by When I first moved to Aspen at the age of 23 in January 2000 it was not, as my friends said, bagging a rich husband. Instead, it was to discover a utopian “island in the sky” that a couple of trekkers I met in Nepal had vividly described to me in detail – even back then, it was the world-renowned ski resort in Colorado the stuff of legend.
It was also turning into a hot spot with budget cuts. Unemployed and broke, I spent my first nights in the most glamorous resort in America sleeping on the floor of a hotel that was soon to be demolished. I won because I paid £177 for a three-day lift pass (today, that amount won’t buy you a one-day weekend ticket).
A few weeks after I got a job at a mountain restaurant – paid for in the form of a season lift pass – and a room in shared employee housing, I raised a beer to my new life at the (now closed) Hard Rock Café with a gentleman, who the razor-sharp cynicism could hide his deep affection for Aspen. After he left, the bartender revealed that my companion was Hunter S Thompson, the notorious gonzo journalist. Over the next two years, I enjoyed several margarita conversations with Thompson at some of his favorite watering holes, including the Hotel Jerome’s J-Bar and the Woody Creek Tavern tumbledown, listening to his talk about the town’s chronic problems of overcapitalization and rising house prices.
More than twenty years later, when news broke that Aspen Mountain, one of four mountains in the resort’s 5,600-acre ski area, was opening a new 150-acre ski area, it was time to revisit the story to see what has changed in the story. corner of Colorado.
The Hero terrain, serviced by a new high-speed chairlift, is the first addition to the 11,212-foot-tall (3,415m) Peak since 1985, replacing its total terrain ski area by 22 percent most advanced. Mostly north facing, the new ranges are all over 10,000ft (3,048m) and double diamond tree ranges with no room or bump fields, except for two blue cat tracks that funnel the trails down to the elevator.
Arriving on the first day the furthest reaches of Laoch were opened, two friends and I joined others around the place exploring the densely wooded area. Originally known as Pandora, the area was renamed Hero last summer to reflect the sudden death of James “Jim” Crown, whose family owned the Aspen Skiing Company. In addition to Jim’s trails, most of Looch’s trails are named in memory of local legends, including ski patrollers Cory Brettman and Eric Kinsman and Aspen’s first female ski instructor, Elli Iselin.
After making our way through some steep, thoroughly satisfying runs, we stopped at Bonnies – a rare independently owned restaurant dating back to the 1960s – for apple strudel. It was full of locals. Among them was ski patrolman Steve “Chopper” Cohen, whose emotions were still raw after the Cory Bob run was introduced to Cory’s widow and daughter the day before. Aspen’s excess of glamor and wealth, it’s a connection to people that makes it unique with a culture of characters long nurtured by creatives and free-wheeling eccentrics.
The transformation of Aspen in the 1940s – by Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke and his wife Elizabeth – from a former mining town to a hub for the wealthy, free-thinking art and culture enthusiasts with a passion for skiing. The Paepcke’s “Aspen Idea” lives on today – as well as laying claim to some of the best slopes in the world, the heated trails at 6,833 are home to a world-renowned ballet, symphonic opera, theater and art museum. Aspen resident.
Friends have warned me long ago that the town had changed “irrevocably” since the childhood seasons I spent here and, sure enough, most of my ski bums – Little Annie’s, Jimmy’s, Bakery of Main Street – now gone, replaced by oyster bars. , designer boutiques and cafes selling avocado toast and champagne.
My first night back in town, over truffle fries at Ajax Tavern, I found myself sitting next to a TikTok sensation rather than a cynical journalist. Boomer the Landcloud, a rabbit influencer worth over $1 million, was the guest of honor at the $1,985-a-night Little Nell hotel, along with Woody Harrelson and Cameron Diaz. I couldn’t help but wonder what my old acquaintance Thompson, whose ashes Johnny Depp shot out of a gun across Woody Creek in 2005, would do, a town where the average price of a family home is now $14.8 million plus rents. is $35,000 a month charged up? Where it is claimed that local homeowners include 106 billionaires (compared to London’s 36)?
The evolution of Aspen could be contained in the development of a single property, Cloud Nine. A wooden ski patrol hut built in the 1960s on a Highland mountain, Cloud Nine was defunct in the 1970s when ski patrollers like Mac Smith (who still works for the team today) attracted crowds as they jumped over the hut pulling their “blood vans” (rescue sledges) with hero’s burning.
In 1999, Austrian-born chef Andreas Fischbacher transformed the hut into Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro, which served raclette, fondue and schnapps, with table dancing and the occasional popping of champagne. By 2016, as the venue emerged from a $1.2 million (£944,630) refurbishment, champagne spraying was expected, if not mandatory. Today, 2pm lunch slots require a minimum pre-paid booking fee of $250 (£197) per person – although the $750 (£590) Custom Package – and $140-a-bottle (£110) pre-order cases of Veuve Clicquot as a standard for sparking.
Sharing a chair lift with Tim Mutrie, a former ski patroller turned art installer, we fondly reminisced about the less-curated Cloud Nine celebration. “You have to think that there aren’t better uses for that money than soaking up the rafters of an old patrol booth,” Mutrie said. “But hey, we had to have our Aspen party back in the day, who are we going to stop others from having?”
Fundamentals
Travel to Aspen with United Airlines (united.com), which flies direct to Denver from London Heathrow, with connecting flights to Aspen from £1,110 return. A week’s stay for two in a double room at The Little Nell (thelittlenell.com), Aspen’s only ski-in/ski-out hotel, costs from $10,610.39 (£8,353), including five-day lift passes for guests and shared airport. translated. For more information about Aspens, visit aspensnowmass.com.
