PARK CITY, Utah — The World Cup circuit will be making two more ski racing stops in the United States by adding Alpine events at Palisades Tahoe in California and Aspen, Colorado. U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the new competitions Tuesday, which will join two American stops already on the schedule: Killington, Vermont, and Beaver […]
Aspen
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Outdoors
A Colorado camp connecting deaf students to the outdoors is reemerging from the brink of collapse
OLD SNOWMASS — With towering Aspen trees that catch every breeze from the Elk Mountains and water that cascades over giant rocks along Snowmass Creek, Aspen Camp of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is a calming refuge tucked away from the bustle of nearby resort towns. Yet for all the serenity it offers campers, […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outsider
The source of Colorado’s high country housing crisis: a doubling of home prices and sales
The rules are changing in the high country. As the labor crisis lingers, community leaders are beginning to address the root cause of the challenges that are strangling mountain valleys. They are cracking down on short-term rentals. Redirecting the flow of tax dollars toward affordable housing. Adjusting economies anchored in tourism to focus on residents, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Pritchett: Conservation from 1,500 feet reveals an important — if slightly unnerving — perspective
We all have our favorite “little-engine that could” nonprofits—the ones not on most people’s radar, not the Red Cross or UNICEF, but rather the little fellas doing enormous work. My favorite actually has little engines, housed in a few Cessnas, and a few little dogs to boot. EcoFlight is the one for me, not only […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The true cause of Colorado’s resort housing crunch can be found in the mirror
Ski towns across the state are facing an out-of-control housing crisis that has driven families away and kept new families from moving to Colorado’s resort counties. It’s easy to blame vacation homes and AirBNBs for the housing crunch, but the real cause is much simpler: There just isn’t enough housing. Why not? Because ski-town residents […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
It has been 20 years since snowboarders were allowed on Aspen Mountain following a “big stink”
By Andrew Travers, The Aspen Times ASPEN — It was billed as a generational battle, as an on-mountain culture clash, a safety hazard and “the end of Ajax.” But when the Aspen Skiing Co. finally opened Aspen Mountain to snowboarders on April 1, 2001 and then for the 2001-02 season, the result was an anti-climactic […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Aspen area seeing a rise in bike crashes — and an increasing portion are with e-bikes
By Laurine Lassalle, Aspen Journalism Pitkin County and Aspen have been seeing an increase in bike and e-bike accidents over the past five years, according to data from Pitkin County Open Space and Trails and the Aspen Police Department. As a result, Aspen Valley Hospital’s trauma department is seeing more patients with severe bike injuries […]
Posted inHousing, News
Aspen suspends new home construction permits as it drops the hammer in the name of affordability
Aspen’s city council this week stopped issuing not just short-term rental permits, but permits for all home construction as the city struggles with a critical lack of affordable housing and the increasing use of homes by vacationers. A moratorium, passed unanimously by emergency ordinance Wednesday night after two meetings in two days, goes beyond suspending […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Transportation
The Aspen Police Department wants $300,000 to try out Tesla cop cars
By Jason Auslander, The Aspen Times The Aspen Police Department has an idea that not only harkens back to the agency’s old days of Saab patrol cars, it helps combat climate change. They want the Aspen City Council to spend $311,000 on five new, all-electric Teslas for police administrators with an eye toward replacing the […]
Posted inOutdoors
PHOTOS: Aspen groves paint a technicolor masterpiece in the Roaring Fork Valley
ASPEN — The first snow of the season dusted the Elk Mountains above Aspen on Saturday, providing an early glimpse of winter as chill sneaked into glowing aspen forests. For the last two weeks, aspen trees in the Roaring Fork Valley have exploded in dazzling hues, ranging from neon yellow to pale red. Some groves […]