Inbounds Backcountry Style Extreme Terrain at Aspen Highlands in Colorado

Highland Bowl is a particularly massive chunk of terrain with a sheer slope falling away from the peak until it reaches the treeline. For years, skiers accessed the bowl’s top half by hiking, but had to take the Grand Traverse out just when the terrain mellowed a bit. With the 2006 addition of the Temerity lift, which was installed so skiers and snowboarders could explore more of the Northwoods, experts now can also ski or ride down the bowl's bottom half, ensuring 2,582 feet of vertical terrain.

Patroller Dan Goddard’s Take on Playing in Highland Bowl

Aspen Highland patroller Dan Goddard believes the true backcountry experience gained from the Bowl is in the 35-45 minute hike to the bowl’s peak. This hike, alone, cuts back on traffic enough so that there are fresh tracks to be found on most days, according to Goddard.

"Here’s the general philosophy of the layout and with some intuitive thought, should lead your readership to the goods: The Bowl is named after colors of wax: Green, Blue, Yellow and the new terrain, Red. Snow temperature dictates wax and thus wax color, so in Highland Bowl it’s all about aspect, and thus snow temperature.

"The Y-zones (including the hot Y's) are south facing slopes offering steep skiing with relatively easy accessibility early in the Bowl hike. They produce good skiing when the storm is laying in and also in the Spring for warm corn skiing, but they can often get sun baked as the evil sun eats the snow. Next are the Bs, which offers the true Highland experience right off the summit ridge. Runs like Ozone, White Kitchen and Steep and Deep give the feeling of some of the best off-piste skiing at a ski area.

"At the top of the bowl hike, skiers can access the north-facing terrain of the Gs. While G8 and G6 offer some of the most aesthetic skiing in the bowl. The lower Gs, also referred to as the Northwoods, yield endless powder turns days after a storm. Finally, even further out this year are the expansion trees of the Child's Play and the R zones. Their potential is still being explored.

Do You Need Training Wheels?

"The Highlands Bowl training wheels are found in the Temerity and Steeplechase terrain. In fact, often, the more challenging skiing is to be found in these areas on runs such as Sniders Ridge, the B Cliffs and Not So Lucky Find. Each of these offers a variety of steep exposed ridges, cliffed out chutes or tighter-than-tight trees. Not to mention enough traffic at times to create bumps the size of a Volkswagon Bug."

Where to Get More Information

Visit Aspen Highlands to learn more about the resort and the backcountry-style inbounds extreme terrain.