Snowmass – As hard as it is for some of us to believe, not everyone who visits a ski resort wants to spend every waking moment bombing down those slick white slopes.
Some people would rather do anything but ski when they’re in the mountains. They’re simply along for the ride, the outcast in a family of skiers, the nonskier in a bunch of diehards.
At Snowmass, where 3,128 acres of mountain terrain beckon the rest of us, those folks are in luck. Paragliding, hot-air ballooning, snowshoeing, dog sledding, snow mobiling and cross-country skiing on a free, groomed network of ski trails means nonskiers don’t have to spend the day warming their toes by the fireplace. Unless they want to.
Mountain Mardi Gras
February also means the 25th anniversary of the town’s adoption of a Louisiana tradition – Mardi Gras. The party starts at dawn Feb. 20, Fat Tuesday, with The Mother of All Ascensions, a foot-powered race in which contestants blast uphill, gaining nearly 2,000 feet in elevation on snowshoes or cross-country skis. The reward is $15,000 in prizes split among the top finishers. Also on the agenda? Mask-making for children, an afternoon parade with bead tossing, a crawfish boil, giveaways and live music.
A group of skiers from New Orleans started the party in 1980 after tossing some beads at a bar after a day of skiing. In 1982, Mardi Gras became an official Village of Snowmass event. It drew 5,000 people last year, says Allison Johnson, spokeswoman for the Village of Snowmass.
But if you’re like me, you’re giddy as a pig in mud whenever you get a chance to add to the mileage on your downhill skis. On our latest ski trip, we skied seven days straight, dividing our time among three of the four mountains surrounding Aspen: Ajax, Aspen Highlands and Snowmass. (We skipped Buttermilk, which caters to true beginners.)
Snowmass is an intermediate skier’s paradise – long swaths of groomed runs, where you can swoop down the mountain in giant, curving turns. Wide-open stretches of white will greet you on the Big Burn section of the resort, where trees are sparse and there’s plenty of room to crash and, well, burn.
No wonder Snowmass attracts so many families. There are three terrain parks, one superpipe and a smaller mini- pipe here. There’s even a special family zone, and now and then a special kid’s trail juts off from one of the regular ski trails – a skinny, rolling detour that winds through the woods, past wooden cutouts of animals, and spits you out farther down the main trail.
Bumping up the action
You have to search a bit to find the bumps, but when we finally found them we noticed something – Snowmass is so popular with families and intermediate skiers that the more challenging terrain is practically deserted. We planted ourselves near the Sam’s Knob lift, which serves expert terrain, and happily tortured ourselves by skiing moguls for hours on end.
Then we moved to a ridge-line not far from the Big Burn, where we could weave among pine trees in a series of gladed runs. (Trust me when I tell you tree runs are a good thing when it’s really cold, like it was two of the days we skied Snowmass. We woke up one morning to temperatures of minus 10, with windchills of minus 20.) Another thing that sets Snowmass apart – nearly all the lodging here is slopeside, with condos backed up to ski runs all over the place. We stayed at the Terrace House condominiums (most fabulous hot tub on the planet, made to look like a natural, stone-lined alcove!) and walked about a block, snapped on our skis and were off.
The beauty of skiing here is in the flexibility of it. Buy a lift ticket for Snowmass (a whopping $82 per day for adults) and it’s also good at Buttermilk, Ajax and Aspen Highlands, all within a 20- minute drive.
Snowmass is within the White River National Forest. The base stands at 8,104 feet; the summit at 12,510 feet. That leaves 4,406 feet of vertical rise to fling yourself down, and 22 lifts to haul you back up. The base at Snowmass doesn’t look like any other mountain.
Instead of one broad area with a bunch of lifts, the main lifts are located partway up the gentle slope. But nobody wants to walk from the bottom to the main village, so Snowmass installed what they call a “people mover” (and we called “the Skittles”) – a short gondola system of Crayola-colored cars that transport people, with or without skis or snowboards, from the bottom to the main mall area, where they can get food, rental equipment and clothing.
The resort recently spent $28 million to renovate lodging and facilities in the area. (Terrace House had gotten a face-lift.) More improvements are in the works at the resort, which was created in 1967. This season, Snowmass unveils a new gondola to connect two main parts of the ski area, and opens a new on-mountain restaurant.
Even more ambitious long-range plans are on the table. Snowmass plans to create an entirely new village area, separate from the existing Snowmass Village Mall hub. It will open in 2012 with a slate of new restaurants, a hotel, bars and a 25,000-square-foot children’s area.
Pamela LeBlanc writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail her at pleblanc@statesman.com
INSIDER’S GUIDE
GET THERE
Snowmass is 220 miles from Denver via Interstate 70 and Colorado 82.
STAY
Terrace House condos, 970- 923-4350, rates start at $429/night for a two-bedroom condo.
DINE
Best fancy: The Artisan Restaurant and Bar in the Stonebridge Inn, where you easily can spend $125 a couple on a meal featuring rack of lamb.
Best value: Just $12 a plate for an amazing lamb stew and homemade bread at The Stew Pot in Snowmass Village Mall.
APRÈS SKI
The Cirque Bar & Grill in Snowmass Village Mall.
PLAY
Lift tickets: $82 a day. Terrain: 6 percent beginner; 50 percent intermediate; 12 percent expert; 32 percent extreme. Dog sledding: Krabloonik’s Dogsledding, krabloonik.com; Hot-air ballooning: Above It All Balloon, 970-963-6148; Paragliding: Aspen Expeditions, 970-925-7625; Cross country skiing: Snowmass Cross-Country Ski and Snowshoe Center, 970-923-5700; Snowmobiling: Blazing Adventures, 970-923-4544; Western Adventures 970-923-3337 (3337); or T-Lazy-Seven 970-925-4614.
MORE INFORMATION
800-525-6200, aspensnowmass.com
