Aspen has a variety of steeper terrain with north, east, and west exposures. East exposures such as the mine dumps and the Back of Bell often catch more powder as prevailing winds are typically west to east.

We skied this mountain the first day we were here. Took a mountain tour in the morning which was quite interesting. It was a Sunday so a bit more crowded, but except for the gondola there were no lines at other lifts. The trails here are quite challenging - I'd say equal to if not in ways more than Jackson Hole - no doubt great for expert skiers. Many of the blues (no greens here) can be quite steep but also plenty of less steep and wide open runs especially at the top, around the Ajax Express lift. Slightly more steep blues can be found around the Gents lift. There are moguls of various sizes, lengths and pitch along most of the runs so people with varied capabilities/preferences skiing together can do so on different terrain. The steepest blues are the gulch runs, Spar and Copper Bowl, both leading straight to the base of the mountain.

One of the more challenging aspects of this mountain is that there are no easy cat tracks from top to bottom like many other resorts do, so at the end of the day when you are already tired and still on top you'd have to really put in some effort getting down (the only easy way out is just give up and take the gondola down - plenty of locals tell us that they'd do just that to avoid the homewards bound crowd rushing down the gulch runs). If skiing down, the Copper Bowl might be a bit more preferable to Spar in that it's a bit wider with less traffic although some steeper sections. A longer more round about way might be to get down the west side of the mountain but we didn't have time to try that. For food Bonnie's at top of Ruthie's is a favorite, nice sundeck with a superb view overlooking wide open trails around the Ajax Express although gets very crowded at peak lunch time.

We stayed in Aspen so this is the closest mountain of the 4, right in town and most hotels have free shuttles to ferry you the few blocks to the base. Snowmass is the furthest away about a 30 min bus ride from the main bus terminal in town - free and frequent about every 15 minutes (10 mins to Buttermilk and 15 to Highlands).