- Amazing scenery and views
- Lots of elevation changes and some flat holes too
- A few gaps to hit and one wooded hole (Hole 5) mixed into the many wide open holes
- You are likely to have the entire course to yourself
- Great workout and hike (could be a con if you're not in good shape or are really just looking to disc golf)
- A bit janky... but they do have next hole locations written in duct tape on the baskets so that helps somewhat with navigation

I'll highlight some of the best holes--
- Hole 5 is a cool dog leg right par 3 with a very guarded green
- Holes 6 and 13 have pretty fun top of the world downhill shots
- Hole 7 is a really fun downhill par 4 with a winding fairway and tricky approach
- Hole 14 is a cool gap hit par 3 to a narrow green
- Hole 18 is a decent finishing hole, left to right par 3 with a gap to hit late and a guarded green

- Dirt teepads, some of which are dangerous (hole 3) if not unusable
- Older baskets with somewhat thin chains, there were a handful of cut throughs and pole spit outs. Some baskets have taken some punishment and have sizable indents on the band or cage.
- Course design gets repetitive at the beginning and end, you're playing what feel like the same few holes up the hill and down the hill. As you can see in my pros section there are some cool holes, but all the ones I didn't shout out are somewhat similar to each other or just wide open.
- Navigation is simply not possible without a UDisc map and even with its possible to get lost
- Finding the course itself can be pretty challenging (see my instructions below, the only place I could even find directions was on the PDGA website for the course)
- While the course looks epic, most of the holes are wide open and straightforward
- VERY HIGH disc losing potential, especially when the course is overgrown. Grass is tall and rough is super thick on 11 and 13 and deep of the basket on 13 is a huge grove of thorns which makes disc retrieval dangerous
- You're likely to face a ton of wind on the early and late holes going up and down the hill in the open which can make putting really tough
- Not necessarily a negative but if you haven't played at this high elevation be aware that your discs flight characteristics will change (likely less high speed turn and glide)

WHERE TO NAVIGATE TO/PARK: Lot 13, the top lot by the Snowmass mall stores on Carriage Way
Here's the coordinates of where I parked
39.205479, -106.956631

WHERE TO WALK
Walk up Carriage Way until it turns to a dirt road, then follow it left out to the ski slopes. Turn right and head up the hill. If you follow the nearest woodline on the left and use your UDisc map it will take you past hole 18 and up to hole 1.

If you're in Aspen during the summer and want to play a course and not take a Gondola ride, this is your most accessible option.

Overall... the course is a bit strange. On one hand if you're willing to hike all the way up to the course you must be pretty into disc golf! In which case, you might be disappointed with how repetitive the course is and how the baskets and teepads aren't great. But if you're a pretty casual player then you probably aren't so desperate to get all the way up to the course.

I'd say without the views and scenery the course is a 2.5. I think with better tee pads and baskets it could go as high is 3.5. But with the amount of trees here... the layout has a hard ceiling.

First of all, the course has been redesigned and is very different than previous years. It now begins and ends just behind the Timberline Condominiums (see Local Directions).

The course offers a good variety of uphill, downhill, and side-hill drives. About half of the holes are open, with the others playing into and through aspens and evergreens. Many of the holes offer a fair shot at birdie, but the wooded holes can take you to a bogie just as easily.

Hole 5 is a great downhill drive, and Hole 18 finishes with another. Hole 17 is the longest on the course, and requires hitting a narrow window in the trees. Landing either left or right of the fairway puts you into thick trees.

Baskets are Innova DIscatchers which show up well and catch fine. Teepads are natural and tee signs are very basic which is typical for a seasonal ski mountain course. Course had only been open a week when I played, and paths between holes are just starting to get worn in.

Tee pads are natural and can a little lumpy. There is no hole distance information, and only the most basic tee signs with hole number.

Navigation was a little tricky from hole-to-hole, but paths are already getting worn in and that will only get better with time. UPDATE 8/16/2016 - As things have grown in navigation continues to be difficult. This course could really benefit from some additional signs, flagging tape, or other directional aids.

There are some very thick areas of rough and losing a disc is a real possibility on a few holes.

I was lucky to meet up with a local (Dave) who helped me with navigation, including working around some lingering wet spots. I understand that there is some controversy over the new course design, but I found it enjoyable.

- Beautiful scenery
- Challenging course
- Fun long flowing holes, with some really great long downhillers
- Nice baskets in good shape
- Good exercise -- lots of hiking!
- Pretty easy to keep track of your discs
- Not crowded

- Mostly wide open (not too many shots that require precision)
- Hard to find and poorly marked
- No real tee pads (treacherous!)

This is the course I play most often. I like it, and it's fun to play, but it's probably not my favorite in the valley. With some nice tee pads it would definitely be a contender -- right now you've got to be really careful when teeing off.

