Snowmass Village Travel Guide

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The largest of the four ski mountains in Aspen, Snowmass has some excellent skiing. It also has the longest vertical drop: 1,343, metres from its highest peak of 3,813 metres (The Cirque) to its base at 2,473 metres (it is also the second biggest vertical drop in the US, after Jackson Hole). Because of its size, it also gets the most crowds, but it does take at least two or three days to ski the whole mountain. Accommodations in Snowmass Village tend to be cheaper than Aspen itself, which is another reason why many people prefer to stay here. I had a great ski experience in Snowmass, mainly because it was the end of March (the 23rd) with an unexpected cold and snowy spell, so the mountain was quite empty.

One guy working as the bartender and the waiter! Good service, however he got slammed with people and it was just him and the cook. Had to wait a long time for the food, had to grab him when we could to order more drinks, they were short staffed that day and apparently our waiter didn't normally work there he was just filling in.

Favorite Dish: I had the Pizza Burger and a beer. The burger was tasty because I was sooooo hungry due to the fact we were waiting so long.

Snowmass is part of the Aspen ski area, but by car, it is too far from everywhere. Denver to Snowmass takes around 3.5 hours because one has to drive around the big mountains. Luckily, Aspen-Snowmass is served by its own small airport (ASE), with flights to many of the nearby large cities, including Los Angeles and Denver, and you can even see the ski slopes from the airport. There are many more private jets at the airport than commercial planes, so if you happen to have your own, then life must be quite easy. Otherwise, a commercial flight on United or American is your best bet, but book early because they do get expensive quite quickly. I flew in from Los Angeles (1.5 hour flight from LAX) on United... booked on miles!

Remember you are at a higher altitude here and need to take time to adjust to the altitude. Be sure to drink a lot of water and if you are feeling dizzy or sick, take time to rest. Also, the sun burns brighter here, do not forget the sunscreen!!

Snowmass welcomes boarding, whatever you want to call it, All-Terrain Boarding Dirt Boarding Mountain Boarding.

They also host the US Open Mountainboarding Nationals.

They have a short terrain park that's accessable free if you want to hike up & down. If you do, park around Lot 11 & walk over to the slopes.

You can get lift tix too, but the top of the mountain is steep as hell, so bring breaks.

Equipment: Uh, bring a board with breaks if you are going to the top of the mountain, or without if you are hitting the terrain park.

You can rent boards there from several places, I think it's about $20-25 for the day & includes pads.