FIt is said that advanced skiers come to Aspen because of the Highland Bowl, this American ski resort that also has a whole host of other highlights to offer. But to have driven the Highland Bowl once in your life, to have conquered it or simply to have survived it, that puts everything else to shame, is the highest, in the truest sense of the word. This is how the locals of Aspen talk, mythicalizing their “Bowl” as “extreme” and “extraordinary” and giving all those who made it into the “I-did it” club an appreciative look.
Is this the legendary North American tendency to exaggerate? Or is this tendency really exaggerated? The question arises as we stand on Aspen Mountain on a sunny winter day. From the Sundeck Restaurant you have a good view of the Highland Bowl and can consider whether you want to plunge down there. Viewed soberly and with alpine understanding, it is just a semicircular mountain basin below a peak. However, this peak is – and this is where it gets interesting – Highland Peak, and at 3777 meters it is intimidatingly high. And the fact that from here its slopes look as steep as the east face of the Matterhorn doesn't make matters any better. In other words: it doesn't get much steeper than that. “Are you there?” asks Steve Smart, the ski instructor who wants to accompany me there tomorrow. The weather forecast looks good. Yes of courseI say, hoping I sound more convinced than I mean.
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