EMSC
Well-known member
Overall decent.
We were in town for the race chasing calendar. Yes, the races start ever earlier in the season the older you get. In this case for my son's age group all races are held at Aspen Highlands on Goldenhorn/Thunderbowl areas of the lower mtn.
Many of the kids are doing team travel at his new age group so only a few of us parents around. My son will do team travel for a couple races later in the season but not just yet. I was able to mix in free runs with watching race runs and grabbing lunch for what ended up being half the team. Being my first day on skis for the season I hit Cloud Nine once at mid-mountain. Getting a lap there and a second lap on Loge Peak lift to warm up. Both Aspen and Highlands are roughly 70-80% open with the not open areas mostly confined to the steep, non-snowmaking stuff on the lower ~1,500 vertical (exception also being most of the new terrain on the new Hero's lift at Ajax). Conditions were a bit thin as you might expect, but overall not really too bad especially given the warm and low snow start this year. I expect the rocks to get bad at all the Aspen areas over the holidays unless decent new snows begin to appear though.
On my 2nd ride up Loge peak I rode with a patroller and asked about how deep temerity was and he indicated it should be pretty decent. The patroller was interested in doing a lap himself to see current state, so we did a lap down Lucky Find with him leading the way. Very friendly guy who also spends summers assisting with continuing to glade and remove deadfall in that sector during the summer. After that it was a mix of rushing down to the race, another fast groomer lap up top, back to the race, a lap up top with another Deep Temerity run between races, hot lap between 3rd and 4th runs (two consecutive GS races for 4 race runs in one day). Eventually with getting in 2 laps up top with my son after the race, though sticking to the groomers to avoid any possibility of rocks while on his race skis. I figured ~26.4K of Vert on my part.
While some of the other racer boys headed all the way back to the front range after the race, I had made the decision that I wasn't going all that way for a single day and my son and I stuck around for a free ski day on Sunday. Starting the day again at Highlands. My son likes to see and ski new places so again with a warm-up on Cloud Nine followed by 2 laps in Deep Temerity. The first one quite long lasting as his boots were giving him problems and he kept stopping and fiddling. We then took another groomer lap before grabbing a quick early lunch at the mid-Mtn Merry Go Round.
We then headed down and grabbed he excellent and efficient free bus system over to Ajax so that my son could get a chance to see a second new area in one day that he had never skied before. While not exactly crowded there had to be 5x or more the number of people at Aspen. The only lift lines of the whole weekend were 3-5 minutes on the Aspen Gondola and Ajax Express lifts. Otherwise ski on and half or more empty chairs. Highlands felt nearly deserted at times. We hit every upper mtn lift at Ajax at some point, with a couple laps on several. Snow firmer on the groomers and definitely a bit thinner off-piste than Highlands. Quite definitively rockier and not sure if that is pure skier density related, or if actually a bit less snow as well.
The new Hero's lift had basically the old terrain in that area open, but the new stuff almost entirely closed. It looks like stair-step style stuff: steep, flattish, steep, flattish for 3 or 4 steps. So not terrible looking, but not awesome continuous steeps that many of us seek out. The couple of blues they list on the map for the new terrain are 2 roads/traverses and the lower 1/2 of the lift line.
The run down to the base is rarely much fun at Aspen. With a single way down open for the moment the choke 'half-pipe' section followed by the extremely scraped off and icy Little Nell. Snowmaking occurring on other runs down still. We ended right around 3p and shuttled back to our car, departing ~3:30p. About 22K of Vert for the day.
Currently lifts don't open until 9a in the Aspen area (saw a local article saying Snowmass woudl shift to 8:30 starting with holidays coming up). 30mins before open at Highlands...
Almost nobody at top of Loge Peak
OK class, who is windshield wipering turns vs carving rails?
In Lucky Find: I felt he deserves anonymity, but we stopped for him to saw and remove this downed boot snagger (he cut two pieces and moved to dense nearby pile of stuff where no one will be trying to ski).
Very difficult to see the upper half of the race course. This is actually two courses set: 1st run to far side, 2nd run closer in.
Inspection time
Note the manufactured bump line with kickers on the line separating the public side from non-public side
Some areas still need lots of snow though.
Highlands Bowl is open. Lots of hikers on Saturday, many fewer on Sunday. The cats are not yet running. Apparently the ridge line is so narrow in spots it needs quite a bit of snow built up to handle the cat effort.
Deep in Deep Temerity
Mix of Bones
And not so much
Though you may want to avoid sun facing aspects
Deep Temerity day2
Still mostly soft in low skied places, a bit firmer in more skied areas
Entirely firm and chalky in Deception (opposite west side of the Highlands ridge)
Now in ASssspen
I'll never understand why so many more people ski Ajax than Highlands
At the pitch in Walsh's. You can see the building/base of the new Hero's chair center of the image.
bottom of the lift line
More 'stairs' up the liftline
Hero's trail map. I had thought the lift was going to be located further lookers left since Walsh's and lookers right was already skiable just with a traverse out.
Good overview of Highlands Bowl and Deep Temerity terrain at Highlands
Bonnies and Ajax lift terrain
Would they make the same design choice if built today?
