tseeb
Well-known member
I skied so hard that I split my pants. Good thing I brought an extra pair and Aspen may be a place to get the ripped seam repaired.
Tony Crocker connected me with Paul from Edwards, CO who usually skis at Highlands on Friday and Saturdays. Paul also likes Beaver Creek, but disdains Highlands Bowl as it takes too long. He also does not usually go to Aspen Mountain or Snowmass due to their inefficient lifts or Vail, for too many reasons to list. But he is planning to guide me at Ajax today.
We took a warm-up on Loges lift skiing groomed run where corduroy was covered with 2" that had fallen overnight. Then we took Loges again, skiing steep Aces and Eights, which had good snow once past top which still was a little rocky even with 80" base. Next time at the top we dropped into the Deep Temerity side of the mountain skiing an easier run before moving to Best Line Ever. I was not sure if I could ski runs this steep all day, but I hung in skiing Deep Temerity probably 10 times and Loges at least 5 times. Doing the Bowl hike would probably have been easier than skiing the steep and deep trees runs at the pace we did. We got Paul's friend Jonesy, a patroller at Highlands to lead us into the Moose Knuckle, a steep knoll that you can see from the chair, but can't get to from there without an uphill traverse through dense trees. We got into it from above and snow was great as 28" had fallen earlier in the week. Most of it had been lightly skied, but was still soft enough to ski the very steep slopes we did all day. We took one run to the bottom midday, stopping at the Monkey Lounge before continuing down more hidden steeps. We also did one cat ride, but did not hike as we skied Whip's which starts where cat drops you at 11,740'. Snow on SE-facing Whip's was soft and deep and even untracked in places. We finished our day with all of Lower Steins which includes an uphill to get back to the base. I took off my skis and hiked it as my legs and arms were not up for poling and herringboning a couple of hundred feet. My watch counted 28,740 vertical. More pictures will be posted after I ski Aspen Mountain today and go to EpicSki party tonight.
Tony Crocker connected me with Paul from Edwards, CO who usually skis at Highlands on Friday and Saturdays. Paul also likes Beaver Creek, but disdains Highlands Bowl as it takes too long. He also does not usually go to Aspen Mountain or Snowmass due to their inefficient lifts or Vail, for too many reasons to list. But he is planning to guide me at Ajax today.
We took a warm-up on Loges lift skiing groomed run where corduroy was covered with 2" that had fallen overnight. Then we took Loges again, skiing steep Aces and Eights, which had good snow once past top which still was a little rocky even with 80" base. Next time at the top we dropped into the Deep Temerity side of the mountain skiing an easier run before moving to Best Line Ever. I was not sure if I could ski runs this steep all day, but I hung in skiing Deep Temerity probably 10 times and Loges at least 5 times. Doing the Bowl hike would probably have been easier than skiing the steep and deep trees runs at the pace we did. We got Paul's friend Jonesy, a patroller at Highlands to lead us into the Moose Knuckle, a steep knoll that you can see from the chair, but can't get to from there without an uphill traverse through dense trees. We got into it from above and snow was great as 28" had fallen earlier in the week. Most of it had been lightly skied, but was still soft enough to ski the very steep slopes we did all day. We took one run to the bottom midday, stopping at the Monkey Lounge before continuing down more hidden steeps. We also did one cat ride, but did not hike as we skied Whip's which starts where cat drops you at 11,740'. Snow on SE-facing Whip's was soft and deep and even untracked in places. We finished our day with all of Lower Steins which includes an uphill to get back to the base. I took off my skis and hiked it as my legs and arms were not up for poling and herringboning a couple of hundred feet. My watch counted 28,740 vertical. More pictures will be posted after I ski Aspen Mountain today and go to EpicSki party tonight.
