advice for Colorado

[egieszl]

I went to Aspen Mountain today and conditions were much better than Snowmass. The groomers had sufficient coverage that I was able to ski at normal speed. There are some thin spots, but I didn't hit any rocks other than a few loose, small ones floating on the surface which I call tip chippers. The snow was nice firm machine groomed in the morning, but it started to get rather hard and slick by 12:30 pm. The ungroomed bump runs I avoided, but I could see that coverage was ok on some and unacceptable on others. I skied Aztec (black diamond) and it was some hard, hard, hard, slick pack. I think I made three turns and slid the rest.

After 24,103 vertical feet in three hours I left and went to Buttermilk, where again conditions were better than Snowmass.

Snow cover at Buttermilk is very thin on areas without man-made snow and while there are some bare spots, most obstacles were easily avoidable and rocks weren't an issue. Surface conditions were old snow that was firm and grooming is limited until they get more snow. I added 11,662 vertical feet there.

Overall, I would say it was my second best day this season so far.

I plan to post my first TR with photos in the next couple of days.

[johnnash]

We’ve been skiing Wolf Creek the last 2 days and our thanks go to Tony, ESMC and others who suggested this. The drive from Vail is totally worth it, given the superior conditions. We love the resort, which has the kind of laid-back feeling of others that have been our favorites, like Brighton and Bachelor. Surface has been true packed powder, with total coverage – no rocks, except in a few places on very steep slopes. Some runs have a few tops of little fir trees sticking up, but no big deal. It’s been wonderful for us, but I have to wonder when the effects of no snow and warming temps will begin to show. Certainly, it will take a long time for the shaded areas (like pretty much all the runs off the Alberta lift), but in other more exposed areas, it may come sooner. On a positive note, there is some chance of more snow Saturday. Today’s our last day here (after 1 day of skiing, we changed our plans to stay 3 days instead of 2), and I’ll let FTOL know how the surface is holding up.

[jamesdeluxe]

Here's a recent pic of Vail's vaunted Back Bowls, taken by a friend of my Denver-based brother.

back bowls.jpg (74.2 KiB) Viewed 752 times

[Tony Crocker]

I went to Aspen Mountain today and conditions were much better than Snowmass.

This is useful info. Aspen Mountain is in general much steeper than Snowmass and thus this observation is unexpected. The likely reason is much more skier traffic at Snowmass over Christmas break. This is one more reason the high volume places along I-70 closer to Denver should be avoided for awhile, as if we haven't heard enough from eyewitness reports. Also at Mammoth, which had few coverage issues on the manmade runs when I when I was there Dec. 15-16, forum reports during Christmas week noted that with traffic the rocks were coming out within a couple of hours after opening each day. And this week is better than last week despite the warm weather just due to many fewer people digging up the thin base.

Just say no to Christmas week destination trips!

[jasoncapecod]

Just say no to Christmas week destination trips!

Unfortunately we can't..but we will stick to the high percentage places..

[Evren]

Here's a recent pic of Vail's vaunted Back Bowls, taken by a friend of my Denver-based brother.

He posted that on Vail's fb page, too... and undid in one fell swoop, all the put-a-good-spin effort emanating from the resort

[EMSC]

Here's a recent pic of Vail's vaunted Back Bowls

Looks to me like there's no competition to get first tracks! Aren't low competition days the best time for hitting the bowls?

[johnnash]

I really wonder when jamesdeluxe's s picture was taken of the back bowls at Vail, because when we skied Vail on Jan.1, at least part of the back bowls was pretty much fully covered with snow, as my picture showed. I'm sure the coverage wasn't enough to ski, but the picture I posted was very different from the one posted by jamesdeluxe. Perhaps the difference is in the slope's different exposures, or could be the dates.

Re. Wolf Creek, the skiing was still great today, but by the end of the day, the surface conditions were finally starting to deteriorate a bit on the ungroomed sun exposed slopes. I skied Alberta Face twice within 20 minutes in the late afternoon, and the surface changed remarkably after the sun went behind the mountain -- very stiff after about 3:30. Other ungroomed slopes also got very stiff in the afternoon, so I skied the last few runs on groomers and easy bumps. We've had a fantastic time here, but if anyone is thinking about coming in the near future, I would advise them to think about not only the base (which is excellent for the rest of the season), but also the surface. For most of the runs that get traffic, the surface has not gotten to spring conditions yet (certainly no slush), but if warm temps and snow-drought conditions continue, the surface will also keep deteriorating. If you're comfortable skiing steep bumpy glades (I'm not), I suspect the tree runs off Alberta (which are in almost total shade) will remain nice for some time.

[Marc_C]

Here's a recent pic of Vail's vaunted Back Bowls, taken by a friend of my Denver-based brother.

Define "recent". Fess up. When was that picture taken? Comments and TRs here and elsewhere state conditions and coverage quite the opposite of what that pic implies.

[EMSC]

Here's a recent pic of Vail's vaunted Back Bowls, taken by a friend of my Denver-based brother.

Define "recent". Fess up. When was that picture taken? Comments and TRs here and elsewhere state conditions and coverage quite the opposite of what that pic implies.

Probably very recent. Remember that the back bowls have a wide variety of exposures from east to south to west, etc... Here's an article today with a picture from Thursday showing part of one of the back bowls...
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19688647.

Given the recent heat wave some spots might still have snow and others are totally bare.

[Marc_C]

Probably very recent. Remember that the back bowls have a wide variety of exposures from east to south to west, etc... ....
Given the recent heat wave some spots might still have snow and others are totally bare.

Ah. Got it.

[jamesdeluxe]

Fess up. When was that picture taken? Comments and TRs here and elsewhere state conditions and coverage quite the opposite of what that pic implies.

Feel free to apologize for impugning my sources.

[Marc_C]

Fess up. When was that picture taken? Comments and TRs here and elsewhere state conditions and coverage quite the opposite of what that pic implies.

Feel free to apologize for impugning my sources.

There was no impungement involved - just a request for a definition of "recent". When I posted a link to that photo on another discussion forum, there was disagreement from some folks who had been to Vail in the past month, claiming even coverage but too thin to open to the masses. One person even said "BS - that photo was from October."

[berkshireskier]

Publicly traded stock of Vail Resorts (Symbol: "mtn") is trading down from a high of 48 in October to 38 recently. Lack of snow is NOT helping business or the stock price!! See chart below:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MTN+ ... N;range=3m

[egieszl]

Both Vail Resorts and Aspen Skiing Company showed their customers that they don't care about them with their pricing practices this holiday season. Vail raised their one-day ticket to a record-high $116 and Aspen Skiing Company upped theirs to $108 during the holiday period. If conditions were "great" then maybe you could justify that, but when conditions are unacceptable that's just a bad practice. In the case of Vail only 20% of the mountain was open and the "famous" back bowls were 100% closed. I spoke to more than one visitor at Snowmass who brought this up on the chair ride and they all unanimously added they won't ever come back They felt cheated.