Colorado Snowmass (Aspen) Trip Report 2/11-2/18

[noobski]

Quick report: we had a great week at Snowmass. Big thanks to @Mike King for the tips and connecting my wife with a fantastic ski instructor as well.

Highlights included:

-Wife worked with Ski instructor Thomas (via Mike). He also gave some great tips for my kids. Got my daughter to balance a lot better and my son feels more confident on his short turns.

-Great groomer days to start, then a two day storm. Then groomers again to end the week.

-I skied 6 days, family skied 4.

-I skied some of the best refill weather under Sheer Bliss one day and no one was really there. It was crazy fun. I could not believe how good it was. The next day (snowed all night) was actually not as good of snow, strangely enough. It was still awesome though.

-I skied Long Shot. Super awesome tree skiing. Coming from 800 feet to hiking 100' up to 11,300 was actually really hard even though I try to train myself for trips. (I was in Utah for two weeks last month which probably helped).

-Ullr nights at Elk Camp. The rollercoaster both at daylight and nightime was so fun. Kids lapped that I think 5-6 times. Great acoustic guitarist as well. Food was also good.

-we didn't go out to dinners other than Ullr, but we ate at Sam's and Stew Pot and Big Hoss for lunch. All of them were great.

-bus service was super slick. Confirm, no need for a car. However we did an Uber on arrival since it was late at night ($70 for XL) to our condo and we did the bus (Free) via Snowmass Base to airport. Next time, even though it cost $70, I would do an Uber both ways. It sucked trying to get 5 bags (two ski bags) on a crowded bus to the airport. But otherwise, agree no need for a car.

-Flying into Aspen was very cool (via Denver), but apparently we really lucked out on flights and on time arrival. Most everyone I met flying in and out had problems. We just got lucky I think. I think I would fly into Denver and drive or Eagle next time based on the stories we heard. Glad we were lucky though!

-Woodbridge condo location was excellent, however the unit was so-so. (Management was great, unit had lots of problems).

- Snowmass is super fun. Did not leave it the whole week. It's a great family/variety of skiing ability place too. I didn't come close to covering the whole place (which I prefer because it gets me wanting to come back).

Thanks again to Mike and everyone else who gave ideas last Fall for this trip.

Cheers!

PS - I have some cool GoPro videos of the powderdays and the roller coaster rides. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post links to my gopro cloud. Just reply here

 

[dbostedo]

One of my favorite mountains in one of my favorite towns!!

 

[Unbalanced]

Hey @noobski, thanks for the TR. I am new here and will be skiing Snowmass (first time ever) all week starting 02/20. I am a lower level advanced skier and just finished JH which I enjoyed a lot. If you have any tips to share on chairs, trails, food (beyond what you wrote) to try out then please send me a note.

I will look to make buddies on the lift so I can ski with someone in the trees but have you had any luck finding a riding partner on this forum?

Thanks again for sharing your experience!

 

[TonyPlush]

Jealous!

Snowmass is amazing, and long shot is one of my favorite runs all time. This has me itching to go back.

 

[noobski]

Hey @noobski, thanks for the TR. I am new here and will be skiing Snowmass (first time ever) all week starting 02/20. I am a lower level advanced skier and just finished JH which I enjoyed a lot. If you have any tips to share on chairs, trails, food (beyond what you wrote) to try out then please send me a note.

I will look to make buddies on the lift so I can ski with someone in the trees but have you had any luck finding a riding partner on this forum?

Thanks again for sharing your experience!

I went with my family, so I had multiple riding partners. On the storm days I just skied the popular blues and blacks and there were people around. The only place I would have wanted a partner knowing in advance what I had done was Garret Gulch. I went in alone during heavy snow and fortunately there were three others in there when I was there and we all kind of skied together through it. I think I would have wanted to ask someone in advance had I known what I was getting into just to be safe. Otherwise, if you're skiing the main blues and blacks during a storm, there's usually people around.

In terms of the forum, based on your note here, perhaps someone will DM you already. But I've been on SkiTalk for a couple years now and pretty much everyone I've met is super helpful and nice and if they're skiing that day, they'll likely lap with you. You should just go to the CO conditions and meet up discussion and post that you're there and looking to hang out.

At your skiing ability, you can likely cover the majority of the mountain. The single diamond blacks were all very doable. The center of the mountain appeared least crowded, however it really wasn't crowded even on busy days/times. Maybe 5 minute lift lines at the base and popular lifts.

