Aspen/Snowmass Trip

Join us for our 9th trip to Aspen and Snowmass. This trip is a great way to end the ski season. Days are longer, temps are not as frigid, and snow is soft. Snowmass has a base altitude of 8,300 feet and 12,510 feet at the top which allows the snow to stay nice late in the season. Your lift ticket is interchangeable to ski at the iconic Aspen Mountain. 

We'll be staying at the Top of Village condos in Snowmass which are located a short 50 steps to the slope. Top of Village condos are truly ski in and ski out. 

April 8th to 15th, 2024 

Our end of season Snowmass trip has become very popular. What started out in 2016  with just 5 members going, has grown to 50.  We saw perfect weather for the first 3 days. Blue skies with temps in the upper 30's which made the snow nice and soft. Great skiing. The last two days warmed up a little more creating some heavy snow from mid mountain down. But if you stayed up top, snow was fine. On Friday, we had around 20 members go ski Aspen Mountain. While we had NO injuries on this trip, (always a good thing), we did have two members get a 24 hour bug, and another ate some food which didn't agree with him and put him down for a day.

We had 3 condo parties. The first was a welcoming party on the arrival day. The second was the club dinner on Thursday, and the last night was the leftover food party. Many say the condo parties are one of the best thing about the trip as you get to know other club members. We had 6 members participate in a non-stop, top to bottom, thigh burner run on Wednesday afternoon. This event is gaining traction with more participating every trip. It's not about who finishes first, it's that you finished without stopping. 

One highlight of the trip was we saw Snowmass's End of Season Party at the top of the gondola on Saturday. There was music, outdoor grilling, hot tubs, costumes, and the famous pond skim. One costume that stood out was a guy wearing a full light beige color, skin tight, body suit which made it look as if he was naked. Many took a second look.

If you want to join the fun on  our next end of season trip, it will be the first or second week of April. Mark it down in your calendars now. Deposits will start being taken in the fall.

Rick and Laurie
Snowmass trip leaders

 April 9th to 15th, 2023 

We didn't get much new snow this trip but we got plenty of sun. If any of you were wondering, the light brown patches we had in the snow were caused by winds blowing dust and dirt from the deserts in Nevada and Utah. The warmer temps caused the snow to be soft and wetter than normal and the dust/dirt was attracted to it. Seems most of Utah and Colorado resorts all had this issue.

We had 48 people on this trip. A club record for any trip. Out of the 48 people, 36 were on one of the previous seven spring trips to Snowmass. This tells me everyone is having a good time because they keep coming back.

This trip keeps growing every year. Our first trip was 8 years ago with just 6 people. Last year we had 34 people. Just ask anyone who's been on this trip before and they usually say it's the most fun they have on a trip. Yeah, Snowmass is a great mountain, but it's the sunny days, the warmer temps in the 30's, the good snow, NO crowds, and a great group of people that like to have fun while skiing.

Don't say it doesn't snow in April!

The Sunday evening "Get to Know Everyone Pizza Party" was well attended. On Monday, a group went on a tour of Snowmass mountain. At times we had high winds on the mountains due to an upcoming storm approaching. Blowing snow created patches and drifts of snow on the mountain which were fun blasting through. 

On Tuesday, we woke to 27" of snow. Laurie and I have been hosting the trip to Snowmass since 2014. Every trip, with the exception of one, a storm would come through and give us 5" to 12" of snow. This time we received 27" of snow. That's thigh deep for most people. You usually don't get the opportunity to experience that much snow unless you live in the mountains. Due to all the snow we received, snow conditions were fantastic the rest of the week. For those who were on the 2022 trip, it will be one you will remember forever.

We had four people take advantage of the free ski lessons given by Jeff and Rick on Tuesday morning. There would have been more but some people's skis stuck to the fresh snow and had to get their skis waxed. Tuesday evening we had a Taco party in Rick and Laurie's condo and had many stories to tell from their deep snow experiences that day.

Everyone got out Wednesday morning and enjoyed another day of snow up to their boot tops and more. After lunch on Wednesday, a group of 7 hiked up to the top of Longshot and skied the 5 mile run of deep snow through the trees. It took almost an hour for the group to come down due to their Midwest legs and took a long break at the bottom afterwards. At 3:30 pm, a few attended the thigh burner top to bottom run. Mike and Stephen Nelson came in 3rd and 4th. Congrats to the two of them!

