Snowmass Provides Sensational Skiing

Conditions were perfect at the largest and most varied of the four Aspen ski areas

There were days over this holiday period when Colorado's snow-covered highways were challenging to drive or when bone-dry roadways were choked with rush-hour traffic. There were times when the process of obtaining a lift ticket was so frustratingly slow that I thought everyone in front of me was buying a slopeside condo at Snowmass, and times when the liftline seemed endless because children's ski classes were loading onto the resort's six-passenger Village Express. But nothing, and I mean nothing, mattered once I started skiing.

Truth be told, I am back from several of the very best days of skiing I've ever had -- a perfect way to close the year of 2008 and shift the 2008-09 ski season into high gear. Snowmass had received 15 or 20 inches of snow in the few days prior to my arrival and had packed the snow down so the winds that accompanied and followed the storm it didn't blow the snow into the back of beyond. And did I mention a series sunny, wind-still days?

The Aspen Skiing Co. has invested a lot of money to upgrade the lifts and mountain restaurants at Snowmass, and the biggest and most varied of the Aspen area's four ski areas is better than ever. Here are recent improvements that I especially like:

• The new beginner area at the top of the Elk Camp gondola. Kids' classes can ride up and down on the gondola. Steps away is a wide, gentle slope served by a covered moving carpet.
  
• Novice slope on Assay Hill seemed to have more classes than I remember from recent years. Have they done something to improve it -- or is it just more visible now that nearby Base Village is closer to completion and less of a construction site.
  
• Slight relocation of the Sheer Bliss and an upgrade to a high-speed quad helps traffic flow on the parallel trail.
  
• Construction of the impressive Kahana terrain park beside the Elk Camp Gondola.


• Replacement of the old Sam's Knob on-mountain restaurant with the very attractive new Sam's Smokehouse (right), with a casual cafe-style area, a sit-down dining area, a new menu and fabulous views. Even the ladies' restroom is gorgeous -- and it's on the same level as the restaurant rather than down a flight of stairs!

I/we are fortunate to have hospitable friends who years back built a ski house across a small, snowy street from the Adams Avenue trail. This is the third or fourth year in a row that I've stayed there and skied at Snowmass for a few days over the holidays. Much as I like the other three Aspen areas, because each has its own distinct appeal, the convenient "commute" to the slopes has been such that I have only skied Snowmass. Happily. Very happily.