Aspen Snowmass Trip Report Feb 26 – March 5

We were supposed to Fly Albany to Aspen via O’Hare with a total flight time of 6 hours including layovers but a snow storm in both Chicago and Denver made this an all day ordeal.  We just got to Snowmass in time to pick up our lift tickets before the office closed which was key because we were booked to 1st tracks on our first ski day.  We stayed at the new Westin which is slope side in what they call the Mall area.  I’m not rich so I count on my frequent stayer points from my business travels to cover the hotel of our out West trips.  They pick you up at the Airport for free so we saved the $500 on a rental car.  Surprisingly you could eat fairly reasonably here if you were looked for ways to save a buck.  Happy hour specials and two for one beer coupons from the hotel at the New Belgium Ranger Station were key.  New Belgium Beer is really great craft brew and hopefully they soon start supplying us in NY.  Johnny’s Little Dill food cart in the Snowmass Mall for burgers for lunch $6.50 for a CB in Paradise that was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.


Pretzel sticks and beer at New Belgium Ranger Station

On the other end of the scale there are lots of fur coats and rich folks.  In the hot tub I was talking about a hike to section and this woman looked at me and said you mean you have to carry you skis up there with you like she thought that they might have a Sherpa or something to do it for you – that was the funniest thing I heard all week.  The positive of the rich cliental is that they stick to the groomers for the most part leaving the goods for the few that can.  The hard core locals tend to ski at Highlands and Snowmass has some great Black to extreme terrain that is pretty easily accessible once you figure out how to get to it.

Day 1 - We had about 3-5 inches of new powder to play in the woods from the storm the day before.  Doing the first tracks was great to get the lay of the ski area from a local instructor.  Just my son and I were in the expert group.  With 50+ ski days in my legs I had no problem with them but breathing that 1st day is always a little tough at almost 12,000 feet.  My son and I did the Cirque the first day and had some nice cut up powder and crud to ski.  The Big Burn area is some mighty fine tree skiing and we particularly liked the Powerline Glades.


View up the Snowmass Valley from Campground section

Day 2 we discovered the Campground section that is totally deserted and has a nice mix of long bump runs such as Powderhorn  a double black bump run that is 3000 vertical feet as well as groomed wide black runs with nice rollers that scream for high speed GS turns.   We also hiked to the new Burnt Mountain Glades.  It’s about a 15 min hike even for a 9 year old.  Once up there the views off the back are great and the powder was about a foot deep.  After about 1500 vertical it funneled into some very tight trees and then an egress route along a rope line took about 25 mins and several miles to get back to the lifts.  That pretty much wiped out our afternoon but it was fun.


Hike up Burnt Mt - its much stepper below the drop in the photo

Day 3 was another day for the 1st tracks program.  They do it on Wednesdays and Friday’s for free.  We had the same instructor to ourselves again and he showed us some different glades of which Sneaky’s trees were my favorite of the week and we repeated them every morning several times.  They are a little tighter than other glades but with really nice paths and soft snow.  I never saw anyone else in there entire week.
 
Day 4 – Aspen Highlands.  We took the bus over there which took about 30 mins.  This was the 1st time we waited in any lift lines at all since it was a Saturday and I heard it was about the same at Snowmass.  I was really looking forward to Highlands but it’s really not that large and was crowded.  It has tons of double blacks but the snow quality was not as good as Snowmass.  The Deep Termity section had nice long very steep bump runs but it was in the sun and was getting baked out into mank by late morning.  The bowl is a 45 min to hour hike and usually has a free snowcat ride to cut out the 1st half mile but it was not running due to an uphill race – these guys were insanely in shape.  My 9 year old son would not sign up for an hour hike to get to the North facing aspect  on the far side of the bowl and the closer southern side was sun baked mank so we did not do it.  I think we just hit it on the wrong day but I was disappointed.


Highlands Bowl - near side faces south - far side North

Day 5 back at Snowmass.  After being really warm the day before the trees up high were still good but the lower stuff and the wrong aspects were crusty.  We still found good trees and did a bunch of cruising at speeds I would not normally ski at home.  The grooming is so good with the snow quality we made some super G type runs on Campground.  We also found a really cool steep bump run into Garrett Gulch.


