Aspen's the peak of perfection

It's been the winter that never ends in Aspen, thanks to record snowfall, `epic' conditions and gondolas full of the usual stars

Mar 22, 2008 04:30 AM
Susan Pigg
Associate Travel Editor

ASPEN, COLO.– My first visit to famed Aspen is turning out to be one of those good news, bad news, good news affairs.

Eighteen inches (46 centimetres) of snow has already come down hard today, adding another fluffy layer to what's turned out to be a record season for snow in Colorado. And there's much more champagne powder to come before the slopes close next month.

The bad news is that the weather has messed up flights into this resort town's high-altitude airport. My bag, with all my gear, is stuck in Chicago.

The good news? Lorenzo Semple of Suit Yourself has just shown up at my hotel with a van full of rental outfits that will make me a real standout on the hill – at United Airlines' expense.

I love Aspen already.

"I want gold lamé and fur," jokes a fellow passenger who is similarly suitless, before Semple, a long-time local, shakes his head.

"I keep it real basic. The true, hard-core skiers don't want gold and fur. They just want plain and functional. People save up money to come to Aspen for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. And they want to look like a local."

Seems that old stereotypes about this peak of perfection die hard. There may be lots of cash in Aspen, but surprisingly little real flash, except in store windows and among the faux skiers who will crawl Aspen's steep slopes if they have to, just so they can show up at après-ski in their bling and designer duds, sporting clunky ski boots that serious downhillers abandoned the minute its eight lifts closed.

Aspen remains, at heart, a charming old silver mining town, renowned for celebrity sightings, pricey real estate, chi-chi restaurants and bars where you might luck into a spontaneous performance by singers Seal or Chris Isaak.

But locals live life simply – and smartly, thanks in large part to the town's 58-year-old Aspen Institute, a hotbed of intellectual discussion and debate that can draw environmental activist Al Gore one summer and spiritual leader the Dalai Lama the next.

Aspenites also stick firmly to "the six-inch rule." If there's that much fresh snow overnight, you get the morning off work to hit the slopes.

"I measure the six inches a little differently – on the diagonal," quips Klaus Obermeyer, one of Aspen's true pioneers and inventor of the puffy down jacket, as well as the extensive line of clothing and equipment that bears his name. "It's a great life, particularly for the people who live here, because we can have more of it than the people who just come here on vacation."

Obermeyer, who skis daily, jokes that he's 88, "but I feel like I'm only 87." And while he's credited with turning his mother's old down comforter into the first functional and fashionable slope statement, in the process, he helped put Aspen on the map.

"It was hard to get enough people to come here in the beginning," says Obermeyer, who was stunned by the challenging terrain, the climate (Aspen claims more days of sunshine than Miami) and the perfect powder when he migrated here from Bavaria in 1947, just as Aspen was evolving into a resort town. "They would come for two days and leave because they just couldn't handle it. They were cold, they were sunburned, they couldn't ski in deep snow and there was no grooming. We worked like hell to get celebrities like Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman here and to keep them coming back and to bring their friends.

"And now – now we try to keep them (celebrities) out," he says, in an explosion of laughter.

Back then, après-ski consisted of tea parties in the lobby of the 119-year-old Hotel Jerome, still a local landmark. These days, it's going for a rejuvenating oxygen treatment in the spa of the luxe St. Regis hotel, or hanging out over a Menage-a-Trois Martini at the ultra-cool 39 Degrees bar in the Sky Hotel, which boasts the 3,418-metre Aspen Mountain as its backdrop. If you're brave, or buff enough, you can bring along your bathing suit and soak your aching muscles in the pool or hot tub that steams just outside the bar's floor-to-ceiling windows, steps from a roaring fire.

Locals prefer spots like Belly Up (for its live music) or the bar at The Little Nell, and it's not uncommon to see them downing drinks while their dogs wait patiently outside.

Keeping ahead of the revolving door of hot eateries can be a pricey preoccupation, although the recently opened Social has soared to the No. 1 spot this season, as much for its "global tapas" as its big, round tables (meant to encourage socializing), while contemporary Italian cuisine, and famous regulars such as actor Jennifer Aniston, have helped keep D19 high on visitors' to-dine lists since it opened over a year ago.

But to really celeb spot, you need to be here at Christmas or holidays, when the permanent population of about 7,000 can quadruple and regulars such as singer Seal and his wife Heidi Klum, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Jack Nicholson and Jennifer Lopez take to the streets, the stores and the slopes.

Used to be they'd be treated just like locals, but Hawn has complained even out-of-the-way Aspen isn't the discreet getaway from the paparazzi that it once was.

Try as you may, it's almost impossible not to get caught up in the talent tally. I was embarrassed to find myself text messaging my kids to alert them that I was standing just feet from American Idol winner Taylor Hicks at Aspen airport and that I'd passed filmmaker Steven Spielberg on the street.

"That's a good (sighting). I'm impressed by that," confessed one local. "Everybody wants to know who's here, but the fact is you might never see them."

It would be a crime, of course, to come to Aspen just to shop and stare since the biggest attraction is the mountain that towers over the town. But this isn't a peak for wealthy beginners just dabbling for show. It doesn't have a single beginner green run, although it offers lots of "face shots" of fresh powder for intermediate skiers, and is a dream destination for experts.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, it's not a great place to meet wealthy men. Most are ski or boarding bums who outnumber Aspen's many attractive and savvy women six to one. The discouraging demographics have spawned Aspen jokes such as: "What is a snowboarder without a girlfriend? Homeless."

The men have their jokes, too.

"It's phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal what has happened to Aspen," says Obermeyer, his eyes lighting up as he recalls Aspen's early days. He credits Chicago businessman Walter Paepcke, founder of the Aspen Institute, almost as much as the stunning scenery and temperate climate for transforming a decaying mining town into what remains a magnet for writers, musicians, leaders and intellectuals.

"We're lucky that has happened. It's brought a creative energy to this place and attracted some movers and shakers. You have here what you only get in a big city – except you don't have the downsides of a big city."

But for outfitter Lorenzo Semple, who moved here in 1974, the appeal of Aspen is so much simpler.

"Everybody's been real happy this winter. The skiing's been epic – the best in over 20 years," he says, juggling a handful of outfits and a constantly ringing cell phone as the snow just keeps on falling. "I'll see you guys out there. It's going to be an insane day."

spigg@thestar.ca