Letter: The beauty of 1A

Great column about the Lift 1A area by Mr. Lo Semple in last Saturday’s Aspen Daily News (“Lift 1A and metamorphosis”). I agree with him that despite the opinions of certain members of FIS and officers of Aspen Skiing Co., this area really isn’t broken and shouldn’t be fixed.

On the contrary, I think it should be preserved as a monument to the history of skiing in Aspen. I love everything about this area from parking and walking up the hill to the funky locker room/restroom building to the great skiing on this side of the mountain and, yes, even the lift itself.

Back in the day, before the gondola, we used to ski the 1A area often to avoid the lift lines that plagued the rest of the mountain. These days, hardly anybody skis there, which is one of the things that makes it so attractive. This area is like a beautiful woman who nobody notices because she doesn’t go out of her way to dress herself up. But when you see her with her hair down and get to know her, you can’t believe how blind you’ve been and how lucky you are that she is really yours. As is evident from all the recent controversy, beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder.

It has become obvious that redevelopment of the 1A area is inevitable. After all, you can’t stand in the way of progress, at least not here in Aspen. In the meantime we have to hope that we will be able to enjoy her charms for a little while longer.

Now, if they would just run the Bell Mountain lift more often.

Mike Petrie

Basalt