High Points: It’s all uphill for Jennifer Levine

If you’re Jennifer Levine of Basalt, the answer is “just fine thank you.”

This Tuesday, March 26, barring unforeseen circumstances, she will earn her second straight 100-day pin. And she will do so by going uphill.

That’s right, just about every weekday morning this season, shortly after dawn, she and her Bernedoodle Enzo have clocked in with her uphill pass at either the Tiehack lift or Village Express lift on Snowmass and proceed to skin up the mountains recording another day’s ascent. On weekends, sans Enzo (Dogs are not allowed on Aspen Mountain), she treks the 3,267 vertical feet of Aspen Mountain to the Sundeck, skis down, and then clicks her ticket in the turnstile at the gondola.

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“I love it a lot,” she says in what is a decided understatement for the New Jersey native (You can hear it in her voice) who moved to the valley two years ago and immediately took to uphilling.

“In March of 2021, we came here, and I saw people doing this, so I thought ‘I have to try it,'” she says about the genesis of what has become a life-changing habit. “I went to the Ute Mountaineer, rented equipment, and went up Buttermilk. I loved it, and I went back to the Ute, and they gave me lighter equipment, and the next day, I went up Aspen. I was hooked.”

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Indeed, the following year when Jennifer and husband Brian moved to Basalt, the first thing she did was stop and buy uphill ski equipment from Cripple Creek Backcountry in Carbondale.

“We were driving into the valley, just moving here, and I said to Brian, ‘We gotta stop and get my gear.'”

That season of 2022-23 culminated on Bacon Day at Buttermilk when she officially reached the 100-day mark. Brian was there with roses to celebrate the achievement. And Jennifer continued until early May, bagging 117 uphill days for the season.

While uphilling is new to her, she does have a history of intensive, extreme training. She has run 29 marathons with a best time of 3:27.

“I would still like to do London and Tokyo,” she said.

Climbing days begin with a 5:15 wakeup. She and Enzo are usually in the car by 6:15 and heading for the hills.

“I just love watching the sunrise as I’m going up-valley,” she said, though with the time change this past couple of weeks, it has been a bit darker. The climb up Tiehack takes her 35-40 minutes and Snowmass up to Sam’s Knob about an hour. Her weekend climbs on Aspen usually take an hour and fifteen minutes or so.

“Some days I’m faster than others. Some days, if I’m working on things in my head, I may be a little bit slower. It’s just so peaceful. I don’t really care about the time,” she says it’s about the journey. “And when you get to the top and it is a bluebird day and you see the Bells, it is just so beautiful that people actually cry. I keep taking the same pictures every time. It never gets old.”   

While she and Enzo’s treks are almost always solo, they are not the only ones who find satisfaction with the daily morning routine.

“We usually go alone, but we see animals – fox on Aspen and the moose last year on Tiehack. And there are always familiar faces. Especially the other dogs,” she laughs.

Conditions are constantly changing on the hill. This late in the season, it can be awfully crunchy early on with the morning spring freeze, and heavy snowfall can prove challenging.

“Heavy deep snow is a whole different level,” she said about the tougher days. “Usually, Enzo likes to go up by my side, but in the deep snow, we’ll look for tracks. We’ll see the headlights of people who go up earlier, and Enzo will fall in behind me. But when we get to the top, we’ll always get first tracks, and Enzo just jumps along as I ski down.

“I’m not sure which of us has the bigger smile.”