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For a city type in Aspen, just to breathe is a joy. The piney-sweet air seems to come from some better, purer world.
This Colorado town is more than a ski resort, and is not just for winter. It’s one of those places full of people from other places, who came for a ski season — lured, maybe, by John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High — and decided they didn’t need to see Atlanta, Minneapolis or Cleveland ever again. “I still pinch myself every day,” says a woman who is never going back to Chicago.
Suddenly the name “Colorado” makes sense. In June when the snow finally melts, the mountains come out in rainbows, from dark pines to iron-ore red, with green meadows, blue granite walls and mauve and yellow wildflowers. The town was named for its aspen trees (recently discovered to be not individual plants but vast macroorganisms connected underground), whose dim green leaves go yellow almost overnight in early September — “like someone switched on the lights”.
Aspen is high country, and not just since Colorado legalised recreational marijuana in 2014. Some 30km away is the Continental Divide, the line that determines whether a falling raindrop will end up in the Atlantic or the Pacific. The town itself sits at 2400m, the level where altitude sickness can kick in for some people — so don’t go haring up a mountain on your first day. Take some time to acclimatise: walk the luxury boutique-lined streets, visit the Shigeru Ban-designed art museum, peruse the wares of the Green Dragon or Silverpeak, and learn a bit about the town.
Take a walking or cycling tour courtesy of the Aspen Historical Society, or visit the Hotel Jerome, once the grandest in the west. Beautifully restored, it is a history lesson in hotel form — there’s a US flag on the wall with 38 stars, sewn when Colorado was declared the 38th state. At the cosy J Bar, haunt of Hunter S. Thompson, order an Aspen Crud, a Prohibition-era bourbon milkshake that tastes a heck of a lot better than it sounds.
The Roaring Fork Valley is Ute country (the native Americans who give Utah its name), with signs of habitation going back 6000 years. Where Aspen sits was a summer hunting ground, but the Ute were driven off to reservations after the first whites moved in in 1879 to mine silver, which then backed the dollar. Within 15 years the town was going gangbusters, with 16,000 people, a hospital, banks, a theatre and an opera house. But the party ended in 1893 when the government abruptly wound back its silver purchase, the town declined, and by 1930 there were just 700 people left.
World War II was a turning point: soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, trained here for combat in Alpine Europe, returned to the US and developed ski facilities. But the most credit for the re-founding of Aspen goes to Walter Paepcke, a Chicago industrialist who came to town in the 40s when there was only one paved road. Not only did he establish the Aspen Skiing Company, still in operation, which built the first chairlift and other ski infrastructure. He also set a design tone for Aspen, with his patronage of Bauhaus architects Herbert Bayer and László Moholy-Nagy, and fostered an ethos of “mind, body, spirit” — not in the New Age crystals-and-candles way, but in the sense of education, physical activity and cultural endeavour.
In 1949 Walter and his wife Elizabeth held a 200th birthday celebration for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an intellectual and artistic gathering attended by the philosophers José Ortega y Gasset and Albert Schweitzer, pianist Arthur Rubinstein and writer Thornton Wilder, among others. This project grew into the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies (now the Aspen Institute) and the prestigious Aspen Music Festival and School.
Nina Campianelli from the historical society says this culture dates right back to when the town was nothing but a few tents in the snows of 1880-81. The upright Victorian women of the settlement not only kept an eye on morals, but set up a glee club and other forms of clean, edifying entertainment. The community feeling that Aspenites are so proud of today stems from this, she says, as well as from the extreme difficulty of getting in and out, which spared the town a lot of Wild West shenanigans: “You can’t just ride in, rob a bank and leave,” says Campianelli, who gives us a tour of the town dressed in her finest Victorian gown and bonnet; no one stares.
Now that you’re acclimatised and fully briefed, there are endless ways to enjoy the great outdoors — and people here are outrageously outdoorsy, thinking nothing of running up Aspen mountain before breakfast. You can hike a fourteener (a peak over 14,000ft, or 4300m); cycle the dramatic Rio Grande Trail; go mountain or dirt biking through the wild open vistas on Richmond Ridge. Stargaze in the clear night sky; salute the sun with morning yoga at the top of Aspen mountain; admire the scenery while standing in a fast-flowing river untying knots, also known as fly fishing (the Roaring Fork is full of trout, we are told — they are just a bit shy). Photographers, take a dawn drive out to the Maroon Bells and get in position to capture the first rays hitting the peaks.
