Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Three great days in Aspen

17th February 2011, by Dave Watts

Daily Mail Ski magazine readers hiking on Snowmass to the start of one of Dave’s favourite intermediate runs

I’ve just got back to the UK after an excellent two-week tour of five of the USA’s best resorts. The final stop was Aspen, where I skied three of its four separate mountains in three days of glorious sunshine and met up with the start of a Daily Mail Ski magazine reader trip to Aspen and Telluride.

Saturday saw me on Aspen Highlands, my favourite of Aspen’s four separate mountains. It has great terrain for everyone from beginners to experts, with the highlight being Highland Bowl. This is a huge horseshoe of a bowl high above the treeline – the sort of terrain that would be off-piste and in danger of avalanching in Europe. But here in the US, because it is within the ski area boundary, it is avalanche controlled and closed if dangerous – so you can ski it safely without a guide. It is accessed by hiking up from the top of the lift system (though you can take a free snowcat ride up the first part of the hike, as I did). After that it is up to you to decide how far to hike – the locals do 45 minutes to the far end for the best snow and to access glade skiing lower down, but I did around 5 minutes before dropping in to wonderful chopped up powder snow and a great steep run down before the run out to the Deep Temerity chair.

The trail map now marks over 20 runs down and gives the average steepness and steepest pitch for all – they range from 35º to 45º – but really it is ski anywhere terrain. Another feature of Highlands is Cloud Nine, an alpine style rustic hut which serves excellent food (booking essential) – very different from the standard US cafeteria style self-service restaurants; it even turned into Austrian–style après-ski scene with dancing on the tables after our late lunch there.

On Sunday I cruised the perfect intermediate runs of Snowmass with groups of Daily Mail Ski readers (there’s steep skiing here too) and the highlight was one of my favourite intermediate runs in the world. Long Shot, accessed by a short 5-minute hike, is right at the edge of the ski area, set among widely spaced trees and three miles long. Signs along the way tell you how far you’ve gone and how far is left. It is rarely groomed but had been on Sunday, and all the readers loved it.

Monday was Aspen Mountain (or Ajax as the locals call it) with its mixture of short but steep black runs and long blue cruisers. It is the locals’ favourite mountain, mainly because it is served by a gondola right from the centre of town. You have to take efficient and frequent free buses to the other mountains – but this is no hassle (if you rent skis from Four Mountain Sports you can drop them at the end of the day, tell them where you are skiing tomorrow and they’ll transfer them for you overnight) and I personally prefer both Highlands and Snowmass to Ajax.

The fourth mountain is Buttermilk – ideal for beginners and intermediates and also home to some of the world’s biggest and best terrain parks (used each year for the Winter X Games). Sadly, there was no time to visit it on this trip.

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