Aspen, Colorado Is For Stars and Skiers

You're skiing along on a bright sunny day, carefree and happy. Suddenly, a tall white object looms before your eyes. It's a mogul! It's an avalanche! It's Brooke Shields in a color-coordinated ski outfit!

Where else could you be but Aspen?

Over the past several years, this small town located about five hours from Denver has become internationally famous. Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn have a ranch near here. Ivana and Donald Trump had their famous blowup over Marla Maples here. Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith breeze in and out of town.

However, believe it or not, activity in Aspen is not restricted to party-going and star-gazing. After all, Ivana and the Donald had their spat on the slopes, not the dance floor. Despite the recent notoriety, Aspen is still a great place to hit the slopes. And believe it or not, the town is full of people more interested in deep powder than deep gossip.

And what powder it is. Colorado is perhaps the best place to ski, and Aspen is one of Colorado's premier resorts. If you're used to icy Eastern slopes, get prepared to raise your standards.

Here, it's considered a rough day if the temperature drops below ten degrees. When it's been snowing for a while--and rarely does a fortnight go by without snow--the conditions are terrific. Just be sure to avoid getting buried in the loose powder.

What better way to enjoy such conditions than by having a mountain in the middle of town? Aspen Mountain, a.k.a. Ajax, certainly has its share of devotees. During skiing hours, its gondola lift moves slowly but constantly up the steep mountain, taking hundreds of vacationers to the top while blocking off wind and sun.

Once skiers get to the top, they face no small challenge. Ajax is the only mountain in the Aspen area with no easy (green-rated) slopes. Although it has some intermediate (blue) slopes, it is best known for its many dangerous, fascinating expert slopes (eith black and yellow signs). Watch out for the trees.

Beginners may want to avoid Ajax--or at least to proceed with caution. If you feel you just have to say you've skied this behemoth, here's a tip: make a big show of getting on the gondola in the morning, spend the day in Little Nell's drinking hot chocolate, and then quietly ride the gondola down at the end of the day.

Then go to the Red Onion, a well-known club, and brag about your skiing accomplishments. No one will ever know the difference.

However, if you feel you just have to get some real skiing in, try Buttermilk Mountain. It has the shortest black run in the world, the "Wall of Death." Spend ten seconds going straight downhill, head straight back up the adjoining slope before you fall and then tell your friends back home how you survived a black slope.

Buttermilk recently tacked the name of its more difficult far side onto its name, becoming Buttermilk/Tiehack Eventually, the owners hope to drop the Buttermilk and go strictly with Tiehack, thus convincing everyone that Buttermilk is in fact a tough skiing experience.

Sorry. It won't work. But that doesn't mean that Buttermilk isn't fun and exciting. The black Timber Doodle Glade run will certainly quicken your pulse as you maneuver through trees and moguls, cursing the inventor of the ski lift. When you get tired, take a nice, easy green or blue run down to the bottom.

If you want a really low-effort ski trip, you can stay at the Inn at Aspen at the base of Buttermilk, where you can almost literally ski in and ski out. Or you can stay at Snowmass, the largest mountain in the area. Be warned--Snowmass is a separate community on its own, a short drive away from Aspen. Be sure to get a car if you're staying here.

Snowmass is possibly the most well-rounded mountain in the area. Neither especially easy or especially hard, Snowmass has slopes for everyone, from easy greens for the inexperienced to death-defying yellows for the jaded. And it's so large that you can ski all day without seeing any of your traveling companions, if that's what you wish.

One advantage of Aspen is that Ajax, Buttermilk and Snowmass are all run by the same company, the Aspen Skiing Company. Tickets and gear are interchangeable--you can buy a three-day ticket at one place and ski one day at each mountain for no increase in price, if that's what you want.

However, Aspen Highlands, Aspen's fourth mountain, is a law--and an ownership--unto itself. If you plan to travel here, be sure to leave enough money to buy another ticket.

Interestingly enough, although the Highlands aren't considered the easiest slopes around these parts (see Buttermilk, above), they have the reputation as training slopes. Don't be surprised to see a number of small lifts, adorned with groups of three-and-four-year-olds bundled up to the max.

Just remember not to lose your balance when they cheerily ski past you on the Wall, a hellish black slope tastefully adorned with rocks and trees. You're never too young or too short to ski in Aspen.

And if skiing's not your thing at all?

Don't worry--you won't be bored. Aspen has shops. Aspen has art galleries. Aspen has a Hard Rock Cafe and a Boogie's Diner, where you can browse through outrageously priced fashionable clothing while waiting for burgers and fries.

When you're finished, head to the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory for dessert. Just be sure to recycle any paper or plastic--Aspen is enviro-conscious to the max. And don't gawk at celebrities--it isn't polite.

Oh, and one other thing--Aspen is a beautiful town. At night, the snow and icicles glisten and gleam. The houses precariously perched on nearby Red Mountain look like jewels. And, on a clear night, it's not just the streets of Aspen that are filled with stars--the sky more than holds its own.