The best base for adventures, whether in winter or summer, is The Little Nell, a luxury ski-in, ski-out hotel (the only one in town) at the foot of Aspen Mountain, just metres from the gondola. Its ski concierge/adventure centre will organise and kit you out for all of the expeditions above, and more. The staff are passionate about their sporting pursuits — and in a town where many work several jobs to survive, it’s still hard to shake the feeling that they come to work mostly for fun. (The Nell feels like a good place to work in general. Its Australian manager Simon Chen has been known to kick out guests who are rude to his employees.)
The Little Nell sits where the old ore railway used to run, which also happens to be the site of the first red-light district. The hotel is reputedly named, like a nearby silver claim and ski run, for the proprietress of one of the erstwhile brothels.
The accommodation today resembles a Victorian brothel in no way whatsoever, with warm, modern design by Holly Hunt, all clean surfaces and cream and chocolate tones — no mounted moose heads or other mountain kitsch here. There are 52 guest rooms, 26 premium guest rooms, eight suites and six “signature” suites, the finest and largest being the Paepcke Suite (at 230sq m for one bedroom, expandable to three). Guest rooms start at 55sq m, are serviced twice daily, and all come with gas fireplaces and most with balconies. Smart technology starts heating the room when you check in, and all artwork and furniture in the suites is original and one-off. Dogs seem to be compulsory in Aspen — you may sit next to one as you fly in — and the Nell literally caters for them with a pet menu.
A short hop from the hotel are the Residences, fractionally owned in 1/8th shares. These palatial four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom dwellings are so large you could get lost in one for days, and so opulent you wouldn’t be too bothered if you did. Each has a huge and well-appointed kitchen, and a chef and sommelier are provided for entertaining. If you do find your way out, on top of the building is Aspen’s only rooftop pool.
As cosy as it is, you’ll want to leave your room eventually, and to get out and about in that sweet mountain air. For a real eyeful of scenery, the Nell will organise a private open-roof Jeep tour of the back country. These tours come in a two- or four-hour version; take the longer one if you can — but be sensible the night before, as it has to be one of the rockiest roads on the planet. Should you find yourself the worse for wear, as a penitent WISH did, it’s still worth every bump and joggle for the breathtaking panoramas and chance to sight black bear (the vegetarian kind), moose (much scarier), elk, marmot, chipmunk and pika, a little woodland creature so cute that Pixar couldn’t improve on it.
Another way to learn about nature and wildlife is through the Aspen Centre for Environmental Studies. With a large, pristine reserve a few minutes’ walk from town, this member-supported centre educates local children in eco-literacy, runs summer camps, and hosts trail walks and snowshoeing tours of the area. Naturalist Bobby de Marinis becomes particularly effusive on the subject of wildflowers: “No matter what time you come in summer you’re going to see an amazing array of wildflowers,” he says. “It’s such a treat for me to take people out and show them that mountain of colour.”
The golden eagle with its 3m wingspan, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl, mule deer, mountain goat and, extremely rarely, mountain lion are among the wildlife you might spot here. Oh, and beaver. Don’t laugh: weighing up to 50kg, these formidable beasts can chew through a 20cm-thick aspen trunk in a few minutes, before lugging the tree off through the snow. Visit the ACES YouTube channel for video evidence.
At the end of an active day, Aspen offers many options to unwind, with restaurants including Matsuhisa by the chef behind Nobu, a regular visitor. The Little Nell, as well as several buzzy bars, has two of the best nosheries in town: the laidback Ajax Tavern, with an open patio and a strong game in seafood, burgers and truffle fries; and Element 47 (a nod to the metal that put Aspen on the map) for fine dining, cocktails brewed tableside and a 22,000-bottle wine cellar.
Element 47 takes its wine program very seriously, and claims to have turned out more master sommeliers than any other establishment through its training program. Chief sommelier Carlton McCoy favours Burgundy above all, but maintains a wide variety and range, whether you want a modest glass, a half-bottle or a $US12,000 Mouton Rothschild with your lunch.
The “off” season in Aspen is already no secret to Americans — Chen says the Nell’s occupancy rates are the same in summer as in the winter peak. Highlights for the sport and music fan include, respectively, Ruggerfest (rugby is growing in popularity in the US) and the Aspen Music Festival and School, whose eight-week summer program glitters with world-renowned soloists and ensembles. Our group landed in town in time to catch superstar violinist Pinchas Zukerman play Bruch with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, followed by a Bruckner symphony that nearly took the roof off the Benedict Music Tent. This structure, twice rebuilt since the original was commissioned by Paepcke in 1949, seats 2050, and its acoustics generously allow those sitting on the grass outside to hear the performance as well.
Sourse: theaustralian.com.au
