skiNEwhere
Active member
Date: February 7th, 2016
Resort: Sunlight Mountain Resort (Near Glenwood Springs, CO)
Conditions/Weather: Powder/Packed Powder. Temps in the 20's
Trip No: 26
Report:
Sunlight is a relatively small ski area about 2 hours, 15-30 minutes from Denver. Just as most casual skiers in the Boston metro have not heard of Magic, most front rangers haven't heard of Sunlight. First off, I must confess that I've never been to Magic. But I've read enough trip reports on here about it that I feel like skied there vicariously though other AZ'ers.
While considered small compared to its big brothers, it actually has over 2,000 ft of vertical and 680 acres of terrain. The layout seems similar to magic with wide sweeping trails at the top which feed the rest of the mountain.
I've been waiting for the conditions to be right before coming here. Since their trail report read as 100% open, I decided to cut the Aspen trip a day short.
I arrived at 8:40 and snagged the second closest spot to the stairs, which were less than 100 yards from the lift.
Lift ticket was $60 for a normal day, but today it was $40 if you wore Broncos attire.
I've heard so much about "the heathens" trail on the east ridge portion of the mtn, so I decided to check it out. Yea, I guess the top of it is about 52 degrees (as they claim) but it's literally only sustained for about 10 feet. But that whole portion of the mtn has some pretty sweet terrain. Tight trees, narrow gullies, and optional rocks to jump off of if you were so inclined.
I did 5-6 or runs in the east ridge area (bottom left hand side of trail map), trying to ski a different line each time. The traverse out of this area is a little flat, but has enough pitch to where to minimal poling is required. On a pow day though, you may want to consider letting a few other people break ground first so that they can flatten out the snow in the run out since a lot of poling is probably required.
I lapped the Segundo chair a few times (Chairlift which goes from the base to halfway up the mountain), and skied Cassanova glade which is a nice low angle tree run with moderated spaced trees (mostly Aspens). I also went skiers left of the Segundo chair, which has some pretty tight trees with a little bit steeper pitch.
After lunch, I stopped by ski patrol to ask about which glades were skiing well, and they were kind enough to reveal a couple unmarked stashed, and help me fix my GoPro mount with guerilla tape. Special thanks to Jack for pointing me in the right direction!
Overall, this is a awesome little mountain that is worth checking out. As far as the negatives, I really can't come up with any. Yea the lifts were slow, but there are always trade offs. The lifts are ancient artifacts from another time when center pole doubles with no safety bars were considered the norm, but I'd much rather have this place keep its small, friendly vibe than turn into a mega resort were you need to throw elbows to compete for pow stashes. The greens at the top which you have to take to get to the east ridge are a little flat and require poling, but I don't think that's a really big takeaway.
Next time you are skiing Aspen, or are in the area, you owe it to yourself to check this place out, you won't be disappointed. I would spend a night in glenwood springs as well, this is cool little ski town (at least I think it's a ski town). I've never been to the world famous hot springs there, (the largest hot springs pool in the world), but I've heard great things about it and according to the guys on pugski you can get a ski and stay for $100-$150 a night.
Resort: Sunlight Mountain Resort (Near Glenwood Springs, CO)
Conditions/Weather: Powder/Packed Powder. Temps in the 20's
Trip No: 26
Report:
Sunlight is a relatively small ski area about 2 hours, 15-30 minutes from Denver. Just as most casual skiers in the Boston metro have not heard of Magic, most front rangers haven't heard of Sunlight. First off, I must confess that I've never been to Magic. But I've read enough trip reports on here about it that I feel like skied there vicariously though other AZ'ers.
While considered small compared to its big brothers, it actually has over 2,000 ft of vertical and 680 acres of terrain. The layout seems similar to magic with wide sweeping trails at the top which feed the rest of the mountain.
I've been waiting for the conditions to be right before coming here. Since their trail report read as 100% open, I decided to cut the Aspen trip a day short.
I arrived at 8:40 and snagged the second closest spot to the stairs, which were less than 100 yards from the lift.
Lift ticket was $60 for a normal day, but today it was $40 if you wore Broncos attire.
I've heard so much about "the heathens" trail on the east ridge portion of the mtn, so I decided to check it out. Yea, I guess the top of it is about 52 degrees (as they claim) but it's literally only sustained for about 10 feet. But that whole portion of the mtn has some pretty sweet terrain. Tight trees, narrow gullies, and optional rocks to jump off of if you were so inclined.
I did 5-6 or runs in the east ridge area (bottom left hand side of trail map), trying to ski a different line each time. The traverse out of this area is a little flat, but has enough pitch to where to minimal poling is required. On a pow day though, you may want to consider letting a few other people break ground first so that they can flatten out the snow in the run out since a lot of poling is probably required.
I lapped the Segundo chair a few times (Chairlift which goes from the base to halfway up the mountain), and skied Cassanova glade which is a nice low angle tree run with moderated spaced trees (mostly Aspens). I also went skiers left of the Segundo chair, which has some pretty tight trees with a little bit steeper pitch.
After lunch, I stopped by ski patrol to ask about which glades were skiing well, and they were kind enough to reveal a couple unmarked stashed, and help me fix my GoPro mount with guerilla tape. Special thanks to Jack for pointing me in the right direction!
Overall, this is a awesome little mountain that is worth checking out. As far as the negatives, I really can't come up with any. Yea the lifts were slow, but there are always trade offs. The lifts are ancient artifacts from another time when center pole doubles with no safety bars were considered the norm, but I'd much rather have this place keep its small, friendly vibe than turn into a mega resort were you need to throw elbows to compete for pow stashes. The greens at the top which you have to take to get to the east ridge are a little flat and require poling, but I don't think that's a really big takeaway.
Next time you are skiing Aspen, or are in the area, you owe it to yourself to check this place out, you won't be disappointed. I would spend a night in glenwood springs as well, this is cool little ski town (at least I think it's a ski town). I've never been to the world famous hot springs there, (the largest hot springs pool in the world), but I've heard great things about it and according to the guys on pugski you can get a ski and stay for $100-$150 a night.
