We decided to spend two nights and ski the last days of our trip here. Saturday’s storm only snowed 1-2 inches at Snowmass and today was the first predicted warm up day: sunny and high 32F. Accordingly I thought we should spend much of Sunday on lower and mid-mountain terrain that will likely be melt/frozen Monday. Then on Monday we’ll concentrate on the higher terrain.
We started with the two long lifts up to Elk Camp and a warmup on Grey Wolf near the lift.
The main reason to start on the east side was to get on to Burnt Mt. early for any fresh snow. The hike up there from top of Elk Camp took me 12 minutes. Liz at top of the hike:
From the top of Burnt Mt. is a profile of Aspen Highlands in the center of this view.
The hike cuts down skier density, so the scattered trees skier’s left of Longshot had few tracks.
Too bad it was only two inches, though it still skied smoothly.
Longshot becomes only a cut trail before we are halfway down its 3,300 vertical.
There are some short mogul sections on Longshot. The mid-mountain ones were still winter snow though perhaps not by the end of the day. The lower ones were a bit firm. The bottom was flat an mostly firm, though likely to soften within an hour or so. Accordingly we went back up Elk Camp, skied Bear Bottom is packed powder, then Creekside back to Two Creeks in ideally timed snow conditions.
Next we moved to High Alpine and skied a long groomer combo of The Edge and Naked Lady, the latter in excellent first day softening snow.
On my second time up High Alpine I headed for Hanging Valley, requiring a 4 minute hike to reach the more interesting terrain. View at top of the hike:
That snowboarder is hiking farther up, but I could see a gate in the distance if I traversed, so I did that and ended up at West 1&2. There were three young guys (one skier, tow snowboarders) who warned me that it was steep and rocky and that they were going hike back up and look for something else.
I asked where they were from and they said they were from Chicago and mostly hit terrain parks. I looked over the edge and commented that it wasn’t steep beyond much of what I ski at Mammoth and that I could sideslip if it became too confined.
The snow was excellent, so I was able to make about 4 short turns down to where there were rocks below, then cut skier’s left to where it opened up more. As usual I never think about the camera when I’m exploring something like that and so only got pics from below.
The line I skied is from center diagonally down to the right, hidden by rocks from this view. From below it looks like there is an easier line in direct view that would be skier’s right from the top, but that was not at all evident from above so perhaps the pic is misleading.
Last year I drifted skier’s left from where I took the above pic and ended up in a tedious mix of steep trees and moguls. This time I successful cut skier’s right to Wall One. The approach is through these mellower trees.
Then it opens up where it gets steeper.
View back up after skiing Wall One.
Now I cruised Drumstick and Adams Avenue back to Alpine Springs, called Liz and met her at the top of Sheer Bliss.
From we skied Snowmass’ longest continuous vertical run, Sneaky’s to Powderhorn down to Campground. Powderhorn is closed by patrol at 2:30 as it could take a very long time in bad conditions and we beat that deadline by no more than 10 minutes.
However, I was quite sure we would have optimal conditions with the first day softening mid-mountain, and that the spring snow lower down would be no problem at 2:30 on a sunny March day. Upper Powderhorn was smooth and mellow.
Liz approaches the mid-level bumps.
A flat sun exposed catwalk lower down is on its last legs. But the final pitch of moguls is tilted enough north to retain snow.
Liz got her eastern mogul fix on Powderhorn.
Our final runs were the fall line groomer Upper Slot from Sam’s Knob, then Banzai Ridge to Blue Grouse to the short walkway to Pokolodi Lodge. I skied 23,600 vertical.
We started with the two long lifts up to Elk Camp and a warmup on Grey Wolf near the lift.
The main reason to start on the east side was to get on to Burnt Mt. early for any fresh snow. The hike up there from top of Elk Camp took me 12 minutes. Liz at top of the hike:
From the top of Burnt Mt. is a profile of Aspen Highlands in the center of this view.
The hike cuts down skier density, so the scattered trees skier’s left of Longshot had few tracks.
Too bad it was only two inches, though it still skied smoothly.
Longshot becomes only a cut trail before we are halfway down its 3,300 vertical.
There are some short mogul sections on Longshot. The mid-mountain ones were still winter snow though perhaps not by the end of the day. The lower ones were a bit firm. The bottom was flat an mostly firm, though likely to soften within an hour or so. Accordingly we went back up Elk Camp, skied Bear Bottom is packed powder, then Creekside back to Two Creeks in ideally timed snow conditions.
Next we moved to High Alpine and skied a long groomer combo of The Edge and Naked Lady, the latter in excellent first day softening snow.
On my second time up High Alpine I headed for Hanging Valley, requiring a 4 minute hike to reach the more interesting terrain. View at top of the hike:
That snowboarder is hiking farther up, but I could see a gate in the distance if I traversed, so I did that and ended up at West 1&2. There were three young guys (one skier, tow snowboarders) who warned me that it was steep and rocky and that they were going hike back up and look for something else.
I asked where they were from and they said they were from Chicago and mostly hit terrain parks. I looked over the edge and commented that it wasn’t steep beyond much of what I ski at Mammoth and that I could sideslip if it became too confined.
The snow was excellent, so I was able to make about 4 short turns down to where there were rocks below, then cut skier’s left to where it opened up more. As usual I never think about the camera when I’m exploring something like that and so only got pics from below.
The line I skied is from center diagonally down to the right, hidden by rocks from this view. From below it looks like there is an easier line in direct view that would be skier’s right from the top, but that was not at all evident from above so perhaps the pic is misleading.
Last year I drifted skier’s left from where I took the above pic and ended up in a tedious mix of steep trees and moguls. This time I successful cut skier’s right to Wall One. The approach is through these mellower trees.
Then it opens up where it gets steeper.
View back up after skiing Wall One.
Now I cruised Drumstick and Adams Avenue back to Alpine Springs, called Liz and met her at the top of Sheer Bliss.
From we skied Snowmass’ longest continuous vertical run, Sneaky’s to Powderhorn down to Campground. Powderhorn is closed by patrol at 2:30 as it could take a very long time in bad conditions and we beat that deadline by no more than 10 minutes.
However, I was quite sure we would have optimal conditions with the first day softening mid-mountain, and that the spring snow lower down would be no problem at 2:30 on a sunny March day. Upper Powderhorn was smooth and mellow.
Liz approaches the mid-level bumps.
A flat sun exposed catwalk lower down is on its last legs. But the final pitch of moguls is tilted enough north to retain snow.
Liz got her eastern mogul fix on Powderhorn.
Our final runs were the fall line groomer Upper Slot from Sam’s Knob, then Banzai Ridge to Blue Grouse to the short walkway to Pokolodi Lodge. I skied 23,600 vertical.
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