This week in Aspen history

“Aspen Mt. lifts jinxed from Sunday-Tuesday this week,” stated the Aspen Times on Jan. 12, 1962.

“With a tower damaged in an accident Sunday, high winds on Monday and a power outage Tuesday, the Aspen Skiing Corp., operator of the lifts on Aspen Mt., had its troubles this week. Actually problems began early Sunday morning when the No. 2 chairlift from Midway to the Sundeck was started. A chair was damaged when it caught on a tower. The chair was removed and operation continued.  No one was on the lift at the time. The second accident involving two chairs and a tower on the No. 3 tram, which also services the top part of the mountain, was more serious. A heavy, ice-coated telephone wire which hangs between up and down cables was blown by high winds into the path of a down chair and became tangled in the chair. The chair then struck a tower near the upper bowl on the Dipsey Doodle trail. An unoccupied up chair hit the tower at the same time. Lift riders near the tower were severely jolted and several were thrown out of chairs.  The only injuries were to Miss Jane Brinkman, social science teacher at Aspen High School, who received a torn knee ligament and to Ben Bank, an employee of the Sundeck, who broke his wrist. Both fell from chairs. Ski Corp. president D.R.C. Brown said Thursday he expected that the damaged tower would be repaired by Monday and that the lift would resume operation then.” This image shows skiers riding up Lift #3 on Aspen Mountain, 1965.