We stopped by Snowmass on the afternoon of the 19th. It has been 30 years since my first visit and I was overwhelmed. I was surprised by the size, building of condos, homes, gondolas, lifts... I started looking for a place to park our van for skiing on the 20th. There are parking lots everywhere BUT only for condo visitors with permits. Jill spoke to a gas station guy who suggested the Rodeo parking area which has shuttle bus service every 15 minutes. OK, good suggestion.
On the 20th we got to the parking lot early and noticed the workers park here; there is a covered transit center if the weather is not friendly. It is a 5-10 minute ride to the Snowmass Village Mall to get lift tickets and shop for food and stuff. On March 19-22 is the Nature Valley NASTAR National Championships. The race area is huge with all the participants, teams, parents, equipment suppliers, coaches... We looked down from the Village Express lift and were impressed.
We arrived at Sam's Knob at 10,620' and began skiing. Looker's right of the lift we skied from top to bottom and the groomers were great. We continued skier's right and as we go higher the snow was lighter and not as firm. At 10am the Cirque lift started loading and we were among the first group of 20 folks in line. It was a poma that takes you to 12,510' with access to the Cirque Headwall (which we didn't ski!). There was still powder from yesterday's 7”. One area was not yet skied and the wind had covered any of yesterday's lines. Jill and I were talking when she saw some other skiers coming towards us – she just turned and started making fresh tracks. She dumped me. I figure-eighted her lines and she didn't stop until she ran out of untracked powder. As I mentioned on the Buttermilk day, I think she is addicted. Jill spoke with a local who was there on the 19th . He said it was crazy and that things were skied off quickly, and that we'd made a good choice in going to Buttermilk for the powder.
After 4 hours our legs were tired and it was time to call it a day. The runs are long and Snowmass has great terrain. It was a wonderful day. This was our last free day at Aspen using our Mountain Collective passes. Time to move east.
