{"id":2457059,"date":"2020-04-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=324020"},"modified":"2020-04-11T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T15:00:00","slug":"aspen-history-easter-on-the-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-history-easter-on-the-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen History: Easter on the Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One b\/w 2.25″ negative and photograph (contact) of the Easter Sunrise Service on top of Aspen Mtn. There is a large crowd of people, a single person in front of the crowd and, to the right, a smaller group of people, probably singing. Tracks in the snow can be seen as well. In the background three crosses can be seen, 1951-. (this event first happened in 1951)<\/strong>
Ringquist; Loey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On March 15, 1951, The Aspen Times announced the first annual Easter Sunrise Service at the top of Aspen Mountain. As the paper noted, \u201cHigh atop Ajax Mountain, at the terminal of the world\u2019s longest chair lift, residents and guests in Aspen, Colorado, will greet the Easter morn at sunrise service, Sunday, March 25, at an altitude of 11,300 feet. Night will still be in the valley as service-goers take their chairs on the ski lift for the half-hour ride up the mountain, amid the quiet of wakening birds and stirring branches. Gathering on the open meadow south of the Sundeck, the group will wait for the first darts of the sun to pierce the sky above Independence Pass on the Continental Divide. Probably at no other point in the world will Easter be greeted from such heights. Following the Easter Sunrise Service, an Easter Breakfast will be served at the Sundeck, and as the morning sun lights the slopes, those who have attended the services may ride back down the mountain on the chair lift, or make an earlier-than-usual ski run to the valley below.\u201d This image shows one of the early Sunrise Services on Aspen Mountain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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