That cabin fever

The Lynn Britt Cabin on Snowmass Ski Area is one of the gems of the resort.

It’s located about three-quarters of the way up the Burlingame area of Snowmass, under the old Lift No. 2.

The cabin is a restaurant with a bluegrass band and a feeling that, as the Aspen Skiing Co. literature suggests, “echoes the ranching way of life that existed” on what is now a ski mountain.

A couple of members of the Frying Pan Bluegrass Band, Jon Livingston and Kevin Glenn, play classic country and bluegrass tunes while a fully staffed kitchen serves up appetizers, salads, soup and entrees to six or seven tables full of people.

The songs include classics like “Country Roads” and “Rocky Top” and even “Happy Birthday,” provided someone in the cabin is celebrating their, say, 59th or fifth birthday.

Livingston and Glenn also drive the snowcats that pick people up at the Snowmass Village mall at the beginning of the evening and drop them off at the end.

Before the Lynn Britt Cabin, named for a popular ski instructor who died of cancer in the 1980s, opened in 1998, there was the Burlingame Cabin.

That cabin, which in the 1970s was used as a ski jump, opened for dining in 1993, with room for about 25 people. The Burlingame Cabin is a small two-room cabin leftover from the ranching era of early or mid-20th century.

Because there was no kitchen, both the customers and the food were taken up the hill in snowcats. Like the cabin, the music was more rustic in those early days, as Livingston and Glenn had considerably fewer songs in their repertoire.

The larger Lynn Britt Cabin and its crew can handle about 60 people ” and reservations are required. And while it doesn’t have the Old World charm of the Burlingame Cabin (which is no longer open), the newer, larger version is remarkably cozy. The music is better than ever, as is the food.

Those brave revelers who make it past their hangovers and onto the slopes today can expect a few inches of fresh snow on top of the 21 inches that have fallen over the past week.

There are 57 inches of snow on top of Aspen Highlands, 50 on top of Snowmass, 39 on top of Aspen Mountain and 29 inches atop Buttermilk.