Secret in Aspen today is that it's hot, sunny and much quieter.

The lunchtime lift line, such as it was, was a small indicator that most of the Christmas crowds have left town after the holidays. It was fine to have people in town enjoying themselves, but it certainly is nice to enjoy a quiet mountain, especially today when the forecast high temp is 29 degrees under sunny skies, which given the cold temps the last two weeks, counts as "hot." Aspen Mountain is now sporting a 26-inch base up top and has 84 percent of its advanced and expert terrain open. There are 644 acres open. Highlands has a 54-inch mid-mountain base and a 34-inch base on top, with 96 percent of its advanced and expert terrain open, including 1,001 acres open. As Big Bald Bobby put it yesterday on his SkiCo blog, "The mountain is in relatively good shape considering how busy we've been the last two weeks. It's hammered in a few spots but overall not too bad."