For spring break, we had the opportunity to use a friend’s residence at the Ritz-Carlton in Aspen Highlands in Aspen, Colorado. I heard about people going spring skiing before, but we’ve never had the experience as a family. My husband and I asked some avid skiers about what they thought about spring skiing and got mixed reviews — simply because it depended on the weather.
Since we had a fabulous place to stay, we were going to Aspen whether there was snow. But being a skiing family, we were crossing our fingers. We were delightfully surprised when we heard that the weather cooperated and it was the best winter – and best spring snow that Aspen has received in years!
We arrived in Aspen on a Saturday and had six full days of skiing from Sunday to the following Friday. Our first day, Snowmass treated us to our very own Ski Pros who coached us on our first day to get our ski-legs back and showed us around Snowmass. It was a wet and snowy day but that snow was a gift to us for the rest of the week with soft, powder snow and sunny bluebird skies for the rest of the week. For the rest of the week, I bought four days of ski-school for the girls, with post-ski school family skiing until the lifts closed at 4:00 p.m.
With everyone going to a beach locale like Florida, Mexico or Costa Rica for April vacation, going to a ski resort like Snowmass really goes against the grain — but with MAJOR benefits.
Below are my 10 Reasons to go Spring Skiing at Snowmass:
1. Zero lift Lines: Between me and the girls, we went on the majority of the lifts and gondolas and not one had a line. Never did we have to wait for a lift. Ever.
Zero lift lines at Village Express, a six-seater chair lift at the base of Snowmass.
2. No sharing of your lift chair or gondola. And because the lift lines are non-existent, you never have to share your chair or gondola with anyone else. No awkward chit-chat.
3. Amazing Weather. Blue bird skies, and skiing with one less layer will always make skiing that much more enjoyable.
4. Goggle tans! There’s nothing better than the mark of a successful ski vacation than goggle tans. But make sure to use your sunscreen!
5. Ski-School attendance is at a minimum. The ski school at Snowmass is top-notch And it’s even better when the best teachers are available and the student/teacher ratio is low. Our 5th grader was in a group of six kids. Although this is a large group, she had a senior-level instructor and on some days had two instructors. Our 1st grader, lucked out. She had three students, but most of the time there were only two. The result is that our 5th grader went up one ski level and skied her first black diamonds and had an intro to skiing terrain parks; and our 1st grader is skiing almost parallel, working on her hockey stops and is comfortable enough to ski mini half-pipes!
Our 1st grader’s class had two to three students, and most of the time, it there were only two.
Ski school, in general, can be expensive, but the pay off is the confidence they gained every day , which meant I was able to ski safely together, which meant we were able to enjoy each other’s company! The girls led me down the mountain and showed me what they were able to do: from mini-half pipes, buffalo bumps, ski-racing, boxes on the terrain park and jumps, the ski-school benefits definitely outweigh the cost.
6. Empty Trails. This, for me, is a safety issue. The less crowded the trails, the lower the chance of someone getting hurt. Spring skiing in Snowmass eliminates a lot of the crowds. Most of the time, It was only me and at the most two other people skiing with me.
Skiing looked like this for every run. That’s my 5th grader in the orange helmet speeding down Sandy’s Peak.
7. Empty Ski Resort Restaurants. Just like lift lines during the spring, the lines at the resort’s restaurants are non-existent and you can get a table with a view or an Adirondack chair to work on your goggle tans. At Snowmass, our girls ate with their ski school (their favorite was Lizard Lodge) but for me and The Hubby, we always ate at Elk Camp, which had the freshest salads, and the most amazing food. Our favorite was the Provincial Style Buffalo Beef Stew over rice, and the Flank Steak with roasted broccoli and corn on the cob. The desserts were equally amazing (the chocolate cheesecake was to-die for!) and I ate dessert at lunch every day. No guilt.
8. Tour Ambassadors. Snowmass has this amazing program that all resorts should have. Every day at 10:30am at the top of Village Express and at 1:30pm right outside of Elk Camp, you are able to take a tour of Snowmass Mountain with one of their Ambassadors. These ambassadors will ski with you and take you on trails that are suitable for your ability.
I enjoyed the company of skiing with Maury (shown here) and Toni, Snowmass’ Tour Ambassadors.
I took tours with Maury and Toni on separate days and they took me down runs that I never would have gone on my own. They showed me how to get from one side of the mountain by traversing across many trails without having to go down the mountain and up another lift. They also showed me some hidden gems, like the view of the Ziegler Reservoir at the top of Sneaky’s , or the Golf Shrine off of Gunner’s View. And because it was so late in the season, I had Toni and Maury to myself on my tours!
9. The FREE RFTA buses. Aspen’s RFTA system, which is the free bus to all the ski resorts, is a great way to get around the city. Each of the buses have ski and snowboard racks and go directly to the mountain. For us, we received a ride from The Ritz-Carlton to a bus stop and it was a 30 minute ride to the base of Snowmass. During the spring ski season, the buses were empty and were able to get seats. Note that the bus schedule does dwindle during the off-season (when we went, it was every half-hour on the :15 and :30 of the hour) so just work double-check the times.
10. You can get a restaurant reservation. Now, we didn’t end up at Nobu or Little Nell’s in Aspen, but from what I hear, reservations are easy to come by. For us, finding a family friendly place to eat in Aspen was easy. We took the RFTA bus to the last stop, which is in the heart of Aspen. If we weren’t eating at our residence, we ate at family friendly restaurants like Hickory House, Brunelleschi’s and Cantina.
Bottom line is that spring skiing in Snowmass (or in any other ski resort) eliminates the crowds and stress of skiing during the winter season, which means we were able to focus on being a family and skiing. If we have a chance to go back to Aspen for a spring ski trip, we would do it in a heartbeat.
The family who skis together, stays together.
Have you gone spring skiing? Where have you gone? How was it?
Read about our Utah family ski trip and our Flagstaff Arizona family ski trip.
{I was not compensated in any way for this post. Our family did receive complimentary lift tickets and ski rentals for the purpose of this review. We paid for our ski lessons except as noted above. All opinions expressed are mine.}