The course is poorly marked and hard to find. For those familiar with Snowmass, the 1st tee is skiers left of Lynn Britt Cabin.

To get there:
- Park in Snowmass Village Parking lot #13
- Walk all the way up the road
- When you get to the top, take a left onto the dirt road
- Walk just a short bit until the road cuts up diagonally behind you and to the right. Face directly uphill at this intersection. The first tee is up this hill, about 10 - 15 min. It's pretty steep, and definitely not easy. When you reach the road, the first tee will be directly to your left, with the first basket straight uphill in the small patch of trees.

I drew a map of the course for my buddy while he was in town, linked below. Note: this map is for the early summer of 2014. The course gets changed, though I'm not sure of how often.

http://imgur.com/5hcKDI5
http://imgur.com/5hcKDI5&Tdakg4M

Course notes:

I play #7 and #17 as Par 4's, which I think is definitely the proper par for these holes, but others might disagree. Everything else is a 3, though #5 is perhaps somewhere in between a 3 and a 4.

#5 enters the trees on the right through a small alley (which you can't really even see from the tee), and you would rather be uphill than downhill -- the trees downhill of the alley to the basket a are super dense.

#12 is a fairly easy hole, though the pond definitely requires more distance than meets the eye. Throw around to the right, throw a <140g disc, or skip it. If you do throw a floating disc in and choose to jump in, be careful, it's really slippery getting out.

#13 is so much fun! Love that tee shot. Throw it low and more to the right than you would think.

#14 and #15 -- be careful now to throw it down the hill -- it can glide forever!

#17 - definitely want to keep it in the fairway -- the trees are dense. I've recently starting playing the hole out to the right, past the #16 basket, and find myself to prefer that path.

#18 - don't go long! There's a roaring creek back there.

Fun course on the side of the ski hill. Less scenery on the yellow course than the red course but still in the CO mountains so views abound. Wide open, it's a ski run so you are working with 80-300 foot wide fairways...lots of room to let it fly. stay on the road and you'll find all the baskets.

Yellow Course starts on the 9th hole of the red course so you either play 27 holes or go for a hike down the hill to get to tee #1. VERY Short this year, and some holes double back from one basket to the next tee (13,14,15,17).

New lay out this year at snowmass and the Yellow course is SHORT! almost an ace race, as the longest hole is in the 300 foot range many are in the 200's. first time I played here this year (opening weekend) and I pared the front nine, and was 4 over on the back due to overdriving and going OB on a few holes.

A chance to see what your discs do when they can fly forever - literally. And did we mention the views? As the first reviewer said - sometimes you just look at where you have to go and are speechless.

A chance to see how far off course you can go when your disc rolls forever, or just keeps going when it doesn't turn over, or does when you weren't planning on it. Can you say 400 foot up shot?

Halfway down you pass a water treatment facility and the smell is pretty bad for a few holes.

some rough dirt tee boxes - I dont mind dirt boxes for mountain courses at all - but some of these are pretty rough. Not all t-boxes marked well - no course map.

Much more straightforward than the Red course - Starting with #5 - its pretty much all down hill - with a few across the slope holes. Almost all t shorts are wide open shots to baskets that have been tucked into the edge of the woods. There is water on two holes - and if you don't know the course and are not with someone who knows it - you may find it the hard way on the second water hole. Like the Red course - its a small lined holding pit - you throw over it on one hole and then - a couple of holes later - you are below it, throwing to a basket sitting right on the edge. If you don't recall that from the first time over - you will lose your disc if you go past the basket. this is a very lefty friendly course. As you come down the mountain - most all of the baskets are tucked into the woods on the right side. If you are a right hander and dont have a forehand or can't get a disc to turn over or stay straight for a very long time - you are in for a long trip down. I actually ended up throwing a Buzz parallel with the down slope a lot - just to keep it straight - cause distance is not an issue. But thats a tough choice to make when you really want to see that dude just fly! I had alot of fun on both these courses and look forward to playing them again. if this were a flat course I might mark it down to 2/2.5.

-Breath taking scenery: You can see most of Snowmass from the first hole.
-Good variation: Not just super long throws, there are plenty of shots through trees, on the edge of a steep hill, and even a few over water.
-Nice layout: The pins were nicely placed so that there was very little (if any) up and down the hills.

-Its on the side of a ski slope: If the chair lift isnt working then you have a bit of a hike ahead of you to get to the top, plus this means that if you over throw or get a roller...that things going for a ways.
-No maps/Tee pads: It was a bit hard to find the 1st hole in the beginning, luckily we found a local guy who showed us (would have been easy to find from the chairlift but hiking was a different matter). The dirt pads kind of make sense since its a ski slope but the packed down dirt made for some slippage.

This was an all around fun course despite the lack of maps and concrete tee pads. If you find yourself in the area I highly recommend playing it because there are plenty of time where you are looking at the shot and the only thing that comes to mind is "whoa"