Snowmass Stories

Stories from the Road

January 12, 2015

Snowmass, CO.

It is 30 degrees in Snowmass, Colorado at 6:15 in the morning. Hopefully, we’ll see Roger Spragg at breakfast. He was due in last night via van at 8:30 or so. The snow has stopped; though it is due to begin again later this afternoon.

Some years ago at Snowmass, I made a hard turn on the Big Burn, and my binding sheered off. The snow was too deep, and I was too high on the mountain to ski down, so we called the ski patrol, and they gave me a ride down in a toboggan. They were having fun taking a “civilian” down the mountain and seemed to be going pretty fast. I found out at the ski shop that the Marker binding I was using had been recalled, and the store gave me a new set of bindings at no charge.

The Australians dominated Il Poggio last night. A family of five sat near us. They seemed like nice people, but I thought they must also be rich people when you consider the cost of five people coming to the states and skiing. Lift tickets this year cost $129 a day for an adult, whereas I paid $8.00 a day when I first skied in Aspen in the late 60’s. I bought a senior season’s pass, this year, which reduced my cost to $37.00 a day.

There are four ski mountains in Aspen with Snowmass being the largest. Set three miles of highway 82, Snowmass has been built on a mountainside. Once Vicki and I came here to hike in early October. We drove from Denver, and when we woke on our first morning, we found 6 inches of snow.  It melted quickly and we were able to hike. To our surprise, the animals had taken over the village, which was mostly closed up that time of year. Deer were here and there, and we saw a number of fox, elk, and eagles but no bears.

Roger arrived last night and joined us for a very good ski day. Vicki and Roger both skied well on a wide variety of trails today. We skied all over the mountain in an effort to give Roger an overview of Snowmass. Pasta with shrimp tonight.

Have a good evening.