jimk
Well-known member
Aspen with skiNEwhere, Feb 4-6, 2016
This report is a little bit late, but snow conditions are so great in CO that they should still be holding up very well a week later. Last week my son and I met up with skiNEwhere for three super days of skiing in Aspen, CO. It was mostly sunny during our time together with seasonal temps, but they had received 40" of new snow in the week prior to our arrival. They have had a great snow year all along, so conditions were about as good as they get. We skied a day each together at Snowmass, Aspen Highlands, and Ajax.
Photo: this is my son and skiNEwhere on the summit of Aspen Highlands. These guys lapped Deep Temerity chair much of the day and also did two runs in Highland Bowl, including one hike to the summit without bothering to ride the free snowcat. Oh to be young again!! Yours truly joined them on occasion including a couple early drop-ins in Highland Bowl, but can't charge all day like the young guns! Aspen Highlands might be my very favorite of the ~85 ski areas I have skied in North America and Europe. It's got amazing advanced terrain, fabulous scenery, huge vert, yet still has an intimate "locals mountain" feeling that lets you to get acquainted quickly.
Photo: this is skiNEwhere at Aspen Highlands on a run/glade called No Name in Olympic Bowl. The scenery in this section of the mountain with 14ers like Pyramid Peak and the Maroon Bells as a backdrop is un-freaking-believable.
Photo: this is a shot I took of a lady friend of ours who skied the Deep Temerity trail pod with us at Aspen Highlands. The runs and glades off this lift are relentless with a steep and bumped-up 1700' of thigh-burning vertical.
Photo: we had kind of a chaotic day at Snowmass trying to find our way around without a knowledgeable guide, but there is some great stuff there. This is skiNEwhere moving quickly in the lengthy Hanging Valley Glades. Snowmass has a bunch of lifts that each rise a vertical of around 2000' feet, so you get a lot of long runs there.
Photo: a mutual friend in the Hanging Valley area at Snowmass, Roberto's run? Deep snowpack, the cliffs are almost covered in snow.
Don't let anyone tell you Ajax is small and boring. It's a very fine mountain for black diamond snowriders with tons of steep glades and bump runs, in some ways better than Snowmass in that regard. There are copious black diamond nooks and crannies with low traffic and you can ride the long, uncrowded gondi all day for continuous 3000+ vertical laps down the mountain. Believe me, only the young and very fit can do that for eight hours straight.
A mutual buddy on Ajax somewhere in some glades around the back of Bell Mtn if I remember correctly:
Too bad I can't comment on the cool town of Aspen and all the great nightlife. Even though we stayed right on Main Street, all we did while there was ski, eat, and sleep :-o
skiNEwhere was taking video on and off during the three days. Here's a very short video he took of my son crashing in a glade at Ajax. Gives you a flavor for their uptempo skiing. Those two guys are pretty fearless.
Here is the video of the crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeJFlEP3ztU
Yours truly on Deception trail in Olympic Bowl at Aspen Highlands:
A gang of us heading to more good trees on Ajax. That gondi rises ~3200' vertical, this spot is about halfway down the hill.
This report is a little bit late, but snow conditions are so great in CO that they should still be holding up very well a week later. Last week my son and I met up with skiNEwhere for three super days of skiing in Aspen, CO. It was mostly sunny during our time together with seasonal temps, but they had received 40" of new snow in the week prior to our arrival. They have had a great snow year all along, so conditions were about as good as they get. We skied a day each together at Snowmass, Aspen Highlands, and Ajax.
Photo: this is my son and skiNEwhere on the summit of Aspen Highlands. These guys lapped Deep Temerity chair much of the day and also did two runs in Highland Bowl, including one hike to the summit without bothering to ride the free snowcat. Oh to be young again!! Yours truly joined them on occasion including a couple early drop-ins in Highland Bowl, but can't charge all day like the young guns! Aspen Highlands might be my very favorite of the ~85 ski areas I have skied in North America and Europe. It's got amazing advanced terrain, fabulous scenery, huge vert, yet still has an intimate "locals mountain" feeling that lets you to get acquainted quickly.
Photo: this is skiNEwhere at Aspen Highlands on a run/glade called No Name in Olympic Bowl. The scenery in this section of the mountain with 14ers like Pyramid Peak and the Maroon Bells as a backdrop is un-freaking-believable.
Photo: this is a shot I took of a lady friend of ours who skied the Deep Temerity trail pod with us at Aspen Highlands. The runs and glades off this lift are relentless with a steep and bumped-up 1700' of thigh-burning vertical.
Photo: we had kind of a chaotic day at Snowmass trying to find our way around without a knowledgeable guide, but there is some great stuff there. This is skiNEwhere moving quickly in the lengthy Hanging Valley Glades. Snowmass has a bunch of lifts that each rise a vertical of around 2000' feet, so you get a lot of long runs there.
Photo: a mutual friend in the Hanging Valley area at Snowmass, Roberto's run? Deep snowpack, the cliffs are almost covered in snow.
Don't let anyone tell you Ajax is small and boring. It's a very fine mountain for black diamond snowriders with tons of steep glades and bump runs, in some ways better than Snowmass in that regard. There are copious black diamond nooks and crannies with low traffic and you can ride the long, uncrowded gondi all day for continuous 3000+ vertical laps down the mountain. Believe me, only the young and very fit can do that for eight hours straight.
A mutual buddy on Ajax somewhere in some glades around the back of Bell Mtn if I remember correctly:
Too bad I can't comment on the cool town of Aspen and all the great nightlife. Even though we stayed right on Main Street, all we did while there was ski, eat, and sleep :-o
skiNEwhere was taking video on and off during the three days. Here's a very short video he took of my son crashing in a glade at Ajax. Gives you a flavor for their uptempo skiing. Those two guys are pretty fearless.
Here is the video of the crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeJFlEP3ztU
Yours truly on Deception trail in Olympic Bowl at Aspen Highlands:
A gang of us heading to more good trees on Ajax. That gondi rises ~3200' vertical, this spot is about halfway down the hill.
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