught a bus around 8, lifts spun at 9.  Got dropped off at the main lodge, again, no one there.



Aspen Highlands was much more narrow and about a 1/3 of the acreage of Snowmass...which was almost a relief in a way since I knew we could cover the whole place in one day.  Sometimes it's nice to be able to have enough time to go back and re-hit the stuff you liked most.

Weather was a little cooler over at Highlands, and it seemed to have preserved the snow pretty good, as the quality was pretty light and the groomers had nice grip.  It had been windy the night before, so maybe some wind deposited snow got worked in.

We spent the morning skiing some pretty nice cord on empty trails.  Because of Highlands more narrow layout, there were some pretty steep trails all the way down through the lower section of the mountain.  The place gave off more of that looking all the way down into the valley kinda feel...


Found some dynamite...


After spending most of the morning at a slower groomer pace with my wife, she was getting kinda tired and it was time to head to the main objective, Highland Bowl.  Luckily, there was a really sweet Ski Patrol house near the base of the bowl access, and they had a deck that looked out over the bowl, and an area for her to sit inside. They don't care if ppl hang out in there, which was cool.  I set her up with our pack full of snacks and gave her the camera, then headed out and up.  Also made a $10 donation to ski patrol, which gets you a AHSP (aspen highlands ski patrol) sling to carry your skis on your back.




They have a cat that brings you to the main gate, which cuts off some walking.  Pretty cool just for the cat ride aspect of it.

Me, waiting for the cat in the wrong spot






Bootpack along ridge, took about 40 mins to summit




Summit



Backside



Skied the center gut, which was actually pretty damn steep at 45 degrees, where wind blown chalky snow had collected.  Not to bad for a low snow week...

Looking back up, as usual, pics don't show steepness well

Dumps you out to the Deep Temerity lift, which serves all black terrain.

Skied here later in the day, and damn, it was one long ass mogul run.  Nice and steep too


Pics from ski patrol deck on our real camera...I'm up there somewhere, should have brought the bigger lens:


Finished out the day with an overpriced beer at the popular Cloud 9 for apres.  Was actually pretty packed inside with chicks of all ages dancing on tables getting yelled at to get down by some lifty looking dude who seemed sick of being the bouncer there

$8 can of beer....F**K it.



If I'm ever back in Aspen, I'll be hitting up Highlands again for sure.  My favorite of the two places I skied in Aspen.  Place is considered the "locals" mtn, which you could tell was the case by lack of amenities at the base (although still nice, did a 2nd apres at Highlands Alehouse, good pizza).  Not that I skied the other two of 4 mtns in Aspen area, but I'm pretty sure Highlands is the steepest and has the best terrain for experts.  Very cool place.

Snow started rolling in late in the afternoon, as you can see in the Cloud 9 pics.  This is the point in the week where the weather changed from spring to winter.

Part III - Glenwood Springs/Sunlight/Breckenridge

Thursday was supposed to be an 'off' day, but the forecast was calling for snow, so I was trying to figure out a way to ski somehow.  Our plan included heading out of Aspen Wednesday night down to Glenwood Springs, to save some money on the lodging and start working our way back towards the Front Range for the end of the week.

Downtown Aspen Brewery overlooking Ajax


I had purchased a Colorado Gems card, which was $25, and was good for 2x BOGO at each of the participating resorts(mostly smaller ones, but A-basin was on there).  I noticed that there was a place called Sunlight on the card.  I had looked it up before the trip, and saw it was near Aspen, but didn't pay much attention to it.  Given the snow forecast, and trying to scrape together a plan, I mapped Sunlight on my phone and turns out it's actually in Glenwood Springs, about 20 mins from where we were staying.  I checked the website, saw it was small, but figured it would still be pretty fun, especially at half-price for $31.50.  My wife thought we were sleeping in, but I revised the plan to leaving her back at the hotel, where she stayed until check out, then walked to some hot spring/vapor cave/spa thing in town while she waited for me....and I headed up to Sunlight early for first chair. They had reported 4" overnight.  Better than 35 and sun, so I was after that BIG 4" CO Pow day...

Got up to the parking lot, near empty, maybe 5 cars.  Walked around looking for someone to hook up on the BOGO with me, found a guy who was stoked to pay half, and $31.50 later I was at this old school ski resort with three chairs and maybe about 30 ppl skiing the whole place.





Mid-morning untouched? - yes please

Don't get to take these kind of photos too often at the big resorts...

Some wind affected


4" was underreported, seemed more like 6" with drifts to 8" or so.  Skied about a half day then headed back to town to move on to the next location.

Captured this shot on the way back into Glenwood.  Red rocks look cool against the snow.


We didn't really have a plan for the rest of the day other than 'checking out CO', and since I gravitate toward ski related things, I decided we could drive into Breckenridge on our way to lodging in Silverthorne.  I kinda wanted to see how crowded it looked compared to where I'd been.  I had read that Breck was an old town turned ski town, and it wasn't right off I-70, so I figured it was probably pretty nice to walk around.