We really loved all the blues too. They're long and rolling and you can jump in and out to find snow or just sit on the trail. It was perfect for our family since my wife is intermediate at best and doesn't like off-trail while the kids and I love bumps and off trail.

Snowmass is higher than JHole and you can feel it if you're from lower elevations. I'm generally lucky and don't get altitude sickness, but I could definitely feel the difference in SM v. Utah (Utah highest is 10k where I ski v. almost 12k at Snowmass.) For example, just hiking up to Long Shot took a lot out of me and I'm in decent shape. I could definitely feel the thin air.

Hydrate. I use electolyte packets. They sell them everywhere, but I bring my own (non sugar ones). Take breaks maybe at 11 and 1:30ish if you're not sure of your energy.

Skiing the absolute top is a bit sketchy in terms of rock exposure. There's plenty of snow, but I think they get a lot of wind and it blows snow around and exposes rocks. Locals will know this better than I would, but a few times I avoided core shots at the highest parts.

4UP pizza was a great place to reboot and take breaks. I generally lapped that area most days including powder days.

If you flew into Aspen and plan to fly out, a day or two before your flight, watch the weather and have a back up plan in advance. Possibly even consider changing flights if you can because tons of people told us horror stories about getting in and out of Aspen airport itself.

THose are some tips I could think of. Let me know if you have other questions.

 

[Dean]

all week starting 02/20.

Today was my last day - sorry I missed you.
I did have to run Long Shot today. Got to a lot of the terrain - so much to ski. Enjoy!

 

[Unbalanced]

I went with my family, so I had multiple riding partners. On the storm days I just skied the popular blues and blacks and there were people around. The only place I would have wanted a partner knowing in advance what I had done was Garret Gulch. I went in alone during heavy snow and fortunately there were three others in there when I was there and we all kind of skied together through it. I think I would have wanted to ask someone in advance had I known what I was getting into just to be safe. Otherwise, if you're skiing the main blues and blacks during a storm, there's usually people around.

In terms of the forum, based on your note here, perhaps someone will DM you already. But I've been on SkiTalk for a couple years now and pretty much everyone I've met is super helpful and nice and if they're skiing that day, they'll likely lap with you. You should just go to the CO conditions and meet up discussion and post that you're there and looking to hang out.

At your skiing ability, you can likely cover the majority of the mountain. The single diamond blacks were all very doable. The center of the mountain appeared least crowded, however it really wasn't crowded even on busy days/times. Maybe 5 minute lift lines at the base and popular lifts.

We really loved all the blues too. They're long and rolling and you can jump in and out to find snow or just sit on the trail. It was perfect for our family since my wife is intermediate at best and doesn't like off-trail while the kids and I love bumps and off trail.

Snowmass is higher than JHole and you can feel it if you're from lower elevations. I'm generally lucky and don't get altitude sickness, but I could definitely feel the difference in SM v. Utah (Utah highest is 10k where I ski v. almost 12k at Snowmass.) For example, just hiking up to Long Shot took a lot out of me and I'm in decent shape. I could definitely feel the thin air.

Hydrate. I use electolyte packets. They sell them everywhere, but I bring my own (non sugar ones). Take breaks maybe at 11 and 1:30ish if you're not sure of your energy.

Skiing the absolute top is a bit sketchy in terms of rock exposure. There's plenty of snow, but I think they get a lot of wind and it blows snow around and exposes rocks. Locals will know this better than I would, but a few times I avoided core shots at the highest parts.

4UP pizza was a great place to reboot and take breaks. I generally lapped that area most days including powder days.

If you flew into Aspen and plan to fly out, a day or two before your flight, watch the weather and have a back up plan in advance. Possibly even consider changing flights if you can because tons of people told us horror stories about getting in and out of Aspen airport itself.

THose are some tips I could think of. Let me know if you have other questions.

Thank you very much for this. I went out today and felt, experienced a lot of what you said. Your post is very helpful. I have more to share but should probably try to create a running TR in hopes that it may be useful to others.

 

[Kyle]

Just got back from a 3 day weekend in Aspen. Rather than create a detailed trip report, I thought I would add a few thoughts here. This is my second experience skiing Aspen which now totals 8 days of total skiing so take this for whatever it is worth. Here are a few thoughts:

(1) Basalt is a nice alternative to Aspen about 20 minutes north of town. We planned this weekend trip with only a 3 weeks advanced notice and there was nothing closer to Aspen unless I was willing to spend $600 plus per night (and most were far north of that). We had two meals of note in Basalt at Jalisco and Heather’s Savory Pies and Tapas Bar. Both were very tasty.

