Day 18 Aspen - Ajax

The plan for the day was to hit Aspen Mountain (Ajax to the locals) in the morning and then head over to Highlands for the afternoon.
Light snowfall greeted us at breakfast as has been par for the course the past couple of days. The snow gods sure know how to flog a dead horse.

Claire decided to have a rest day, and Mason and Jamie took off 8:45am while I went to sort out payment for the condo with Mary the proprietor. That done I legged it into town to pick up my skis from their overnight tune at the base of the Aspen Mountain Gondola.

Ajax from the steps of Chateau Blanc Condominium

Since I first started skiing I've always wanted to ski Ajax, having read about it and seen photos in skiing magazines. For some reason people prefer to ski Highlands and Snowmass. In fact Mason wasn't even considering skiing Ajax until I kept on harping on about it. Although he would probably deny this. It seems bizarre that the ski area that rises directly out of the town has such a negative rap. It probably doesn't help that there is no beginner terrain on Ajax.

As I rode the gondola at 9:45am I was immediately overcome with the kind of sensation you experience when you stand outside Buckingham Palace for the first time. Although you've never been there before, there is a familiarity born out of years of seeing images of the place.

The gondola ride itself is a thrilling experience. From the the village it seems a short ride up the steep face towering over Aspen, but once cresting that ridge the mountain stretches out for miles beyond. The gondola ride takes 15 minutes. It is an old school gondola in that the towers are massive, two or three hundred feet high. The longest span between towers is almost a kilometre and carries you to dizzying heights.

Looking down to Aspen with gondola tower in foreground

I exited the gondola and took off down a blue called Ruby Ridge. The grooming was impeccable, the slopes empty. The skis cut into the snow like a knife into butter. Two runs on Ruby Ridge and I decided I was not going to Highlands....Ajax would require a full day to do it justice.

Feeling like a blast to the bottom I carried on past the bottom of Ruby Ridge down a long winding valley shaped like a natural half pipe that eventually opened out into the wide slopes on the flanks of Aspen Mountain leading to the town and the base of the gondola.
I pulled up my legs feeling like jelly and hunched over my poles to catch my breath.

A few minutes later Mason and Jamie pulled up and echoed my thoughts about spending the entire day at Ajax.

We parked our skis at the base of the gondola and strolled down the steps to a Starbucks for coffee and donuts. Mason shouted.

The snow abated and it started to warm up. The run from top to bottom was so good we lapped it 3 or 4 times non stop...yes that's right non stop. I think the 15 minute gondola ride helped with the recovery.

Jim and I had a late lunch at the restaurant at the top of the gondola while Mason skied down to catch up with Claire.

Apsen Highlands from the resaurant at the top of Ajax

The post lunch funk set in...the legs never feel quite the same after lunch for some reason, and the snow was hardening up and getting scratched off. We did a few more top to bottom runs, more cruisy, lower intensity and called it a day at 3.30pm.

Highlight of the evening was a catchup with an old friend from the Mount Hutt days. Joan Valentine taught skiing with us at Mount Hutt. She's now domiciled in Aspen with her husband Andrew (a bit of a legend on the NZ race scene in the 90's) and son Harry. We met them at a restaurant called Lime Light and had a most enjoyable evening catching up on developments in one another's lives, and reminiscing about fun times we'd shared together.

Got home late for this trip...10pm, finished off packing in preparation for departure for Salt Lake City tomorrow.

It's been an awesome time with the kids.