Aspen Skiing Co. VP of Mountain Ops Rich Burkley has confirmed that Aspen Mountain will open for top-to-bottom skiing on Wednesday, Nov. 25 for the Aspen Valley Ski Club benefit day. The top-to-bottom skiing will also be open on Ajax for Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 26. Hooray!
The upper mountain terrain that will open includes 1 & 2 Leaf, Copper, Bellissimo, Silver Dip, Lazy Boy, Dipsy Doodle, North American, Tourtelotte Park and Deer Park. That's about 150 acres of intermediate skiing, or 23 percent of Aspen Mountain's terrain. There will also be a ribbon of snow down Spar and onto Little Nell. Lifts open will include the Gondy, Ajax Express and the Couch. The Sundeck and Ajax Tavern will be open, along with Il Mulino at the base. Ski school open, too. The base depth is about 10 to 14 inches of packed snow. The photo above by Heather Rousseau shows conditions on Little Nell on Thursday afternoon.
For the AVSC Day, tickets will be $35 for adults and $15 for children 18 and under. The mountain will be open Wednesday at 9 a.m. and close at 3:30 p.m. for the special event. Ticket windows will open at 8:30 a.m. with volunteers on hand. Ski passes are not good on AVSC Day. Pay the money, support young local racers! Still waiting on SkiCo pricing for T-Day. Should be out tomorrow.
At Snowmass, Burkley said portions of the Big Burn will open on Thanksgiving Day, including Sneaky's and Mick's Gully. There is a 35-inch base at the top of SM, which is a pretty big number for this time of year. Terrain off the Burn will include Max Park and Lunchline and below that, Upper Scooper, Lower Hal's and Fanny Hill. That's about 300 acres at SM, which is 9 percent of the terrain. Lifts running will include Village Express, Elk Camp Gondy, Sky Cab (Skittles lift), Big Burn and the Meadows lifts. There will be a mini-terrain park set up in Dawdler Park. The Meadows beginner area will be open and all Treehouse and ski school programs will be open. Restaurants at Snowmass include Sneaky's Tavern in the base village, Sam's Smokehouse, Ullrhoff and Up 4 Pizza will be open.
Back on Aspen Mountain, Burkley reports the World Cup course is "very close to complete for snowmaking" and that the guns will soon be shifted to focus on building a base on Nell, Spar, Deer Park and the flats near Ajax Express. In his mountain report, Burkley said "I'd like to thank one of our official partners, Mother Nature, for coming through in a big way this past week. In the pantheon of openings, this one will will be on the good end of the spectrum."
Congrats to SkiCo and to all the hard-working mountain ops crews who are up there prepping the playground, including the folks at Highlands and Buttermilk, which open on Saturday, Dec. 12.
