4aprice Western Adventure in Photo's

[4aprice]

Resort or Ski Area

4aprice Western Trip March 16-31st.

Date

Mar 16, 2024

Snow Conditions

1. Slush or Spring Snow

Two week western trip March 16th - 31st.

Day 1:

TSA equipment malfunction delays flight (something with baggage scanning) 1 1/2 hours, but we get up and out of Newark.


Beautiful view of Lake Hopatcong off the port side of the aircraft.

Arrived in Denver, lunched with old family friend (Rubins for St Patty day), and took off for mountains. Up to Granby where it was the last night skiing day off the season. Took a couple of runs then to the 8350 and Blue Bird Bistro where we met up with our realtor and had a great time. Can't wait to start living my winters here, year after next.





Day 2:

Steamboat Springs for St Patrick's day. There's plenty of snow but, in typical spring fashion the surface was freezing overnight and never really softened this day. Still had fun with the wife and son celebrating my wife's Irish heritage.



Skied till about 2 then left for drive across Colorado to Utah.

Day 3

Solitude. The spring conditions and weather followed (actually preceeded us ) to Utah. 50/50 days (1/2 frozen, 1/2 soft) were ticket)



Day 4

Snowbird: Same weather as described above, only on this day I had one of the scariest run I've ever had. A solid Regulator Johnson where you turned your ski's in one direction, and slid about 50 vertical ft straight down, then swiveled the skis in the other direction for the same thing. Me and some girl basically "Cha Cha'd" our way down and just shook our heads at the bottom. The afternoon got nice however.





Day 5

Brighton: Same weather and conditions. Face and hand tanning in full spring mode.

 

[4aprice]

Part II

Day 6

Alta. Kind of a change in the weather day plus legs weren't taking well to this much skiing at one time, so a little more laid back of a day. Snowstorm up on Sugarloaf left us blinded and stuck to goggles like glue. Not my best Alta day ever but it won't be my last there so I'm not upset.



Day 6

Deer Valley: Legs felt a little livelier today, another spring day. After morning groomers with the wife, really woke them up with trees and bumps in the afternoon with the son



Day 7 and 8 (the weekend) I took off to do some chores around my brother in laws condo. The weather was changing and it snowed Saturday night. Sunday was going to be a travel day but I took my son up to Solitude for the morning before we left to get some Utah powder which he did.



Prepared the house, packed the car and bid Utah goodbye for this year.

Drove down through Price Utah and Green River back toward Colorado. Anyone who has made this drive (Rt 6 ) may recognize this mountain that can be seen for miles in many directions.



Got through Grand Junction and on toward Glenwood Springs and the weather started changing as we got closer to Aspen to this.

 

[4aprice]

Part III

Day 9. Many inches overnight.



But I'm here on vacation with the wife who has not skied as much and wanted to go to Buttermilk which she loves. But while most people are up on the bigger mountains (where the vision was really bad according to my son) not too many were over on Buttermilk and we had powder galore. The trees on Tiehack were chock full of it and there was lots of fun to be had.




Day 10

Snowmass . Best conditions of the trip so far. Concentrated on the Alpine Springs and High Alpine sections of the mountain and had a wonderful day.





Day 11

I had no intentions of going back Buttermilk again but there I was at the request of my wife and others on the trip. Oh but I did not regret it, as after a morning of groomers with them it was back to skiing the powder that was still plentiful in the woods, and had a terrific afternoon on the (almost private) Tiehack lift.

 

[4aprice]

Part IV

Day 12 Snowmass. Best day of the trip. Wife took the day off and set me free with my sun. Off early to the bus, early to Snowmass Village. Hit the Sams Knob section, a run down to Campground and the Big Burn. More powder and beautiful conditions.





Day 13

Snowmass again this time with the wife. Snowing and Powder again, Just unbelievable conditions. Skied Elk Camp till about 1, then got in the car and drove up to Glenwood to go to Iron Mountain Springs and soak in hot water.




Day 14

Snowmass: After so many days of skiing the legs were pretty beat up but it snowed again Friday night so it was one more day of powder to end the trip. Had to be up high though as the bottom was pretty sticky. Spent more time up on Big Burn before finally throwing in the towel about 1 ish.

Fitting end to a great trip.

Day 15 Drove out of Aspen and back to Denver to catch our flight. Hate leaving our son, but an April trip back to Winter Park is in the planning stage.


For the time being, Good Bye Denver for now.

 

[jimk]

Sounds like month of March in CO was similar to UT, lots of snow, especially the last week of the month. I agree about Regulator Johnson at Snowbird, a long steep, scary run in firm conditions. Gets even less fun if you throw in low visibility. I have a pair of Head Titan Super Shapes 80mm underfoot that have tremendous edging power for such firm situations. However, usually at Snowbird I'm skiing anything but Regulator Johnson

I've skied Snowmass/Aspen a number of times including as far back as 1976. IMHO, Snowmass is the best place in the USA for fantastic, long, wide groomers, often with great conditions due to the high elevation.

 

[Tonyr]

Looks like a great trip, thanks for sharing. I thought Buttermilk was underrated too. Lots of nice unmarked tree skiing there.

 

[ciscokid]

Hey Alex from Lk Hopatcong, Ciscokid from Mi ( formerly NJ) here. Jaytrem mentioned you were here on AZ. Glad to hear you’re living your dream getting a place in Co.
Last ( and only time) I saw your son was on the original SJ Snow Bowl hike in ‘07! Boy did he get big!
Still remember our SJ ski day at Camelback Dec ‘08! And our lunch at that dive bar in central Jerz.View attachment 62571
Retired and golfing way more than skiing now, all well, take care, Bob

 

[ciscokid]

 

[4aprice]

Hey Cisco. How are you? Can't access SJ anymore. Don't know why. Tried to contact administration but received no reply.

Yep got a place in Colorado and intend to spend winters out there starting 25/26. Means I have one more season at good old CBK and in the Northeast. Hoping to make it a good and special one. Let me know if you come in to the area or visit NH, and we will try to get together. Goes for Jaytrem as well

 

[ciscokid]

Didn’t know they named a town in Utah after you
Well I got one too
Colorado National monument awesome