Zach crusing on Campground

Day 6 – Winter Storm Saturn arrives.  We had 9 to 15” depending on the elevation.  It was not the normal Colorado blower Powder as Saturn was packing some moisture but it was by far the best day of the season.  The Big Burn area was great, the trees were super fun and my son and I got two runs up on the Cirque where it was mid-thigh deep and just awesome.  On our last lap the visibility dropped to nothing when we were in the middle of a chute and the wind picked up and we called it a day after 25k vert and very tired legs.


powder day in the Cirque

Homeward bound.  Saturn the storm messes up Chi-town so we spend 4 hours on the phone with United Airlines’ Indian customer service (or lack thereof) call center.  After repeatedly asking to be routed thru Charlotte on USAir and being denied I found a US Air flight on their web site that had seats and 2 hours later on and off hold with the brightest minds in India we get flights home.  Great trip but United Airlines sucks and I’m never flying on them again.

Sorry for no video until the snow got cut up but just as there is no friends on a powder day there is no time to stop and take photos / videos



This was in Sneaky's trees in after lunch

What a stunning trip!

I need to reply in more depth but thank you for putting this up.

Great pics and report Coach Z.  Love the video at the end.  Who is the person coaching in the background?  A couple of my buddies did that trip a few years ago but I couldn't swing it.  Glad you got some fresh pow while you were there.

I think the first pic might be my favorite:)  Wife and I drank lots of Fat Tire when we were in Wyoming.  I still have a few pint glasses I "borrowed" from our local pub.

Z Junior has nice form in that video!

We flew United too on our recent Big Sky trip.  Everything went smoothly until the last leg flying home Sunday.  Minutes before boarding, United cancelled our flight from DC (Dulles) to Albany.  60 or 70 panicked passengers ran from the gate to the Customer Disservice desk.  We were lucky to have one of our guys get the 4th or 5th spot in line.  After a solid 40 minute wait, the agent finally told our guy we could get re-booked to fly out of Reagan at 10am the next morning.  We said F-that, rented a van and drove.  Got home 2am instead of 8pm-ish.

Mechanical failures and weather happen, but United did a terrible job managing the situation for their customers.  I feel bad for the 50 people in line behind us.  Their wait must have been hours.  No one from United walked down that line to explain what was going, what passengers could expect or how long they might have to wait.  No one from United handed out drinks or passed out numbers so people could at least sit down or use a restroom.  The killer - 4 United agents were standing behind the desk at the next gate - an EMPTY gate - doing absolutely nothing.

Sure glad this happened on the way home instead of on the way out.

Great trip. Western ski trips in the spring are the best. Mine is coming up in a few short weeks.
Never been to Aspen to ski, just a summer business convention, but the summit county places and WInterpark - yes. Glad you could take the young'n - they make those trips fun.

Jeff - laughed my backside off on that video

Dan - that is the best part of vacation for me - skiing with my son all day.  He can do farther than me at elevation at this point but he prefers me to lead. We give him a whistle so if we get separated in the woods we can find each other.  Another few years and I'm afraid I will not be able to keep up and he will ditch me like we now ditch my wife.

CZ, my wife is a terminal intermediate so we have the same MO.

So that I don't get in trouble here I need to clear this up quickly - my wife is also an instructor and can ski everything well at Whiteface that is on trails.  She does not like trees all that much the past few years and double black chutes are now in her past.  We usually ski a couple of runs to a half day with her out West and then hit some harders stuff and meet back up at lunch.  She actaully did really well keeping up with my son and I until lunch on the big powder day.

Let's call her a terminal advanced skier in the context of Harv's expert discussion.

Meant no reflection on your spouse, just that mine is what she is. She calls herself a blue groomer. She has taken countless lessons and clinics and just has too many fears. At Gore She enjoys Showcase and Twister, twin fawns and Jamboree and has no interest in the summit. All this is good, she just loves getting out there.