Aspen trip includes days you dream of for couple doing website ‘job’

Andrew Muse, Ashley LaMarre and their 4-year-old golden retriever Kicker are living the Aspen dream, for the week, at least.

The Park City, Utah-based couple and their adventurous dog won a dream job through Ski.com exploring Aspen and Snowmass and have been in town since Monday.

“I love it,” LaMarre said Friday of the time they’ve spent in town so far. “I love the variety of just the different mountains here. Skiing Snowmass to start, how big and open it was and then Highlands yesterday, doing the bowl, that was such a cool experience to be able to go out in a resort and do that.”

Through the Ski.com dream job, Muse, LaMarre and Kicker are in town through Sunday, getting treated to an all-expense paid VIP tour of Aspen and Snowmass doing activities such as Snowmobiling at T-Lazy-7 Ranch, hiking Highland Bowl and experiencing the après-ski scene.

This is the first time the couple has been to Aspen-Snowmass in the winter, and for LaMarre it is her first time skiing in Colorado.

“I was nervous coming out here because I’ve only been skiing again for two years, so I’m not the strongest skier,” said LaMarre, who is originally from Michigan and moved to Park City two years ago.

“I was afraid (Aspen) being such a stuffy stigma that people would be like, ‘Ugh, she can’t ski,’ but it’s been really great, everyone has been so willing to help me improve.”

Muse also said he was pleasantly surprised to find the community in Aspen so friendly and low key.

“Hearing about Aspen and it being this very kind of stuffy reputation, I’ve been blown away by how down to Earth and cool everybody’s been,” he said.

“Everyone we’ve worked with from the Ski.com crew, from the Aspen crew, everyone’s just super cool, we have so much in common with everybody. That’s been like the biggest surprise for me honestly, the stigma Aspen has versus the reality of it, everyone is awesome.”

Muse, a content creator and social media influencer along with his dog Kicker (@kickerdogmuse), and LaMarre, a content creator on her blog, The Unexpected Adventuress, are one of six duos Aspen-based Ski.com chose out of the more than 1,500 dream job applicants to explore some of the highest profile ski destinations in the world and document their experience.

“It’s just an amazing opportunity to get to experience a new place at such a high level,” Muse said. “I grew up back east pretty poor and moved west to pursue my dreams of living my life in the mountains. Being able to have an experience like this and an opportunity to experience Aspen at such a high level is amazing.”