When Liz bought her Mountain Collective last March, we would never have expected that its first use would be at Aspen. We all know that California is a disaster for skiing now, and Whistler is also off to an uncharacteristic slow start. As Christmas approached we became restless for some skiing and with Aspen/Snowmass 89% open vs. 59% at Jackson and 51% at Snowbird we made our decision for our first big trip of 2014. Aspen's reputation of having to wait in line only for restaurants, not for lifts was another big attraction during the holiday season. We found fairly reasonable lodging at the Pokolodi Lodge in Snowmass as needless to say there were no deals to be had in Aspen proper until after January 5.
We checked out of Glenwood Springs New Year's Day and got to Aspen Highlands about 10AM. It had snowed 4 inches or so the previous day and remained overcast until late afternoon. We warmed up on a couple of cruisers and then tested Steeplechase to see if the claim of adequately covered expert terrain vs. the other Mountain Collective places was really true. Here's the entry into Steeplechase.
The Temerity area faces mostly east, so the most open terrain (maybe a bit of south tilt here) like this had a slightly crusty subsurface. However there were few moguls in this area and with about 6 inches in top it skied quite well. Lower down when the run narrowed there were lots of bumps. Temerity is quite a workout in early season. With the lift it's now 1,600 vertical of sustained steep with no letup. By the end of this Liz' feet hurt and she skied down to Merry-Go-Round for a break. I next explored skier's right of the Temerity lift. Here's the cat taking skiers to the Highlands Bowl hike, with hikers barely visible on the ridge beyond.
I started in some nicely spaced trees but they soon closed out, forcing me into a grueling mogul marathon of well over 1,000 vertical on Powerline. After that I retrieved Liz for a couple of cruisers. She was game for another Temerity run so we headed down Kessler's which we had scouted from the lift. Here's a small group skiing under the lift.
We were in a more open area similar to our start on Steeplechase.
I skied down to a gap in the trees overlooking the steepest section in the 40 degree range.
It's impressive to be skiing terrain like this, but it's not quite the wide open it would be in February/March. Some turns needed to be made in precise places, so Liz took quite awhile to get down vs. what it would have been with deeper cover.
We were fairly beat at this point and so skied cruisers until we could get into Cloud 9 about 2:45. An outstanding fondue with chorizo and veggies as well as bread plus some Gluewein were welcome sustenance after that workout.
Cloud 9 is an independent on-mountain lunch spot, common in the Alps but rare in North America. For those who like the Euro ski lifestyle, Aspen will make them feel right at home.
Ski patrol came in about 3:45 for the first "sweep" of the the restaurant, as Cloud 9 is ~3,000 vertical up the hill.
2 days later here's an overview pic from Aspen Mt. left to right of Highlands Bowl, Temerity and Steeplechase.
'
We checked out of Glenwood Springs New Year's Day and got to Aspen Highlands about 10AM. It had snowed 4 inches or so the previous day and remained overcast until late afternoon. We warmed up on a couple of cruisers and then tested Steeplechase to see if the claim of adequately covered expert terrain vs. the other Mountain Collective places was really true. Here's the entry into Steeplechase.
The Temerity area faces mostly east, so the most open terrain (maybe a bit of south tilt here) like this had a slightly crusty subsurface. However there were few moguls in this area and with about 6 inches in top it skied quite well. Lower down when the run narrowed there were lots of bumps. Temerity is quite a workout in early season. With the lift it's now 1,600 vertical of sustained steep with no letup. By the end of this Liz' feet hurt and she skied down to Merry-Go-Round for a break. I next explored skier's right of the Temerity lift. Here's the cat taking skiers to the Highlands Bowl hike, with hikers barely visible on the ridge beyond.
I started in some nicely spaced trees but they soon closed out, forcing me into a grueling mogul marathon of well over 1,000 vertical on Powerline. After that I retrieved Liz for a couple of cruisers. She was game for another Temerity run so we headed down Kessler's which we had scouted from the lift. Here's a small group skiing under the lift.
We were in a more open area similar to our start on Steeplechase.
I skied down to a gap in the trees overlooking the steepest section in the 40 degree range.
It's impressive to be skiing terrain like this, but it's not quite the wide open it would be in February/March. Some turns needed to be made in precise places, so Liz took quite awhile to get down vs. what it would have been with deeper cover.
We were fairly beat at this point and so skied cruisers until we could get into Cloud 9 about 2:45. An outstanding fondue with chorizo and veggies as well as bread plus some Gluewein were welcome sustenance after that workout.
Cloud 9 is an independent on-mountain lunch spot, common in the Alps but rare in North America. For those who like the Euro ski lifestyle, Aspen will make them feel right at home.
Ski patrol came in about 3:45 for the first "sweep" of the the restaurant, as Cloud 9 is ~3,000 vertical up the hill.
2 days later here's an overview pic from Aspen Mt. left to right of Highlands Bowl, Temerity and Steeplechase.
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