It was clear we needed a mostly cruiser day for our last day of the road trip and 8th consecutive, and Snowmass is ideal for that.
We started with Whispering Jesse and Mick’s Gully on the Big Burn. Though it was a warmer day with high temps in the 30’s, there was often wind on chair rides, which also deposited some loose snow on those Big Burn groomers..
After those 2 warmups I executed one of my poorest navigation jobs ever. We rode the Cirque poma in intense crosswind.
Note sign saying the Cirque is closed. I thought that meant one run up there but in reality it was all the runs dropping in from the top of the poma. I expected to being skiing deep windsift, but the reality was that the Cirque runs were wind loaded and would need to be controlled on a calmer day to be safe for skiing.
So, in futile search for an open gate we slogged for 10 minutes in windblown flats, finally getting onto High Pass, which leads to Hanging Valley. Fortunately there was a sign which Liz followed to The Edge and Upper Green Cabin.
Meanwhile I persisted, dropping into West 1, view down from there:
At tree line I should have traversed hard right to open lower pitches like Wall or Ladder. But instead I drifted left and had confined powder/bump lines through the trees, likely ending the lower numbered Glade runs, which were mostly moguls.
View up to West 1, center left:
The snow in West 1 was wind affected. Roberto’s at looker’s right would have been better based upon a few people I saw skiing there.
I was completely beat when I got out of there. The rest of my day needed to be all groomers, starting with the mellow ones in Elk Camp.
This was another case where there were lots of people around the chair and it restaurant but on the mountain very well dispersed. Liz joined me for two more Elk Camp runs.
Next we skied the long Creekside run to Two Creeks. This had spring conditions top to bottom with east exposure. I would say about half of Snowmass’ terrain transitioned to spring conditions Thursday, but of course on the initial day there is no morning hardpack.
We rode the Alpine Springs lift next and took a lap there on the nearly deserted Log Deck and Tom’s Trace runs.
We skied Coffee Pot to the Coney Glade lift on the way to Sam’s Knob. View of Big Burn from top of Coney Glade:
From Sam’s we noticed that Slot was groomed for its full 2,400 vertical down to Campground, so we skied that.
There is a dog sledding operation near the bottom of Campground, and sometimes skiers must watch for them. I recall seeing sled dogs at the top of Crans Montana in January.
We got back to the top of Sam’s Knob just after 3PM and skied Banzai Ridge and the Coney Glade terrain park to finish the day with 23,900 vertical.
We started with Whispering Jesse and Mick’s Gully on the Big Burn. Though it was a warmer day with high temps in the 30’s, there was often wind on chair rides, which also deposited some loose snow on those Big Burn groomers..
After those 2 warmups I executed one of my poorest navigation jobs ever. We rode the Cirque poma in intense crosswind.
Note sign saying the Cirque is closed. I thought that meant one run up there but in reality it was all the runs dropping in from the top of the poma. I expected to being skiing deep windsift, but the reality was that the Cirque runs were wind loaded and would need to be controlled on a calmer day to be safe for skiing.
So, in futile search for an open gate we slogged for 10 minutes in windblown flats, finally getting onto High Pass, which leads to Hanging Valley. Fortunately there was a sign which Liz followed to The Edge and Upper Green Cabin.
Meanwhile I persisted, dropping into West 1, view down from there:
At tree line I should have traversed hard right to open lower pitches like Wall or Ladder. But instead I drifted left and had confined powder/bump lines through the trees, likely ending the lower numbered Glade runs, which were mostly moguls.
View up to West 1, center left:
The snow in West 1 was wind affected. Roberto’s at looker’s right would have been better based upon a few people I saw skiing there.
I was completely beat when I got out of there. The rest of my day needed to be all groomers, starting with the mellow ones in Elk Camp.
This was another case where there were lots of people around the chair and it restaurant but on the mountain very well dispersed. Liz joined me for two more Elk Camp runs.
Next we skied the long Creekside run to Two Creeks. This had spring conditions top to bottom with east exposure. I would say about half of Snowmass’ terrain transitioned to spring conditions Thursday, but of course on the initial day there is no morning hardpack.
We rode the Alpine Springs lift next and took a lap there on the nearly deserted Log Deck and Tom’s Trace runs.
We skied Coffee Pot to the Coney Glade lift on the way to Sam’s Knob. View of Big Burn from top of Coney Glade:
From Sam’s we noticed that Slot was groomed for its full 2,400 vertical down to Campground, so we skied that.
There is a dog sledding operation near the bottom of Campground, and sometimes skiers must watch for them. I recall seeing sled dogs at the top of Crans Montana in January.
We got back to the top of Sam’s Knob just after 3PM and skied Banzai Ridge and the Coney Glade terrain park to finish the day with 23,900 vertical.
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