Snowmass, CO 12/7/08

[Pajarito-Bred]

First day at Snowmass this year was a terrible disappointment, especially in contrast with the snowy bounty in early Dec. last year. The recent storms that hit the Summit County areas left Aspen with only a few inches. We went up for the weekend, but spent Saturday hiking east of town, then bumming around Aspen- did some shopping in a couple of thrift stores hiding among the glitz. Seems like there were plenty of locals taking 3 or 4 runs on Ajax, then calling it a day.

Big Burn and Sam's knob were open, but only Sneaky's from the top of the Burn was marginally skiable. Crowds were light, though. The top of Sneaky's doesn't have snowmaking, so was full of soft mini-bumps mixed in with icy spots and lots of calzone-sized rocks. One run off Sam's Knob was nicely groomed, steep crunchy crumb-crust.

More disappointing was the area's lack of preparation for the season, only one run to the bottom was open, despite that portion of the mountain being well-supplied with snowmaking guns. It ain't November anymore. The gondola was running, but only for access to the novice area at the top- For a supposedly "World Class Resort" I'd have thought that 6 months of summer would have been enough time to fix the broken drinking fountain at the Ullrhof, broken for most of last year too. Geez, I get really gripy when I don't get my Powder.

There's a snazzy new restaraunt at the top of Sam's Knob- not open yet- and a new High Speed Quad replacing the 16-minute ride of the original Riblet double. The new top station is higher, so now all Burn runs plus the Cirque Poma will be accessible.

 

[egieszl]

The conditions you experienced at Snowmass are more or less typical for this time of year. Last year, was the exception. Unfortunately you missed the 18 inches that landed their in the past 24 hours.

Snowmass has a very limited snowmaking system, with limited capacity and severe limitations on water rights. Unfortunately, warm weather a week to 10 days before Thanksgiving halted snowmaking operations. However, there are only two runs to the base area from the Sam's Knob side that have snowmaking coverage. Those runs are Cabin to Fanny Hill (Closed) and Lower Hal's Hollow to Fanny Hill.

As for the on-mountain restaurants the majority are leased facilities that are owned and operated by private individuals. Ullrhof, Gwyn's High Alpine and Cafe Suzanne are not operated by the ski area. Ullrhof changed owners a little over a year ago and it's my understanding that the new owners are struggling and that may explain why they're not fixing their facility. I agree with you that the on mountain restaurants are not worthy of a resort that calls itself "world-class". All of them need to be torn down and replaced.