A big yes to Pandora’s expansion
I support the proposed expansion into Pandora’s on Aspen Mountain. Here’s why:
I moved to Aspen with my family in 1963 … that was before there was a Snowmass Ski Area, when the fastest way up Aspen Mountain was on the cold and lonely single chairlift 1A, and when the Winterskol parade was the highlight of the winter.
A lot has changed since then — big houses, big jets, no more Winterskol parade. What hasn’t changed is that after silver mining, Aspen has remained first and foremost a ski town.
And while it’s been hard at times to live through all the changes, I believe the best changes have been the ones that have occurred at our four magnificent ski areas.
I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be able to ski Highland Bowl top to bottom in the virtual embrace of the most competent ski patrol on the planet! The extension of Steeplechase into Deep Temerity may have been a factor in my needing bilateral knee replacements, but every turn has been worth it!
I don’t remember too much, if any, controversy around those expansions at Highlands. It seems to me the community has wholeheartedly supported them and begged for more!
In their proposed plans, Aspen Skiing Co. will agree to only build a ski lift, a ski patrol shack and related, needed infrastructure in Pandora’s. They are committed to limiting any future options that are allowed in the Ski Rec zone to these simple ski-related necessities, i.e. no restaurant or any of the other many uses allowed in the Ski Rec zone.
The only reason you could call a new ski patrol hut a commercial enterprise is if the stakes in a poker game or football poll get too high and money won and lost needs to be laundered or invested!
Aspen is a ski town. Let’s act like one.
Pat Bingham
Carbondale