(2) We skied Snowmass, Aspen (Ajax) and Highlands (in that order). Aspen is my favorite of the three–not sure which would get second. The whole mountain is skiable and you can piece together varied and fun runs. The moguls are well formed, and (this weekend at least) had a fraction of the crowd at Snowmass. Ruthie’s was a great high speed cruise (as was Strawpile the couple of times we skied back down to the base from that side). Bell, FIS, Kristi’s and Gent’s Ridge has some great moguls/off trail runs.

(3) The single black diamond runs at Snowmass and Highlands are not particularly steep. The same is true of a lot of the blue runs. The double blacks are mostly quite steep to really steep.

(4) The best skiing at Highlands was Deep Temerity and Olympic Bowl (Deception and No Name). Olympic had the better snow but requires two lift rides to access. Deep Temerity‘Steeplechase is a pretty awesome lift/trail collection—certainly not many places in the USA with that combination of uninterrupted, steep skiing. Our first run down Sodbuster had a mixture of good to sketchy conditions. When we returned a couple of hours later, the 1 or 2 inches of snow that had fallen made it a lot better. I would like to explore this area more. We cut this day short around 1:30 in order to start the drive home.

(5) Snowmass has the most to offer since it is much larger than Aspen and Highlands combined. The low stress cruising terrains is plentiful and very high quality. A lot of the steeper terrain requires a bit of effort and requires multiple lifts to access. The line for the poma to the top of the Cirque was ridiculous since people kept falling and the ski school patrons kept arriving and taking every other spot. Hanging Valley was not too bad a traverse/hike/sidestep. Coverage was a little sketchy in both the Cirque and Hanging Valley. You would have a hard time finding better mellow blue/green cruising trails than Elk Camp.

Overall, a great weekend. To me, Aspen still reigns as the best in Colorado.

 

[Bill Miles]

Aspen is tied with Sun Valley as my favorite. Used to go there a lot when I lived in Kansas. Too expensive to move to when I retired.

 

[DanoT]

Aspen is my favourite USA resort.

@Unbalanced, here is my powder skiing tip: On pow days all the powder hounds go to Ajax or Highlands, leaving powder turns for skiers at Snowmass until noon before it is skied out. However, if YOU go to Buttermilk you will find 4 easy black diamond runs that all the Buttermilk beginners and timid intermediates avoid like the plague.

I was at Buttermilk on a 10" powder day a few years ago and the black runs do not get groomed and do not have moguls. I skied pow all day, saw a total of less than a dozen other skiers, and pretty much the only tracks I crossed all day were my own. I just started on one side of a run and worked my way across the same run after each chair ride, eventually moving over to the next ski run once I had tracked out the first run. It was kinda like cat skiing, only chairlifts are faster than snow cats. It was a very memorable day.

 

[Kyle]

Aspen is tied with Sun Valley as my favorite. Used to go there a lot when I lived in Kansas. Too expensive to move to when I retired.

Sun Valley is one of my favorites as well and I am fortunate to have skied it every year for many years.

As somebody who lives in ski country, when I take a ski vacation I generally want to go somewhere where there isn’t a big potential local ski population who might show up on the weekend or when conditions are favorable. Aspen is a pretty healthy trip from big skier populations—though the number of private jets parked at the Aspen airport was staggering.

 

[martyg]

Must do lunch spot on the mtn: Sam’s. Don’t miss the locker room with fuzzy slippers for your enjoyment. Go in the entrance, hang a left, and another left.

 

[Tom K.]

Used to love taking my biggest client to Snowmass every winter. Good times.

His favorite lunch spot was Gwyn's High Alpine, which appears to be gone?

 

[dbostedo]

Gwyn's High Alpine, which appears to be gone?

It was privately run before and the lease was not renewed by the resort a few years ago. There's still a restaurant there, and it's still good (IMO) but it's not exactly the same.

Aspen Skiing Co. to take over family-run Gwyn’s High Alpine at Snowmass in 2020

After 40 years, Gwyn’s High Alpine on-mountain restaurant at Snowmass is set to change hands, as Aspen Skiing Co. will take over the family-run establishment when the current lease

www.aspentimes.com

 

[Tom K.]

It was privately run before and the lease was not renewed by the resort a few years ago. There's still a restaurant there, and it's still good (IMO) but it's not exactly the same.

To me, a bummer to see a family-owned operation like Gwyn's swallowed up by Aspen Skico.

But the resort model has definitely morphed into owning everything.