Aspen Opening

Aspen opening weekend – the place to be
George Raptis

Most mountain towns would settle for snow on the ground, switching the lifts on and shooting a few fireworks to ring in opening weekend. But Aspen/Snowmass isn’t just any mountain town.

Not content with Thanksgiving (see turkeys skiing down hill on opening day), concerts, food festivals, and Snowmass opening a week early, Aspen began its season with the traditional ‘Winternational’ – the US stop on the Women’s FIS World Cup Tour.

Aspen was buzzing this past weekend, welcoming large crowds for the opening of Aspen Mountain with blue skies that didn’t disappear for the entire holiday weekend. Visitors and locals alike weren’t disappointed, with opportunities to meet their US ski team heroes at the official Winternational Party at Limelight Lodge, where hundreds queued for a sight of their favourite racers, as well as local snow personalities Chris Davenport and Chris Klug who entertained the crowd with commentating duties all weekend.

On the hill, the talk of Aspen was third placed giant slalom racer Julia Mancuso, who stole the hearts of spectators with her performance ranking her the first US skier to land on the podium in Aspen for seven seasons. The gold medals for the weekend went to German Viktoria Rebensburg in the giant slalom and Austrian Marlies Schild in the slalom, with several racers, including US favourite Lindsay Vonn, struggling to battle technical courses in varying light conditions. Crowds filled the stands early on both race days, leaving those who chose to ride the slopes with pick of early season snow that has blanketed Aspen since October, as well as a deserved après drink for making first tracks.

In Aspen Town, crowds were treated to the first of several Bud Light Concert events, this one featuring Cowboy Mouth, who kept the energy high and Aspen’s party mood flowing. If the first event is anything to go by, these concerts will be the place to be all season!

On top of the foreign invasion of ski racers, Aspen’s season-long international flavour can already be seen and heard around town, with many Australians, Kiwis and South Africans arriving for work, shredding the slopes and partying, although priorities of those activities may lie in the reverse order!

Aspen is definitely delivering the goods early in the new season, and with a solid base already forming, snow forecast for early December should have all four mountains pumping in no time!

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Aspen Snowmass.

You can keep in touch with the author at Twitter: oneaspenwinter