THE Aspen/Snowmass / Greater Roaring Fork Valley 23-24 Thread

[dcpnz]

You guys think Heros will generally increase traffic to the Walshes and surrounding areas with more people hitting that side ?

Yup , Already has.
Was up there today and Walsh’s was about as firm and bumped up as it ever gets and the soft stashes that used to be found for days and weeks were long gone.
I’ll reserve judgement till we get more snow, more of it can be opened, and i can go poke around a bit but so far I reckon it’s kind of meh….

[gretch6364]

We need snow….


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[Rudimatt7]

Pandora’s box, is the name.

[JaytaeMoney]

Do people regularly tour Government in the winter? I assume so since it's part of the PO4 now... I've got a buddy from out of town who really wants to do it from Snowmass and I'm hoping there's a skin track.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Do people regularly tour Government in the winter? I assume so since it's part of the PO4 now... I've got a buddy from out of town who really wants to do it from Snowmass and I'm hoping there's a skin track.

Yes, it's better on XC skis but I'm sure people do it on AT stuff to train or for coming back from the Sugar Bowls. But for just a fun tour between Snowmass and Buttermilk there are better options than following the Government Trail alignment.

[JaytaeMoney]

Ya only reason he wants to do it is because he's training for PO4. It's part of the route and he wants to do it once before the race. Thx for the info.

[One (+) Sentence]

We need snow….


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Yes, but we're still managing to be better off than most places in the lower 48 right now.

[funkendrenchman]

Ya only reason he wants to do it is because he's training for PO4. It's part of the route and he wants to do it once before the race. Thx for the info.

It was only part of the route last year due to weather. The normal route is across the ridge from Burnt Mountain to West Buttermilk.

[alpinevibes]

We need snow….


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Sam at OpenSnow sez:

Two storms will merge to the west of Colorado and bring us the goods from the second half of Saturday through Monday. I'll be watching for our first flakes on Saturday afternoon, followed by off-and-on heavy snow on Saturday night and into Sunday as much colder air filters in and winds from the northwest begin to work their magic.

In total, I'm going to go with 4-8 inches from Saturday through Monday, with upside potential thanks to the storm strengthening as it pushes east of Colorado.

[Shredhead]

Snowmass skied good this morning!

Duff:
The benefit of staying slope side, is it easy to get out early. VX and Sam’s open 8:30. Get the grooming report and hit a couple of laps on Sam’s Knob, a couple on the Burn and then hit Alpine Springs/High Alpine.
Head back to Sam’s for an early lunch.
Save some energy and go to town a couple of nights.

Snowmass will get busy on the 26th.
That’s when you should go to Aspen or Highlands. Highlands direct bus is 9&10 daily.

[Duffman]

Snowmass skied good this morning!

Duff:
The benefit of staying slope side, is it easy to get out early. VX and Sam’s open 8:30. Get the grooming report and hit a couple of laps on Sam’s Knob, a couple on the Burn and then hit Alpine Springs/High Alpine.
Head back to Sam’s for an early lunch.
Save some energy and go to town a couple of nights.

Snowmass will get busy on the 26th.
That’s when you should go to Aspen or Highlands. Highlands direct bus is 9&10 daily.

Thanks for the beta. Is there a direct bus back from Highlands or do you need to switch ? Coordinating times with the 6 year old in lessons a most likely at Snowmass unless she progresses enough for Highlands is the main challenge i see here.

Also was really hoping that the Burnt Mountain / Longshot area would be open as the 10 year old wants to do some hiking and I thought that would be a decent test before thinking about the Bowl, but it doesn't look like that's in the cards. My wife is (probably correctly ) concerned that w early season conditions if the grom struggles on the Bowl hike and ran out of gas, he'd have no choice but to go all the way up to the G zones to safely ski it, which could be tough for him . That's even before accounting for the current high pressure effects.

[funkendrenchman]

Thanks for the beta. Is there a direct bus back from Highlands or do you need to switch ? Coordinating times with the 6 year old in lessons a most likely at Snowmass unless she progresses enough for Highlands is the main challenge i see here.

Also was really hoping that the Burnt Mountain / Longshot area would be open as the 10 year old wants to do some hiking and I thought that would be a decent test before thinking about the Bowl, but it doesn't look like that's in the cards. My wife is (probably correctly ) concerned that w early season conditions if the grom struggles on the Bowl hike and ran out of gas, he'd have no choice but to go all the way up to the G zones to safely ski it, which could be tough for him . That's even before accounting for the current high pressure effects.

Long shot is a few minute hike up a cat track. The bowl is 45min-1hr for most kids. Quite different. That said, most advanced kids around here can hike and ski it around age 8.

