The above sent me down a rabbit hole and this site hade some good info on great lines both in and out of bounds https://fatmap.com/discover/route/u.../colorado/freeride-skiing/topher-s-trees/9792 https://fatmap.com/discover/united-states-of-america/colorado/freeride-skiing
mountains have been getting snow all week and will get some into Saturday. Might punt on going satuday and go sunday instead. crowds on super bowl sunday are always light
Vail tomorrow and Beaver Creek Sat / Sun. Wife’s first time skiing, have her set for a full day at Vail Ski school. Praying she takes to it
Nothing worse than skiing with someone that tries it and hates it. Whole lot of "Just go, I'll sit here by myself. It's fine" type of conversations.
In that situation though a lesson is the best money you will ever spend the rest of your life. Put it in the hands of a professional. Higher likelihood that it goes well and nothing catastrophic happens that pushes them away forever. This was also my thinking with my 6 yr old daughter a couple years back
It is a strugle when my wife's family comes out here to ski. They act like they love it, but they tend to spend most of the time complaining about falling, their gear, etc. People who aren't good yet have so much trouble keeping good vibes. adults don't like trying and failing a new hobby for several days.
Definitely. It makes it worse when you see like 5 year olds cutting and stopping without any issue. I'd much rather ski by myself no matter the situation
luckily i've got 3 or 4 friends, including my wife, who are at or above my level. makes it much more fun.
fortunate that Big Sky got snow last week before going this past weekend. my skis still went over more rocks/trees than I would like but that resort has some very fun terrain.
going to vail tomorrow. enjoy. are you staying the night? seems like 3-7 more inches coming in this evening
Skiied Keystone today. Needs some snow. Found some stashes in deep trees outside the gate in north bowl. Little half day tomorrow and then on to Telluride. Supposed to snow a bit Wednesday/Thursday there.
Keystone has missed a lot of the major storms this year. Beaver and vail have gotten a lot more snow.
Do you still need recs. I spend a lot of time in aspen and I was just in aspen for the last 10 days or so
Yep we’re trying to hit Clark’s, French alpine bistro, matsuhisa, and maybe mix in one or two of las montanas, meat and cheese, or White House tavern. Also Cloud 9 for apres open to other suggestions too, especially near Hotel Jerome
Up here now. Getting a tiny bit, but no dump. It's not bad, but it's not good either. Should be getting more next week.
First good call on the Jerome it's a fantastic hotel. J-Bar is fantastic at anytime. We also recently had dinner at Prospect - it's a coursed dinner and was good, but if I was going to eat a course meal it'd be at Bosq. Every restaurant you mentioned is worth going to, if you can't get into matsuhisa, kenichi is just as good. Aspen Public House > White House, PARC Aspen is fantastic. Surprisingly I had a great meal at Catch, and the people watching is top notch. Element 47 is great for a prolonged lunch if you plan on skiing ajax. As for Ajax, if you plan on skiing it get up early and have breakfast a bonnies. Not sure what mountains you plan on skiiing but here's my power rankings and favorite stashes: 1. Snowmass (I'm a bit biased here because this is where we get to house sit) - Huge mountain, hardly ever any lines expect at the base. It's very intermediate focused (read lots of blue runs), which means anything black or above is often left unskiied. On a powderday, I often warm up on camp ground or sams, then ski powderhorn. From there I either spend time at hanging valley or the cirque. Cirque can be very hit or miss IMO, often times the snow isn't all that great. Hanging Valley > Cirque. High Alpine is a great lift servicing advanced terrain, and when the conditions are right Dykes is the best run on the mountain. Also ski the glades, they're all great. Dining is good everywhere, up4pizza is a most stop. 2. Highlands - If I didn't have ski in/ski out at snowmass this is where I'd ski everyday. It goes without saying, hike the bowl (and stop by the patrol hut to get bowl straps). It's worth it for views alone. Personally I like to ski the northside (G3-G6) until the spring. If you want my favorite spring lines let me know. Temerity is the best lift serviced terrain of the 4 mountains IMO. Again I like to stay on the northside (Mushroom, Lucky Find, Hyde Park), great steep tree skiing. If on a snowboard, you may lose some momentum on the cat track back to the lift. The Wall off of cloud 9 also rips, short and sweet. Upper Stein and Bob's Glades are great if you're looking for left over powder, as almost no one ventures up thunderbowl. Cloud 9 is cloud 9, you'll have fun and spend money. If someone gets too drunk they can ride the sled home. If you apres anywhere other than the alehouse you're not doing it right. Find the bucket with a "defund the TVA" and "Nantucket hodog sticker" and leave a 5 in there for me. 3. Buttermilk - Not much here other than a local secret. The day after a powder day go ski tiehack, buttermilk is a "beginner" mountain and tiehack is all advanced there will be a ton of leftover powder. Don't tell anyone this secret. 4. Ajax - Ajax is fun and worth skiing but it's dead last only because you've really got to know where you're going to avoid having to ski down to the base. I like to start my day at Ruthies - great groomers and if you're feeling frisky anything off International is fun. While on the ruthies side go see the jerry shrine (https://www.aspensnowmassshrines.com/index.php?the-jerry-garcia-shrine-aspen-mountain). It's in the thrid set of trees skiiers right after you pass the FIS lift. Message me and I can give you GPS coords. As mentioned before go eat breakfast at Bonnies. Gents is fun to lap when it's open. Everyone is obsessed with Hero's, I tend to stay away because of the traffic. Any other questions just message me or ask here, happy to help.
also happy to give you backcountry or sidecountry lines, but only if you're confident and know what youre doing. The snowpack is particularly shit this year, so be very very careful venturing out of bounds.
I will be unsubscribing because I’m out for the season due to injury, but enjoy the snow everyone. Seeya next year
appreciate the detailed recs. I’m the most intermediate out of the four of us going, so i’ll share some of the advanced tips with them too. Definitely won’t be going out of bounds.
Then you'll enjoy snowmass. Also use the RFTA when you can it's great and free. There are busses running to each mountain every 15 minutes from Rubey Park and they are often more efficient than a car.
just booked for 3 ski days in Tahoe in mid-march. whistler will have to wait. excited to get to Kirkwood.
Lip I’m having a breakfast margarita and figured I’d see this through. favorite blue runs: Snowmass - sneakys, Dallas freeway, sheer bliss, sandy park, bull run, naked lady. highlands - gun barrel, upper Robertson, memory lane Ajax - Ruthie’s, buckhorn, dipsy doodle,cooper
Going skiing a year from now for the first time in 15 years, but want to take advantage of some end-of-the-season sales for a jacket and bibbs. Brand recommendations? Budget isn't really a concern and but I'm also not trying spend $1,000 on the top of the line Arctyrex. Norrona any good? Helly Hanson? Patagonia? Mid-level Arctyrex?
Not a comment on quality but you’re gonna see a ton of Helly Hanson on most mountains I tend to look for things that won’t look like everything else so that you/your friends are more easily identifiable
Pay attention to whether the gear is waterproof or not. Saw a bunch of staff at Whistler skiing around in ponchos because their Helly Hansen jackets weren’t.