Aspen Highlands has the best balance of terrain of the 4 Aspen areas IMHO, and via NASJA we were staying in employee housing at its base. We didn't ski there the first two days as I wanted to be acclimatized if we were to climb at over 12,000 feet to ski Highlands Bowl.
The warm weather was not helpful, as the SE facing part of Highlands Bowl had wet slides, and the patrol was trying to control them.
Tuesday was overcast so most snow did not freeze overnight. Fortunately Highlands still has low skier density so the lower groomed runs were fine until about noon. The expert terrain drops east (Steeplechase) and west (Olympic) off a narrow ridgeline, and these areas were almost unrecognizable compared to my powder-filled Aspen trips in the 1980's. Both had deep moguls of very heavy snow and took quite a bit of effort to negotiate, so I only did 3 of those runs.
On Tuesday night starting around 10PM we heard a steady r@!n outside our condo at 8,000 feet. So much for my oft-stated comments that it NEVER rains in Colorado ski areas during the season. The snow level was about 10,000, and needless to say the 2 inches new snow above that was of rather high water content.
It was easy to get stuck on low intermediate pitches Wednesday, and we knew better than to attempt anything with deep frozen moguls underneath. There was a brand new slide in Highlands Bowl, so it remained closed. The cruisers got better in the late morning as they dried out or got skier-packed, and we left at noon for the 4-hour drive to Telluride.
The warm weather was not helpful, as the SE facing part of Highlands Bowl had wet slides, and the patrol was trying to control them.
Tuesday was overcast so most snow did not freeze overnight. Fortunately Highlands still has low skier density so the lower groomed runs were fine until about noon. The expert terrain drops east (Steeplechase) and west (Olympic) off a narrow ridgeline, and these areas were almost unrecognizable compared to my powder-filled Aspen trips in the 1980's. Both had deep moguls of very heavy snow and took quite a bit of effort to negotiate, so I only did 3 of those runs.
On Tuesday night starting around 10PM we heard a steady r@!n outside our condo at 8,000 feet. So much for my oft-stated comments that it NEVER rains in Colorado ski areas during the season. The snow level was about 10,000, and needless to say the 2 inches new snow above that was of rather high water content.
It was easy to get stuck on low intermediate pitches Wednesday, and we knew better than to attempt anything with deep frozen moguls underneath. There was a brand new slide in Highlands Bowl, so it remained closed. The cruisers got better in the late morning as they dried out or got skier-packed, and we left at noon for the 4-hour drive to Telluride.