{"id":2447836,"date":"2019-08-21T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=311608"},"modified":"2019-08-21T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T03:00:00","slug":"kaplan-pandoras-terrain-expansion-needed-to-keep-aspen-mountain-relevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/kaplan-pandoras-terrain-expansion-needed-to-keep-aspen-mountain-relevant\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaplan: Pandora\u2019s terrain expansion needed to keep Aspen Mountain relevant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
This image from Aspen Skiing Co.’s application to the U.S. Forest Service shows the proposed Pandora chairlift and tree skiing terrain south of the lift.<\/strong>
Courtesy image<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Several Aspen Skiing Co. executives \u2014 including President and CEO Mike Kaplan \u2014 made impassioned pitches to the Pitkin County commissioners Wednesday for approval of the first terrain expansion on Aspen Mountain since 1985.<\/p>\n

Kaplan said Skico\u2019s goal is to \u201cstay in business forever\u201d by being both a great steward of the environment and keeping pace with trends in the ski industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really critical for us to stay relevant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aspen Mountain is a great ski area, Kaplan said, but customers\u2019 expectations change, so Skico has to evolve with them. The company has applied to expand into the Pandora\u2019s area, which has been in the ski area permit boundary for decades but not in the operational boundary.<\/p>\n

Skico wants to add roughly 180 acres of skiable terrain in glades and traditional ski runs on the upper east side of Aspen Mountain. The new terrain would be to skier\u2019s right of the existing Walsh\u2019s trail. A new chairlift would be added essentially straight down the fall line from Walsh\u2019s. That would allow the downhill extension of Walsh\u2019s, Kristi and Hyrup\u2019s terrain.<\/p>\n

Skico also wants to expand the snowmaking system by 53 acres at the mountaintop so that an annual opening could be guaranteed at Thanksgiving with skiing centered on the Ajax Express lift. The current snowmaking system ends about three-quarters of the way up the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage you to take the long view. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cI encourage you to know we\u2019re serious about doing this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skico also has proposed various other conceptual projects in a proposed update to the Aspen Mountain Master Plan.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service approved the Aspen Mountain projects in March. Pitkin County is now engaged in a thorough review, with a vote possible as soon as Aug. 28. The Pandora\u2019s expansion has been contemplated for about 25 years. Skico formally applied for the project 2\u00bd years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular version has been studied and studied and studied, first at the federal level and now at the county level,\u201d Kaplan said.<\/p>\n

The last time terrain was added on Aspen Mountain was 1985 when Walsh\u2019s and adjacent trails were added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d ask you to think about Aspen Mountain without the Walsh\u2019s area,\u201d Kaplan said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Greg Poschman asked Kaplan if Skico considered adding the terrain and having the ski patrol monitor it but not adding a chairlift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can save you $10 million on a lift if you didn\u2019t put a lift in,\u201d Poschman said.<\/p>\n

Kaplan said the use wouldn\u2019t be high enough without a chairlift to justify the expense of adding and maintaining the additional terrain.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Steve Child proposed a similar concept. He suggested adding the terrain but aligning the lift so that it unloaded passengers on the existing Northstar Trail. Chair 7, affectionately known as \u201cThe Flying Couch,\u201d could be upgraded to get passengers uphill faster, he said.<\/p>\n

A public hearing was held on the proposal and audience members who spoke were overwhelmingly in favor of the expansion and snowmaking. Several speakers from families with a prominent role in Aspen skiing history urged approval of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what they\u2019re doing is over the top and much needed, especially the snowmaking,\u201d David Stapleton said.<\/p>\n

Endorsements also came from Dave Durrance, whose father Dick was instrumental in getting the ski area started, and Olympic snowboarder and Aspen native Chris Klug.<\/p>\n

Another speaker, Maria Morrow, said the debate boils down to evolve or die. Aspen shouldn\u2019t be incapacitated by the idea of expansion, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a drastic change,\u201d Morrow said.<\/p>\n

The additional terrain will freshen the experience on the famed mountain, she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of glade skiing on Aspen Mountain is heaven,\u201d Morrow said.<\/p>\n

When the White River National Forest conducted its analysis, it determined Aspen Mountain has one of the lowest percentages of gladed skiing<\/a> of the numerous ski areas in the forest.<\/p>\n

A handful of speaker urged the commissioners to deny the project.<\/p>\n

John Doyle questioned if more terrain is necessary when there are already four ski areas in the upper Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

Skico\u2019s proposal to rezone land to allow for the Pandora\u2019s expansion was approved in the first of two required hearings by the commissioners June 26 by a 2-1 vote<\/a>. It was approved by Poschman and Commissioner George Newman and opposed by Child. Commissioner Patti Clapper has recused herself from voting on Aspen Mountain issues because her son-in-law works for Skico. Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury missed the earlier meeting due to the birth of her child. She was at Tuesday\u2019s meeting but didn\u2019t give any definitive clues on her direction.<\/p>\n

The hearing was continued to Aug. 28.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This image from Aspen Skiing Co.’s application to the U.S. Forest Service shows the proposed Pandora chairlift and tree skiing terrain south of the lift.Courtesy image Several Aspen Skiing Co. executives \u2014 including President and CEO Mike Kaplan \u2014 made impassioned pitches to the Pitkin County commissioners Wednesday for approval of the first terrain expansion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 12:25:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}