Main street view of the mtn



The main street area kind of reminded me of a more commercialized Lake Placid, with stores and restaurants lining it, so many that it was almost overwhelming.  I typically am not into these kinda over-built ski towns or villages, but it was actually still pretty nice.

Earlier in the week, I had a beer from Breck Brewery, so I figured it was close by main st., which it was, so after walking up and back and popping into some shops and waiting 45 mins in a line for a crepe (total tourist move), we headed to teh brewery for some drinks, and ultimately ate there cause the food looked reasonable as were the prices.

I could see skiing here in the future, aside from Vail's $175 price of admission which is out of F'ing control.

While at dinner, snow rolled in and it started snowing hard....just in time for A-basin on Friday....which isn't far away

Part IV - A-Basin

Friday was the last ski day of the trip before heading to Denver for a night out and a flight on Saturday.  The snow forecast for A-basin wasn't looking like anything crazy...but starting out the week with springlike weather was making half a foot sound pretty deep.

Woke up to cloudy skies and socked in mtns, with a couple inches on the car down in Silverthorne.  Good sign.  Heading up Loveland Pass, roads were covered, another good sign.




4-6" had fallen and it was snowing lightly when pulling into the lot.



This was my kind of place.  No condos, no bullshit, old school vibe, hardly a crowd.  Got my BOGO tix and headed into the lodge to change real quick then caught first-ish chair.  Weather had turned much colder, and snow was starting to come down pretty heavy at times.  It must have been 10 degrees or so, the first real cold day, but I was fine with that.

Heading up Pali lift - steep all the way to the bottom - good stuff

Wide open Montezuma Bowl




Coming up the back side to drop back over to the front of the mountain and head to Pali zone.  For some weird reason, it had stopped snowing on the back side, and was dumping over the ridge.  I headed back to the Pali lift and skied the front side of the mtn for the rest of the day, it was snowing pretty hard, so by mid-day it had to be at least 8" maybe more.  Great, deep snow, and some killer steep terrain.





One of the best lines of the day

Pali


Finished off an awesome day with a reasonably priced beer that was $1 off with my lift ticket stub.  Nice bar at the lodge here, would have liked to hang out more but we had to make our way through the rest of Loveland Pass and off to Denver.  


This was a really cool road to drive.  Was looking to take the usual picture at the Continental Divide sign, but it was buried in snow.






Spent the last night in downtown Denver with wife's friend, ate some good tacos, poured my own beers (First Draft, cool place, pay by the ounce), nothing much else to report there.

Well, that's the report, hope you enjoyed it!

Great pics. You get extra points for getting the camera out while holding onto a surface lift. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

great report!!
surprised by the lack of snow down low , considering the great year they are having..

Feb break isn't a bad time to go, most of the country only has Presidents Day off..

Good stuff, can't wait for the rest!Dying to hear your report on A Basin.  Agreed, it should be on everyone's CO must do list.  Great terrain, gorgeous location on the Continental Divide, great vibe. The drive over Loveland Pass and down to I70 is neat as well.  They opened Montezuma shortly after the time I was there so I def want to get back.  Hope you were able to steal away for a few runs on the East Wall!  

Ski Sunlight.....not sure how many east coaster's itineraries that one makes it on!

I was thinking her got extra points for including his hot wife hanging around in yoga pants and in a bikini in the hot springs.

Well played Mike. This is top notch right out of the gate!

hottie alert!

Sorry we missed you Mike.  Highlands on Feb. 23, with boot top powder on Mushroom.  

Great report, nice pics. Only got to Aspen & the Highlands for a few days many yrs ago but remember is being lots of fun. I-70 is a really impressive piece of engineering, Eisenhower Tunnel a mile long at over 11000' under the Loveland Ski area. And the Glen Canyon section is itself amazing. Hope to see some pics of Pallavicini at A-Basin. Last time there I hit it with old Fisher Tele skis and Leather Asolo boots, hard to imagine trying that now. A couple decades ago I didn't think twice.

K man wrote

Sorry we missed you Mike.  Highlands on Feb. 23, with boot top powder on Mushroom.

Same here, was thinking I'd message you, but we were going non-stop trying to see as much as we could in the area in three days before moving on to the next spot.  Nice pic - looks like the snow fell there behind us on Thursday...

Updated the Aspen Highlands portion....

Best trip report ever!

ScottyJack wrote

hottie alert!

LOLZ!

Awesome stuff..those pictures of Buffalo Peak and Peak 1 coming down into Silverthorn make me nostalgic.  Some great skiing in those ranges.  

Oh cool - didn't know they had names - BC skiing routes I assume?

Yeah..some really classic lines there.  Look up Silver Couloir on Buffalo...one of my favorite lines...3000 vert couloir..it's the big long couloir running the whole looker's right side of Buffalo Mountain..one of the 50 classic ski descent in North America.  I have only skied it in pretty firm conditions, but it's just a beautiful ski.  

If one were to ignore the hottie and the buffalo in Mike's pic below.....because me, personally.....I was looking at the bison/couloir and the valley/mtn view in Mke's respective pictures .....there are some sweet looking lines off the peak, is the couloir you are referring to up there?

Great pics and report.  Looking forward to the rest of them!