I wouldn't worry about the hike as much as your kid's ability to safely ski steep, variable, chalky terrain. You'll have a good idea of how he'll handle the hike by how the first 10-15 minutes goes and it's easy to back out at that point.

[grskier]

Also, don’t let a good time skiing get in the way of an ideal trip.. particularly this year.

I’d concur with Funken on that take of the bowl hike.


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[Duffman]

Long shot is a few minute hike up a cat track. The bowl is 45min-1hr for most kids. Quite different. That said, most advanced kids around here can hike and ski it around age 8.

I wouldn't worry about the hike as much as your kid's ability to safely ski steep, variable, chalky terrain. You'll have a good idea of how he'll handle the hike by how the first 10-15 minutes goes and it's easy to back out at that point.

Gotcha. He's skied similar and steeper / more consequential terrain last year without issues at altabird and Jackson, I'm more concerned with his being unable to do the hike and then getting stuck somewhere in the middle. The few times I've done it I never saw anyone down climbing so I didn't know if that's a feasible option . I figured where it gets narrower further up that would be rough .

[gretch6364]

Gotcha. He's skied similar and steeper / more consequential terrain last year without issues at altabird and Jackson, I'm more concerned with his being unable to do the hike and then getting stuck somewhere in the middle. The few times I've done it I never saw anyone down climbing so I didn't know if that's a feasible option . I figured where it gets narrower further up that would be rough .

I appreciate that you are being cautious. I would say monitor the wind. My son did it a couple times as a 7yo, including all the way to ski the Gs. Even beat some of the flat landers to the top that were doing it.

That said, we did it once on a windy day and it can be pretty scary for kids as the gust can feel like it is going to blow them off the edge. Ended up a couple kids in the group (ski school class) got knocked to their knees and hunkered down for a couple minutes. Ended up dropping in before the top.

I say if this storm produces some snow and it is semi calm…go for it.


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[alpinevibes]

1”

I’ll be out for a minute today with the boys. Holiday break has begun


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[Duffman]

I appreciate that you are being cautious. I would say monitor the wind. My son did it a couple times as a 7yo, including all the way to ski the Gs. Even beat some of the flat landers to the top that were doing it.

That said, we did it once on a windy day and it can be pretty scary for kids as the gust can feel like it is going to blow them off the edge. Ended up a couple kids in the group (ski school class) got knocked to their knees and hunkered down for a couple minutes. Ended up dropping in before the top.

I say if this storm produces some snow and it is semi calm…go for it.


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This seems like a very reasonable plan. Agree that the wind ,even if not crazy, can just make the whole thing way more intimidating and less fun ,i.imagine even moreso for a little guy.

Think we will watch the potential storm and then consider this a few days post ,especially if the unfortunately predicted high pressure ridge comes back and there's a nice sunny day for a leisurely hike.

If anyone has any similar kids who are tolerant of a slow flatlander on the up, he would probably have a blast hitting it with some other kids .

Thanks again!

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[JaytaeMoney]

It was only part of the route last year due to weather. The normal route is across the ridge from Burnt Mountain to West Buttermilk.

Aware of that but do you know for sure that they are going back to the standard route this year? The info on the website is inconsistent, the GPX file is the 2023 re-route but there is mention of the cutoff time for the Burnt Mountain gate. Most likely they just haven't updated the GPX file back to the normal route but that's just my assumption. Regardless, I think he just wants to get an idea of the distance between Snowmass and Buttermilk.

[alpinevibes]

Skiing is fun

[Duffman]

Skiing is fun

Little guys shredding is the best! Will be joining in w that tomorrow (unless my biy forces us to unpack and gear up for 2 runs this afternoon after we land around 1230.)

[grskier]

Some good chalky snow on Highlands today, but obvious thin spots where grooming is turning up some small gremlins


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[Duffman]

The angry inch made snowmass fun today. Was nuking at the top for a bit but kinda tapered off at the base now. We shall see.

[Shredhead]

Looks like about 4” today. Follow the same game plan, remember what was groomed yesterday and you’ll have a good time!

I don’t like the bum rush at the VX on a powder day. For 4”, I’ll show up at 8:35 and be one lap behind on the knob.
Blue Jacket, white helmet, fastest guy out there.
I’ll PM you my number, which you still may have.

[Duffman]

Sounds good. Will be unfortunately a bit behind the masses since we got to get the kid set up in ski school first. I'll give you a shout though. Bright orange jacket, bluish pants black helmet. Wife in a purple jacket black pants. Enjoy the day!

[Shredhead]

You should take your little one up for a lap, before ski school. Nobody skis the lower mountain and she’ll get totally untracked.

Today was really good!