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Nice work, Aspen City Council

Nice work, City Council

Last week’s Aspen City Council work session, on where a replacement lift for 1A should start, looked for a time like it was going to accept the questionable “qualitative” objections of the proposed-but-unapproved Gorsuch Haus and Aspen Skiing Co.’s bringing a new lift all the way down to Dean Street.

Not so. Council wisely decided to direct the agreed-upon third-party consultants (SE Group) to further study three alternative scenarios to bring access to the mountain meaningfully closer to town.



Even more important, council directed the consultants to take another look at creating a midway loading station near the existing 1A lower terminal.

Good for you, councilors! And even better for Aspen! When all is said and done, we may still not get a new lift with a midway station. But at least a presumably tech-savvy consultant will have weighed in on its feasibility!




If a mid-station is deemed workable based on an impartial, up-to-date analysis based on latest technology, both Gorsuch Haus and Skico — as well as we citizen-skiers — should owe a big vote of thanks to council for pushing the issue. Why? Because it will truly make the west side of the mountain a full-fledged part of town!

It will also allow a continuance of the excellent return skiing on 5th Avenue and also Norway we now enjoy without being forced to ski on down to the Dean Street entrance. That’s good for everyone and still saves the continuation on ski-down to Dean when desired. Win-win, I’d say!

Alexander Biel

Aspen