Buttermilk Mountain

Aspen Buttermilk is small and fun and has long been renowned as a ski resort that caters well to beginners and families. Buttermilk Ski Resort attracts a mix of littlies as well as old folk who enjoy cruising the mellow slopes. Sometimes there are a lot of ankle biters on the weekends, but generally Buttermilk Mountain is a very uncrowded ski resort. Buttermilk is also legendary for its terrain parks and for hosting the ESPN Winter X Games.

Pros & Cons of Aspen Buttermilk

Pros 

• Buttermilk Ski Resort has a very relaxed environment and is an unintimidating place for kids or adults to learn to ski or snowboard, and the terrain has nice steps for progression.
• Buttermilk Mountain is also perfect for terrain park junkies. It has the best terrain parks in Aspen Snowmass and potentially North America, and it sure beats grappling with the throngs at one of the Summit County ski resorts.

Cons

• There is very limited piste terrain for advanced riders.
• There is only one option for lodging at the base of Buttermilk Mountain so most people have to catch a bus there from Aspen, which can be unwieldy with small kids in tow.
• The Aspen Buttermilk hill is tiny and has only 3 main lifts, so it seems ludicrous that lift ticket prices are the same for all four Aspen Snowmass resorts. Ski lessons and equipment rentals also attract a hefty premium.

Buttermilk Ski and Snowboard Terrain

The skiable terrain at Buttermilk Ski Resort is only 470 acres (190 hectares); providing 44 trails across a vertical drop of 2,030 ft (619 metres). The 3 main chair lifts service the entire ski hill and are fast quad chairs, and there is one small lift and a magic carpet for novices.

Buttermilk is largely a tame ski resort with wide tree-lined groomed runs. The terrain stats are 35% green, 39% blue, 25% black, and 5% double black trails. In reality most of the blue runs are appropriate for confident beginners, and the black runs would be categorised as blue (or double blue) slopes at other ski resorts.

All the piste trails at Buttermilk look very unintimidating, and then you look at the big Buttermilk terrain park that is used for the X games and you nearly soil yourself! Buttermilk Park has 100+ features including an Olympic sized superpipe and X games course with jumps that are massive. It makes the body just ache looking at those bone crushing features! For mere mortals, Buttermilk also has easier parks.

Powder hounds could be forgiven for bypassing Buttermilk because of its reputation as a ski area for novices and because it doesn’t receive that much snowfall (200 inches/5m per season). However on powder days, the glades off the Tiehack lift can be a little treasure trove. Others rush to Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Snowmass for a powder feeding frenzy, and the slopes get trashed very quickly. Meanwhile at Buttermilk there is very little competition for fresh lines.

Where is Buttermilk Ski Resort?

Buttermilk is one of the Aspen Snowmass ski resorts, located in the White River National Forest. Buttermilk Mountain is just 3 miles (5km) to the west of the town of Aspen Colorado, a drive that takes about 10 minutes, and Buttermilk Ski Resort is only 6 miles from Snowmass. Buttermilk is accessible from Aspen or Snowmass via a free shuttle bus system that runs at very regular intervals.

The Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (aka Sardy Field) is very close to Buttermilk and Aspen. See the Aspen travel page for more information on getting to Aspen.

Buttermilk Lodging

The main base area has a ski-in ski-out hotel, the Inn at Aspen. The handy location makes it very family friendly, and the Buttermilk hotel has an onsite restaurant, hot tub, and outdoor pool. Accommodations include hotel rooms (that sleep up to 4), studios with kitchenettes, and suites.

Most people stay in Aspen and catch the shuttle bus to Buttermilk, which provides the distinct advantage of easy access to the many restaurants and bars, and the fabulous Aspen shopping. The town also provides direct access to Aspen Mountain. See the Aspen hotels page for more information on lodging in Aspen.

Aspen Snowmass Lodging Listings

Ski Resort Facilities

Buttermilk has an incredibly well developed ski school for kids. For children 5 or older, there’s also the convenience of not having to drop them off at Buttermilk each day. From the 2nd day onwards, kids staying in Aspen can ride the Max the Moose Shuttle with a ski instructor. It departs from the Aspen Mountain gondola plaza at 8:45am and returns to Aspen by 4pm. Buttermilk also provides ski and snowboard lessons for teens and adults.

The Buttermilk base area has a Four Mountain Sports shop that provides ski and snowboard rentals, and they also have an overnight equipment storage system.

Lunch is available at the Bumps restaurant at the base or at The Cliffhouse at the top of the Summit Express lift. Both establishments are reasonably priced and very family friendly.