Aspen Mountain has long been known as the playpen of the rich and famous and it is. But it is also a great place to take a family ski vacation. Christmas in Aspen is especially wonderful! Aspen Mountain rises above the town of Aspen, with a top elevation of 11215 feet and a vertical drop of 3269 feet. There are 76 trails suitable for beginners, intermediates, and experts, accessible by eight lifts, including seven chair lifts and one cable car line.
Ski Vacations
The City of Aspen is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. Its population was 6,658 at the 2010 United States Census. It is in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains’ Sawatch Range and Elk Mountains, along the Roaring Fork River at an elevation just below 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level on the Western Slope, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Continental Divide.
Founded as a mining camp during the Colorado Silver Boom and later named Aspen for the abundance of aspen trees in the area, the city boomed during the 1880s, its first decade. The boom ended when the Panic of 1893 led to a collapse of the silver market. For the next half-century, known as “the quiet years”, the population steadily declined, reaching a nadir of fewer than 1000 by 1930. Aspen’s fortunes recovered in the mid-20th century when neighboring Aspen Mountain was developed into a ski resort, and industrialist Walter Paepcke bought many properties in the city in the 1950s and redeveloped them. Today it is home to three institutions, two of which Paepcke helped found, that have international importance: the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Aspen Institute, and the Aspen Center for Physics.
While Aspen has much to offer skiers, as well as those who enjoy the nightlife in a ski town, you should expect lots of crowds and lift lines on the slopes. Again, this is the playpen of the rich and famous, and many people choose this ski vacation spot simply for that reason as well as for the great runs and nightlife.
There are numerous places to stay in and around Aspen, with more than 100 restaurants to choose from as well. Ski instructions and equipment rental are abundant in the area, and snowboarders are welcome.