I crashed at a friends place in Carbondale last night so today was a easy drive into the mountains to hit up Aspen Highlands. This was definitely my first taste of the Aspen environment.
I think it was the first time in my life to take an escalator to get to the village base. In the first 10 minutes I got to capture a photo of two amazing one-pieces so that really made my day. Overall the mountain was empty, the village base was empty and had fun doing small chat with a couple Europeans.
Obviously since I’m on vacation I didn’t wake up for first chair. There’s no new snow here and it was supposed to snow today so I took a late start of 10am to hit the mountain.
It was overcast most of the morning with some snow falling. It wasn’t too cold out, I dressed warmer without too many layers and stayed warm throughout the morning.
The runs were groomed but I think it rained last night in the mountains or the slush just froze into popcorn on the groomers. It was rough and got some nice chunks to bomb through on the groomers.
The terrain at Highlands was impressive, taking the the Loge Peak chairlift up definitely showed off the steep goods. With no new snow, looking at the steeper stuff didn’t seem appealing especially riding alone. I stuck to just checking it out and watching others hike the Highland Bowl.
Looking up at Highland Bowl
I checked out some tree runs to get an idea of what it’d be like here on a powder day in the trees.
I went off a side run where no one was at and found this view
Made sure to get the shot of me with the view
Looking down from the run I’m on at the Highlands base and lower mountain
I only rode the Highlands in the morning and opted to hit up Buttermilk for the afternoon to ride other snowboards for Shred Betties.