Black Diamond for everything climbing and skiing.    Dynafit -- Speed Up!    Tracker beacons, Stash packs, shovels, more more more.    Terrific deals on randonnee AT rando backcountry skiing gear.    K2 has the skis that stay true to earning your turns.    Garmont boots -- excellent choice for backcountry skiing.

Summer at Aspen Mountain

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

Gondolas that whisk you to the alpine are amazing amenities. What a fun, quiet and somewhat green way to get people up into the mountains and learning to appreciate what we’ve got above the fur shops and jewelry stores of most larger North American ski resort towns. Reporting today on gonde ride and hike we did recently up Aspen Mountain.:

Backcountry Skiing

View of Mount Hayden from porch behind Sundeck Restaurant, Aspen Mountain.

It’s a funny thing, but I recall that years ago ski mountains around here with summer lift operation were virtually deserted — it seemed like no one appreciated the kind of access that cable “rope ways” provide. That changed over the years. Now we’ve got everything from mountain bike rides to weddings being supported by ski lifts and gondolas from here to Whistler and beyond.

Mike Collins and his family.

Mike Collins and his family, he was the big guy up at Big Mountain in Montana for a number of years.

Our group consisted of my old high school friend Mike Collins and his family, as well a a few other Aspen High School alum who were bold enough to go for a stroll. This is the same Michael Collins who was President and Chief Executive Officer of Big Mountain Resort out of Whitefish, Montana, till he stepped down in 2003. Before that, Aspen Ski Corporation sent him to Whistler, British Columbia in 1978 and he was named as the area planner and project construction manager for the then new Blackcomb ski area. Mike and I did some of what could only be called insane climbing when we were in high school, including an attempt on the east face of 14er Capitol peak, where we turned around when every chunk of rock we could grab became portable. Good memories! My only regret; not hitting Mike up for tickets at Big Mountain when I could have. Oh well, win some, loose some. Nice to see the boy and his great family, as well as others from those school days in the old mining town (when it was actually still somewhat of a mining town)!

Backcountry Skiing

The scene at the top. It looked like people were having fun with all the amusement park like stuff they have up there. Me, I'm happy just bicycle riding, hiking, picnicking or doing photography. During summer, that is. Winter, different story.

Backcountry Skiing

For some unknown reason they display this Gondola cable grip at the unloading station. From an intellectual standpoint, it's amazing you're held 300 feet of the ground by a couple of springs. From a practical standpoint, a bit scary and explains a lot when you look back at the history of cable gondolas.

Backcountry Skiing

Mount Hayden again, the area's signature ski mountaineering peak since the 1940s, good hiking, scrambling and hunting up there as well.

Backcountry Skiing

After riding the ultra modern gondy (or is it gondie?), I took a stroll through a public park at the base of the mountain, where they've got one of the original 1A ski lift chairs still hanging. Somewhat different system than the gondola grip pictured above, eh?

In all, Aspen Skiing Company appears to be making quite an effort to utilize their Aspen Mountain gondola as a summer ammenity. I’d like to see a better system of mountain bike singletrack at the top of the mountain, but then, that’s hard when you’ve got a mix of private and USFS land to deal with. As it is, what they’ve got works and has potential. More info.

Posted by Lou on August 25, 2009 | Filed Under Mountain Culture, Trip Reports 

previous post: Garmont Radium Backcountry Skiing Boots — The New Zealand Review
next post: Pack Review, Flextrek 37,000000000000

Comments

9 Responses to “Summer at Aspen Mountain”

  1. Jack August 25th, 2009 9:38 pm

    Mountains are a great place to be in all seasons, indeed! Our white season mission is often centered around riding two planks in smoke-like snow down from the viewpoint. But, when that ephemeral fluff is absent, just breathing the air and seeing the perspective from the viewpoint is reason enough to go there.

  2. Lou August 25th, 2009 10:19 pm

    Well said!

  3. Kidd August 26th, 2009 8:29 am

    North American ski companies were reluctant to open their lifts outside of ski season until, it seems, American ski co executives went to the Alps and saw that their counterpart companies were getting large ridership in the summer. My first trip to Europe in 1978 was in the summer and we rode a number of lfts up to high alpine meadows of the Alps, a trip I’ll never forget.

  4. bart August 26th, 2009 10:45 am

    I love skiing, both on and off piste. I started on tele’s and skins and just had a blast touring, not really worried too much about the downhill. Clearly things changed, and the ski lifts helped learn the downhill side of things. And now, during the summer, I’m still riding the lifts with my downhill bike. I still ride a ton of XC (did the CT this summer), but I LOVE lift served DH courses too! I’m very thankful for all the resorts that embrace the mountain biking community. For me, Sol Vista has been my biggest supporter!

  5. TreeDodger August 26th, 2009 12:27 pm

    Hey, don’t ‘dis the “1A ski lift chairs”. We’re still using them over at Mad River Glen, VT. No better lift in the world.

  6. John H August 26th, 2009 7:40 pm

    I was in Aspen last week and on my first morning in town I hiked up the Ute Trail and Gent’s Ridge up to the top of Aspen Mountain. Great way to get the legs ready for the week. The gondola ride down was much appreciated, felt well-earned and was free!

  7. Leslie Collins August 31st, 2009 10:30 am

    Hi Lou. Thanks for sharing the picture during our recent trip to Aspen and memories of your earlier days. Michael talks fondly of his youth while in Aspen. It was a pleasure meeting you and Lisa, and thanks for the tour! Leslie

  8. MIchael Collins September 7th, 2009 9:59 pm

    Lou and Lisa,
    Thanks for a great trip to Aspen Mtn, and our HS class reunion. Please consider yourselves invited up to Whitefish, any time. We have lots of room and we would welcome a visit from you. Also, it may spur me on to get my old jeep running and back on the road!
    Let’s stay in touch.
    Michael, Leslie, Grace and Clayton

  9. Lou September 8th, 2009 9:26 am

    Glad you guys saw the blog post! Sure was wonderful to see you all. And yeah, get that Jeep back on the road!

Got something to say?





Anti-Spam Quiz:

:alien: :angel: :angry: :blink: :blush: :cheerful: :cool: :cwy: :devil: :dizzy: :ermm: :face: :getlost: :biggrin: :happy: :heart: :kissing: :lol: :ninja: :pinch: :pouty: :sad: :shocked: :sick: :sideways: :silly: :sleeping: :smile: :tongue: :unsure: :w00t: :wassat: :whistle: :wink: :wub:

Due to comment spam we moderate most comments. Please do not submit your comment twice -- it will appear shortly after we approve it. Once you've had one comment published, your comments will be pre-approved and appear immediately if you're using the same computer and not blocking browser cookies. NOTE however that ALL comments with one or more links in the text will be held for moderation no matter what, again for spam prevention.
Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

All material on this website is copyrighted. Permission required for reproduction, electronic or otherwise. That includes publication and display on other websites by whatever means. PLEASE SEE OUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION.

Backcountry skiing is a dangerous sport. You may be killed or severely injured if you do any form of randone, randonnee and randonnée skiing. The information on this website is intended only as general information. While the authors and editors of the information on this website make every effort to present useful information, due to human error the information, text and images contained within this website may be inaccurate, false, or out-of-date. By using, reading or viewing the information provided on this website, you agree to absolve the owners of Wild Snow as well as content contributors of any liability for injuries or losses incurred while using such information. Furthermore, you agree to use any of this website's information, maps, photos, or binding mounting instructions or templates at your own risk, and waive Wild Snow its owners and contributors of any liability for use of said items for backcountry skiing or any other use.