We were in town for the race chasing calendar. Yes, the races start ever earlier in the season the older you get. In this case for my son's age group all races are held at Aspen Highlands on Goldenhorn/Thunderbowl areas of the lower mtn.
Many of the kids are doing team travel at his new age group so only a few of us parents around. My son will do team travel for a couple races later in the season but not just yet. I was able to mix in free runs with watching race runs and grabbing lunch for what ended up being half the team. Being my first day on skis for the season I hit Cloud Nine once at mid-mountain. Getting a lap there and a second lap on Loge Peak lift to warm up. Both Aspen and Highlands are roughly 70-80% open with the not open areas mostly confined to the steep, non-snowmaking stuff on the lower ~1,500 vertical (exception also being most of the new terrain on the new Hero's lift at Ajax). Conditions were a bit thin as you might expect, but overall not really too bad especially given the warm and low snow start this year. I expect the rocks to get bad at all the Aspen areas over the holidays unless decent new snows begin to appear though.
On my 2nd ride up Loge peak I rode with a patroller and asked about how deep temerity was and he indicated it should be pretty decent. The patroller was interested in doing a lap himself to see current state, so we did a lap down Lucky Find with him leading the way. Very friendly guy who also spends summers assisting with continuing to glade and remove deadfall in that sector during the summer. After that it was a mix of rushing down to the race, another fast groomer lap up top, back to the race, a lap up top with another Deep Temerity run between races, hot lap between 3rd and 4th runs (two consecutive GS races for 4 race runs in one day). Eventually with getting in 2 laps up top with my son after the race, though sticking to the groomers to avoid any possibility of rocks while on his race skis. I figured ~26.4K of Vert on my part.
While some of the other racer boys headed all the way back to the front range after the race, I had made the decision that I wasn't going all that way for a single day and my son and I stuck around for a free ski day on Sunday. Starting the day again at Highlands. My son likes to see and ski new places so again with a warm-up on Cloud Nine followed by 2 laps in Deep Temerity. The first one quite long lasting as his boots were giving him problems and he kept stopping and fiddling. We then took another groomer lap before grabbing a quick early lunch at the mid-Mtn Merry Go Round.
We then headed down and grabbed he excellent and efficient free bus system over to Ajax so that my son could get a chance to see a second new area in one day that he had never skied before. While not exactly crowded there had to be 5x or more the number of people at Aspen. The only lift lines of the whole weekend were 3-5 minutes on the Aspen Gondola and Ajax Express lifts. Otherwise ski on and half or more empty chairs. Highlands felt nearly deserted at times. We hit every upper mtn lift at Ajax at some point, with a couple laps on several. Snow firmer on the groomers and definitely a bit thinner off-piste than Highlands. Quite definitively rockier and not sure if that is pure skier density related, or if actually a bit less snow as well.
The new Hero's lift had basically the old terrain in that area open, but the new stuff almost entirely closed. It looks like stair-step style stuff: steep, flattish, steep, flattish for 3 or 4 steps. So not terrible looking, but not awesome continuous steeps that many of us seek out. The couple of blues they list on the map for the new terrain are 2 roads/traverses and the lower 1/2 of the lift line.
The run down to the base is rarely much fun at Aspen. With a single way down open for the moment the choke 'half-pipe' section followed by the extremely scraped off and icy Little Nell. Snowmaking occurring on other runs down still. We ended right around 3p and shuttled back to our car, departing ~3:30p. About 22K of Vert for the day.
Currently lifts don't open until 9a in the Aspen area (saw a local article saying Snowmass woudl shift to 8:30 starting with holidays coming up). 30mins before open at Highlands...
Almost nobody at top of Loge Peak
OK class, who is windshield wipering turns vs carving rails?
In Lucky Find: I felt he deserves anonymity, but we stopped for him to saw and remove this downed boot snagger (he cut two pieces and moved to dense nearby pile of stuff where no one will be trying to ski).
Very difficult to see the upper half of the race course. This is actually two courses set: 1st run to far side, 2nd run closer in.
Inspection time
Note the manufactured bump line with kickers on the line separating the public side from non-public side
Some areas still need lots of snow though.
Highlands Bowl is open. Lots of hikers on Saturday, many fewer on Sunday. The cats are not yet running. Apparently the ridge line is so narrow in spots it needs quite a bit of snow built up to handle the cat effort.
Deep in Deep Temerity
Mix of Bones
And not so much
Though you may want to avoid sun facing aspects
Deep Temerity day2
Still mostly soft in low skied places, a bit firmer in more skied areas
Entirely firm and chalky in Deception (opposite west side of the Highlands ridge)
Now in ASssspen
I'll never understand why so many more people ski Ajax than Highlands
At the pitch in Walsh's. You can see the building/base of the new Hero's chair center of the image.
bottom of the lift line
More 'stairs' up the liftline
Hero's trail map. I had thought the lift was going to be located further lookers left since Walsh's and lookers right was already skiable just with a traverse out.
Good overview of Highlands Bowl and Deep Temerity terrain at Highlands
Bonnies and Ajax lift terrain
Would they make the same design choice if built today?