On Thursday, a group went to ski Aspen Mountain. The morning was cloudy but the sun came out after lunch. With the sun and fresh snow, the group took the opportunity and skied down Ruthie's Run and most of the World Cup downhill run.

On Friday evening, we had "Left Over Night" where we ate what food was left over from the trip. Everyone their had a story about their deep snow experiences during the week. It was the perfect end to a memorable trip.

Rick and Laurie

Trip leaders

The 2020 trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

April 4 - 10, 2021

It was a strange trip with Covid restrictions still in effect.  Although there were to large group get togethers, there were some small gatherings at lunch and after the Annual John Wright Thigh Burner Run, which Mike Nelson won 2nd place and 2 margaritas. Also during the week the NASTAR Nationals were running and Dave Clark won first place in his bracket.

 April 7th to April 13th 2019 

The trip just keeps getting bigger. We had 32 people this trip.  Mike Nelson was the winner of the 2019 Annual Thigh Burner Challenge and won a free margarita.  We had a Welcome Party day of arrival with appetizers and beverages. Later in the week, we had an outdoor buffet BBQ dinner with drinks and snacks. Later in the week we had a Pot Luck dinner at the condo to finish up the left overs.

 Even though we had a small group of only 28 people, everyone had fun. We stayed at Top of Village condos for the trip again. We had great snow conditions as a storm came through and dumped 15+ inches overnight. 

April 2nd to April 8th, 2017

We had 23 people this trip. First day Monday, we had 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow. Rick took part of the group for a tour of Snowmass mountain and visited the three peaks and three main on mountain restaurants. Monday night there was an outdoor barbeque dinner when it started to snow. Tuesday morning we had around 10 inches of fresh powder and a group of us went up to the top of Big Burn for First Tracks an hour before the chairlifts opened to the public. Due to lack of crowds, we had fresh snow to almost lunch time. Tuesday evening there was a group dinner in Rick and Laurie's condo for appetizers, salad, lasagna, garlic bread, beer and wine.

Wednesday was a perfect day. Blue skies, 30 degrees, and perfect snow from Tuesday's storm. Some took the day off and went into Aspen. But for those that skied Snowmass, we had outstanding snow and groomed conditions in Elk Camp all day. There was the Thigh Burner race and after we met down at Venga Venga for margaritas.

Thursday and Friday were spring conditions with temps in the 50's. Thursday, some of the group went to Aspen mountain and skied Ajax and the run the World Cup races were held on in early March. On Friday, Dave Clark got 10 of us organized for Nastar racing at Snowmass. We're a fast group as many received medals.

Overall A GREAT TRIP! 

 April 3rd to April 9th in 2016.

We had our reception party at 7 pm Sunday evening. On Monday, there was a mountain tour given and it snowed around 12" Monday evening giving good snow conditions for the week. Wednesday we had a top to bottom thigh burner run.

 April 5th, 2015 to Saturday, April 11th, 2015

This was our first spring Snowmass trip. Rick, Laurie, Lynn, Joe and Joey spent 6 nights at the Terrace House in Snowmass.  About the trip- Even though there was record low snowfall for March 2015, there was plenty of good snow at the top of the mountains. Low temps were in the upper 20's and highs in the low 50's. It was sunny everyday, had 4 inches of new snow on Wednesday evening and great spring skiing conditions. Joey Keen took first place and Joe Keen was third place in the Annual John Wright Thigh Burner Challenge, Big Burn top to bottom run 

 February 23, 2013 through March 2, 2013

This trip we stayed at the Interlude Inn Condos for 7 nights. The Powder Dogs had good snow conditions all week for trip. The Monday Nastar race day at Snowmass was sunny and in the 40's, perfect for an outdoor lunch. The photo to the right was taken after our outdoor lunch which was after the Nastar race. Later in the week was partly sunny with some fresh snow and the temps stayed mainly in the 20's so the snow stayed good all week.

Some trip highlights:

• The Powder Dogs placed 3rd in total rankings in the Nastar race against the other clubs. Rick was the fastest male of all clubs.
• Penny found a shortcut with elevators through a hotel to get us back to our lodge so we didn't have to walk up hill.
• Jim took video one day of us skiing. He had the camera set wrong and didn't get 90% of the shots. At least he got Phil falling.