Highlands Bowl at Aspen, 4/10/2011

[Tony Crocker]

We heard some hype that it might snow 10 inches overnight with another 5-9 during the day. But the actual 5 inches overnight with maybe a couple during the day was right in line with Joel Gratz' forecast. We heard from people here that Saturday's skiing (overcast with the approaching storm, thus refrozen like Vail on 4/6) sucked.

At any rate, it was very evident on my warmup runs at Aspen Highlands that the subsurface was refrozen spring snow. It was 20F at 9AM and maxed out at 25 and overcast all day with occasional snow and quite a bit of fog at high elevations. View of Buttermilk and the lower part of Highlands after breakfast at Aspen Meadows where we were staying.

I took my first 2 runs on blue groomers Hayden and Meadows that had a smooth surface beneath the new snow. By this time it was 10:30 and the Highlands Bowl hike had opened at 10AM with the first snowcat scheduled for 10:30. I got in that one, they squeezed in 18 people and it climbed for about 5 minutes and maybe 200 vertical. As most of you know, you need to hike the other 500 vertical to Highlands Peak. The hike along the ridge was intermittently windy and nearly always foggy. So no great views like rfarren got 2 weeks ago. Visibility was bad enough that I got someone to take my picture just to show I was there.

Thanks again to admin for the pack. As I expected I had no breathing issues as I had been sleeping at 9,000 feet for a week. The hike was tougher on my legs due to the 144K vertical I had skied during that time. I probably had more trouble with the Ridge at Bridger, which is slightly less vertical but steeper and was on the first day of a trip in 2006 with Patrick. The Highlands Bowl snowcat ride and hike took me about an hour in total.

Ski patrollers warned people against shortcutting the hike because the earlier accessible lines into the bowl face east and had coral reef not far below. Even the longest and steepest lines from the peak face NE. So they recommended the G runs on the far side of the peak that face due north. So I headed that way with some decent powder turns below the NW ridge of Highlands Peak, eventually reaching the entry to G4.

Even here I found a diagonal line through the trees with less steep pitch and thus less bottoming out, eventually emerging onto the 37 degree slope of G3.

The fog thinned out some, so looking up G3 at ~12:15 I could see patrol was right about the north exposure.

With the slightly better visibility I also took this picture across the bowl to the east facing runs.

G4 and G3 were sufficiently steep to be hitting bottom through the powder, but it was much better skiing than lower on the mountain or other exposures where the subsurface was much icier. View of G runs from bottom of the bowl at 11,000 feet.

And here's one skier emerging from the direct line (1,400 vertical average 40 degrees) from the peak.

I suspect rfarren skied that in the deeper powder 2 weeks ago.

It's another 1,000 feet down from here to the new Deep Temerity lift. Some of that was good low angle powder, but beware of any confined lines with icy bumps underneath. The new lift extends the former Steeplechase sector to 1,600 vertical of very appealing steep skiing. Unfortunately it all faces east and saw very few takers today.

This skier's turns were quite audible from the chair so I was not tempted.

View from Loge's Peak toward town during another break in the fog.

After the hike and ski I was a bit cold and had worked up an appetite and so headed into the Cloud 9 Bistro. Aspen does a nice job of providing amenities along with the gnarly terrain.

The Elk Osso Bucco definitely hit the spot after the morning adventure in Highlands Bowl.

I took a couple more cruisers after lunch, then ventured into Olympic Bowl for my last run.

This was manageable if skied very carefully. In times like this I would prefer the new snow be Sierra Cement.

I was done at 2:30 after 12,600 vertical, ~4K of powder. Richard was worn out by the previous 7 days and did not ski today. But if you're going to be in a ski resort and not ski, Aspen is as good as it gets. FYI for the Utah (and any other) fans of Japanese food, Richard and I had the 7 course Omakase dinner at Matsuhisa Saturday night.

When I got down to the plaza at Highlands, I noticed this unusual sight.

 

[Anonymous]

So, someone locks a ski boot into his skateboard?

 

[rfarren]

=D> =D> =D>
There were a few differences between your hike and mine. I had no Snowcat to take me to the foot of the hike, we had to hike straight from the lift. It would've been great to have had that first 1/4 mile done in a snowcat! It probably saved you 20 minutes of hiking. I was wondering where the cat was as we walked on a cat track for that first bit, but we never saw one. I guess they don't run it every day.

