Around The Hoop

Highland Bowl, Tiehack, Lift 1A highlight openings

Aspen Highlands will open with 800 available acres on Saturday, including all of Highland Bowl, with the exception of the Hot Y’s through Mosh Pit, the Aspen Skiing Company is reporting.

An e-mail to employees from Aspen Skiing Company Vice President of Mountain Operations Rich Burkley notes that 78 percent of Aspen Highlands will be open for the debut of the 2010/2011 season.

“Exhibition, Loge, Cloud 9 and Deep Temerity Lifts all fire up. Thunderbowl and 5 Trees Lifts and terrain open next weekend (18th). All of the Highland Bowl, with the exception of the Hot Y’s through Mosh Pit, is ready to go,” Burkley writes. “On the front side everything will open except No Name Bowl, the P-Chutes, Lower Stein, Audacious and Sepperator. Both Merry Go Round and Cloud 9 serve up full menus. Check out the new restaurant, Out of Bounds Café, at the base area.”

All of the lifts at Buttermilk are firing up and allowing its customers to tap into 95 percent of its terrain.

“The Lower Tiehack Chair will run through the weekend then shut down until the 18th. All of the black runs on the Tiehack side are beautiful untracked powder,” Burkley writes. “The mid mountain blues are great skiing and riding wall to wall and the west side greens are buffed to perfection.”

Buttermilk terrain park master Greg Boyd and his crew hand-shoveled 23 features in the S3 Park on Red's and six more features on Teaser, according to Burkley's e-mail. Warm weather earlier this week melted plans to open the Superpipe on Saturday,” the e-mail said. It should open in the coming days.

The Cliffhouse will feature a limited menu on Saturday with full service beginning Nov. 17.

In Snowmass, table service is beginning at Sam's Smokehouse. Also, Upper Green Cabin debuts.

Lift 1 A will crank up on Aspen Mountain on Saturday and more runs below Ruthie's will also open.

“Our forecasts are favorable for natural snow in the next few days and we are poised [for] a terrific weekend of skiing and riding,” Burkley wrote.

Joel Gratz at Colorado Powder Forecast is predicting double-digits in Highland Bowl.

River Name / Location	Stream flow, ft3/s	Gage height ft
Gore Creek
At Upper Station, Near I-70 Twin Bridges	n/a	5 ft
Booth Creek	n/a	4 ft
Abv Red Sandstone Creek At Vail	256	7 ft
At Mouth Near Minturn	289	7 ft
Beaver Creek
At Avon	21	2 ft
Lake Creek
Near Edwards	114	1 ft
Cross Creek
Near Minturn	158	4 ft
Homestake Creek
At Gold Park	199	5 ft
Eagle River
East Fork Eagle River Near Climax	n/a	2 ft
At Red Cliff	30	3 ft
Near Minturn	296	4 ft
Wastewater Treatment Plant At Avon	875	5 ft
Below Gypsum	844	5 ft
Colorado River
Near Kremmling	374	4 ft
Near Dotsero	1,410	3 ft
Below Glenwood Springs	3,140	5 ft
Near Cameo	3,260	6 ft
Below Grand Valley Div Nr Palisade	1,800	5 ft
Near Colorado-utah State Line	3,860	4 ft
Near Cisco, Ut	4,270	3 ft
At Lees Ferry, Az	9,740	9 ft
Near Grand Canyon, Az	8,190	6 ft
Yuma Main Canal Ww At Yuma, Az	1,030	10 ft
Roaring Fork River
Abv Lost Man Cr Near Aspen	n/a	n/a ft
Ab Difficult C Nr Aspen	61	1 ft
Near Aspen	115	1 ft
Near Emma	593	6 ft
At Glenwood Springs	1,280	4 ft
Hunter Creek
Near Aspen	57	2 ft
At Aspen	52	4 ft
Frying Pan River
Near Ruedi	110	1 ft
Crystal River
Abv Avalanche Crk, Near Redstone	773	3 ft
Arkansas River
Ef Arkansas R At Us Highway 24, Nr Leadville	60	3 ft
Near Leadville	95	5 ft
Below Empire Gulch Near Malta	159	4 ft
Below Granite	363	4 ft
Near Nathrop	423	4 ft
At Parkdale	444	3 ft