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Aspen Highlands, one of Aspen One’s four world-class ski areas, is currently seeking approvals from the Forest Service for its 2025 Master Development Plan. The roughly 10-year plan outlines proposed upgrades over the next decade. Most notably, this plan includes a two-stage gondola that would start in the base area, make a stop at the Merry-Go-Round restaurant, and continue to Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro, rising 2,700 vertical feet. The gondola would significantly enhance uphill capacity from the base area and provide opportunities for skiing on the upper mountain when the lower mountain is bare or melted out.
The plan cited reliance on the Exhibition Lift to get skiers out of the base area and spread across the mountain as the main cause of crowding there and as one of the more significant operational challenges. The Exhibition Lift is currently 31 years old, and any mechanical issues can have a drastic impact on ski area operations. The current uphill capacity for the Exhibition Lift is 1,800 people per hour, and the new gondola would have a capacity of 2,400 people per hour, boosting capacity by more than 30%.
In addition to the gondola, Aspen Highlands is proposing a new detachable quad chairlift called Apple Strudel that would allow skiers to lap mid-mountain cruisers without returning all the way to the base area. An upgrade is also planned for the Thunderbowl Lift, which currently does not connect skiers to any other lift on the mountain. Between the Thunderbowl and the Apple Strudel Lifts, skiers could reach the rest of the mountain without having to take the gondola.
With increased uphill capacity to both the famed Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro and the Merry-Go-Round Restaurant, Aspen One is planning expansions of both dining facilities. The Merry-Go-Round Restaurant will add an additional 5,000 square feet of space, and Cloud Nine will see an expanded deck and the addition of another bar and food pickup window.
Notably, the plan did not include any upgrades or expansion of parking infrastructure. The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority provides bus service to Aspen Highlands and the other three Aspen ski areas, and the plan intends to continue to encourage use of the bus service. The plan noted, “In 2018, ASC supported the successful passage of a valley-wide mill levy property tax that provides a sustainable revenue source for RFTA, enabling investments in capital improvements and fare subsidies to encourage transit use. ASC is the largest single contributor to this tax and will continue to serve as an active proponent of and contributor to effective investments in the RFTA system.”
Aspen Highlands could see an expansion in summer activities, especially after the completion of the gondola, but those activities would be limited to hiking and on-mountain dining. The plan proposed the construction of two cable suspension bridges, spanning Loge Bowl and connecting Picnic Point to Bob’s Knob. Guided hunting trips were also proposed within the special use permit area. Few details were given, beyond a brief statement saying hunting would be separated from other summertime activities.
Aspen has dreamed of using gondolas or trams to connect its ski areas for decades. While there are no explicit plans proposed in this master plan, Aspen wrote that “United States Forest Service and Pitkin County are aware of ASC’s long term thinking and would like to bring the collaborative process of studying what steps would be needed to execute on this vision in the future, without engaging in any formal approval or disapproval analysis through this MDP document.” The plan also mentioned that gondolas are being considered by some in Roaring Fork Valley, including the Transportation Coalition for the 21st Century, as a way to mitigate traffic over the long term.
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The master plan submitted to the Forest Service will not grant any approvals to any specific projects, nor does it lock Aspen Highlands into pursuing all of the proposed projects. Indeed, there are several outstanding projects that have never been pursued from the 1997 Master Plan. Each project proposed in the master plan must undergo a formal approval process, including some form of environmental review, but master plans are a way to start the conversation and allow the Forest Service to provide feedback on a broader vision of where Aspen One wants to take Aspen Highlands over the next decade.