We took full curl instead of the g lines as we were told that was due north facing and was the best line in the whole bowl(even though the steepest lines are earlier on in the hike). It wouldn't have made a difference as the snow was pretty fluffy that day (it had snowed a couple feet or so the few days before we arrived and there was another large dump the night before we skied), although I did notice when we skied east facing lines off the deep temerity lift the snow got really heavy due to the sun and that was hard work after the hike and the bowl.

I'm sorry you didn't get the amazing view of the Maroon Bells from the top, hopefully you'll do it again on a sunny day. You must trust me that it is entirely worth it. I'm glad you didn't have any problems breathing. I was short of breath and my legs were burning, even though I had done a bunch of hikes earlier in the week and had been at altitude for 7 days by the time I got there. Were there a lot of people passing you by? We felt a lot of pressure to keep our tempo up as people were hauling up to the top and we didn't want to lose untracked lines. Nonetheless, we were passed by about 10 people who were hiking pretty fast. Oddly enough, the day we hit highlands the lead story in the Aspen Daily Newspaper was: "Local laps Highlands Bowl 75 times this season."

 

[Tony Crocker]

I always let the locals pass me when I could tell they were behind me. There's a lot of terrain up there and it's going to take awhile to track it out via foot traffic. I suppose being on the first cat helped. I have learned on numerous high altitude hikes to go only at a pace where I don't have to stop. I'm sure it was tougher on Rob because:
1) No assistance from the cat.
2) He felt pressure to move fast.
3) He had been hiking as well as skiing during the prior week.

 

[rfarren]

How long did the hike take you?

 

[Marc_C]

I'm glad you didn't have any problems breathing. I was short of breath and my legs were burning, even though I had done a bunch of hikes earlier in the week and had been at altitude for 7 days by the time I got there.

...and then...

Were there a lot of people passing you by? We felt a lot of pressure to keep our tempo up as people were hauling up to the top and we didn't want to lose untracked lines. Nonetheless, we were passed by about 10 people who were hiking pretty fast.

Did you ever consider that the two above might possibly be related? Even causal perhaps?

Were you able to carry on a conversation while you were hiking? A good general rule of thumb is if you can't, you're pushing too hard.

Are you aware that in the big mountains, more fast, fit, energetic climbers in their 20's have died from HACE or HAPE than those older, slower climbers in their 40's? One explanation offered is that the older climbers listen to their bodies a bit more closely. Some altitude physiologists have also postulated that in your 20's, your lungs still haven't reached full maturity and maximal capacity, but energy and musculature fitness are able to exceed the capacity of the lungs.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Highlands runs the first cat at 10:30. The hike can open earlier, so perhaps that gives a few locals willing to do the longer hike a chance to get there before the first people on the cat. I'm guessing rfarren was with some of those, thus the peer pressure. That's his choice: he's half my age and can choose to suffer a little if he wants. :lol: So no surprise MarcC's philosophy on hiking at altitude is more in line with mine. I would only remind rfarren to be aware of any serious symptoms that should turn him around, as we noted with admin's friend Todd at Alta a few years ago.

 

[EMSC]

Were you able to carry on a conversation while you were hiking? A good general rule of thumb is if you can't, you're pushing too hard.

Some altitude physiologists have also postulated that in your 20's, your lungs still haven't reached full maturity and maximal capacity, but energy and musculature fitness are able to exceed the capacity of the lungs.

Hmmm... If you are a casual hiker I would agree with needing to keep it to a pace where you can have a conversation. With a long history of hiking and MTB'ing out here I somewhat disagree for fit and athletic folks. I could say a word or two as needed, but no way when I'm going up a steep MTB trail would I be able to hold a true conversation... The key is to not go so hard you have to stop for a breather. Go at a pace where you can keep going indefinitely, which at least for me is faster than 'able to hold a running conversation'. But then I've been fairly good at the uphill stuff - not the fastest by any means, but usually faster than most; so maybe I'm biased.

 

[rfarren]

I shouldn't say I was short of breath, I was just breathing hard like I do when I play soccer. As far as how I felt physically it was nothing out of the ordinary for a hard workout, never did I feel like i was sick.