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Snowmass, Colorado In Winter: All Ages And All Abilities
One company in western Colorado owns and operates the mountain resorts at Aspen, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk. Together, they comprise 5,000 acres of Rocky Mountain terrain, arguably the finest winter sports resort in North America. Since Aspen and Aspen Highlands are the most challenging mountains, and Buttermilk is not as developed, visiting families with athletes of different abilities will find Snowmass the destination that best meets their needs.
On pure snowsports terms, Snowmass is hard to beat. The mountain is generally open mid-November to mid-April and enjoys about 300 inches of snowfall annually. The 3,132-acre terrain is carved into 91 trails -- nearly 150 miles -- about half of them intermediate level. Snowmass' 4,406-foot vertical rise is served by 24 lifts. Best yet, families who may be susceptible to altitude sickness will find the basecamp at 8,104 feet pretty comfortable.
Snowsports Instruction for All
The Aspen family of resorts is known for the wide array of learn-to-ski and learn-to-ride programs available at each mountain. There are programs to serve every life stage between toddler and senior; every ability from novice to extreme Olympian; and myriad interests from women's-only to back country and more.
Since 1996, more than 5,000 disabled or handicapped family members have come to study with the famous Challenge Aspen program that provides one-on-one special snowsports training in winter.
The full range of Snowmass/Aspen facilities can be made available to the disabled, in large part due to the many local volunteers who escort participants on the slopes. Events like the 2007 International Paralympic Committee Alpine World Cup, where two super Gs were held on the face of Ajax at Buttermilk, testify to Challenge Aspen’s success. Major snowsports graduates of the program include visually impaired skiers, sit-skiers and disabled skiers who have lost the use of appendages. In their honor the Winter X Games held in town included a medaled mono-skiercross event for the first time in 2007.
Family Activities on the Mountain
Family activities, beyond the excellent ski and snowboard schools, guarantee that everyone will feel welcomed, particularly if they enjoy the outdoors. Weekdays in winter, a naturalist from the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies joins skiers and boarders ages 7 and up (intermediate skills required) for a nature tour of Snowmass' Elk Camp area.
ACES Guides also lead daily, two-hour snowshoe tours for this age group to highlight the mountain's beauty and wildlife. Though some in our party found there was too much standing around and not enough touring, "responsible environmental stewardship" was taught very seriously. In fact, the Aspen Skiing Company was honored in 2002 for its "BEST Practices" by Business Enterprises for Sustainable Travel, became the first in the industry to buy renewable wind power credits to offset its use of electricity, runs all its Snowcats on biodiesel, and is third party ISO certified as a "green" company.
Snowmass Valley is in the middle of developing its Intrawest-designed base camp, Brush Creek, at the foot of Fanny Hill. Brush Creek surrounds the new Elk Camp Gondola that stretches to the mid-mountain ecology center at Elk Meadows. Other improvements include an aqua park with pools, and a greatly expanded children's facility. The SkyCab gondola, already open, brings visitors from the retail areas up to the Snowmass Village Mall; it runs both ways and provides little ones access to the beginner terrain on Fanny Hill. While the base camp development is much better than the parking lots used to be, families will have to hike or ride a chairlift or the new Elk Camp Gondola to the mountain's summit to appreciate the area's remaining wilderness.
Within the original Snowmass Village complex, also spruced up, are 30 shops and 25 restaurants, tucked between levels of mountainside condos served by a free shuttle bus. The popular Stew Pot Restaurant sundeck is a family meeting place and site of many daily events hosted by the Snowmass Village Resort Association. Free family activities include twice weekly afternoon concerts in season, arts n' carfts workshops for children, street performers and art shows. To the tune of live bands, expert skiers and snowboarders show off their aerial antics on the 40-foot jump across from the village on Fanny Hill every Friday in season.
More evening fun includes fireside storytelling and marshmallow roasting twice per week, and the campfire sing-a-longs at sundown behind the Pokolodi Lodge. Snowmass' supervised camp at the kids center welcomes children ages 3-10 some evenings for pizza and a movie, for a fee, so parents can have a break.
A wonderful family-together activity is a Western-style barbecue dinner at the Lynn Britt Cabin, an old log cabin about 10 minutes' uphill from the Village by Snowcat. This evening out gives everyone a chance to play in the deep snow, admire the Snowmass reindeer (in a corral), and enjoy some serious local cuisine and John Denver music. An alternative is dinner at the Burlingame Cabin, similar but not as intimate because it accommodates a greater number of guests.
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