The snow arrived Thursday and began to fall at a rate we don't often see (or at least for too long) through sometime Saturday morning. When it was all said and done, the words historic or even biblical were being thrown around to describe the snowfall and skiing. If hard numbers matter, Aspen Mountain measured 24" in 24 hours, it was the second biggest one-day snowfall recorded in 50+ years...
Thanks to everyone involved for getting last nights ski mountaineering (skimo) race off successfully. Donning headlamps and the lightest touring gear they could find, about 30 people, a majority of whom were women, lined up for the 5:30pm start. It was the first of a series of four races to take place at Aspen Highlands this season, and hopefully many seasons to come. (more…)
Saturday's bad weather made for classic storm day conditions up in Highland Bowl. The wind and low visibility kept the fair weather crowds away, and the snow only piled up deeper as the day progressed. Here's a little video from Christy's Bowl day. If it isn't obvious, she's a proud member of the camp that believes that you should never ride the snowcat up the ridge, no matter how short...
The signs were pointing to an exceptionally busy Saturday at Highlands. So we decided to hit one of our favorite lines on Highlands Ridge and made it a “one and done” day.
Because I found myself with so many deep powder pics I decided that a third post from our huge storm was warranted-- if it pushes my coverage from our big weekend into overkill, well, I'll take that chance. But I'm also posting more from the weekend so I can pass along a big thanks to the Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol, for their efforts in getting everything opened in such a...
If you weren't around this past weekend you missed out on a special offering at Highlands-- free refills from Saturday to Tuesday-- and not the type that come from the soda fountain at the Merry Go Round. Through the entire extended weekend it seemed like every lap in Highland Bowl was stacked with new powder, that each time we clicked into our skis and readied to drop in, all the...
I've seen it before, during extended dry periods of past winters, people can become a little jaded and skeptical of storm predictions. Whether the forecasts are incorrect or simply not calling for any big dumps, after long stretches of winter that lack significant snowfall, some just refuse to believe it's really coming when it finally does. So when I got an email from Christy in regards to Joel Gratz's big...
On the plus side, everything we encountered on our lap off of Highlands Ridge was better than we expected. Of course in full disclosure we had all set the bar pretty low. Deeming it an important product research/ snow conditions survey, Dirk checked out of the Aspen Expeditions office on an extra long lunch-- and along with Jesse Durrance and Adam Dennis, the four of us made the run off...
Hang out at Aspen Highlands enough and you'll eventually overhear conversations rehashing the days exploits up in the Bowl using proper bowling terms, and in a style more commonly reserved for the 10 pin, Budweiser sponsored, indoor "sport." Basically, this type of ski slang/ Bowl-speak works like this-- to ski the Bowl from the top is considered a strike, and to ski any line short of the summit, i.e. any...
Hopefully January 2nd isn't too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year. As our first day out together in 2010, Christy and I found things to be pretty good over at Highlands. We're psyched for 2010 and all that it could bring. The race calendar is filling up, the 14er skiing season is right around the corner, a ski expedition to Greenland (more…)
We met in Aspen in 2000 and have been happily stuck in the rockies ever since, getting out in the mountains every day we can, in every season and by all means possible. Read More
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