The wonderful thing about going to Aspen is that if you come back the next year, it’s almost like rolling up to a new ski resort. You’ll still have your quintessential Aspen go-tos, but you could also bed down at a new hotel, dine at one of many new restaurants on and off the mountain, visit a new spa or even head down a new ski run. Here are just a few fresh additions from the 23/24 season.
New Hotel
The newly refurbished Aspen Meadows Resort is old again. Built in Bauhaus style in the 1950s as the accommodations for the Aspen Institute complex, the buildings and rooms had been updated over the years but had lost much of that authentic aesthetic. In the latest and grandest renovations of the resort, the rooms have been decked out in warm wood layers and accentuated in bold Bauhaus primary colours. Add in midcentury modern furniture, including Saarinen tulip tables and Bertoia bird chairs, and it’s like sleeping in a modernist masterpiece. Last season also saw the opening of the new West End Social restaurant, where the enticingly eclectic menu is divided up into Water, Earth + Sun, Flour + Love, and Land.
New Restaurant
Is this an après ski bar or a restaurant? It’s hard to tell because by dinner time, most of the après ski crowd hasn’t left. The new Boat Tow is buzzing, although that may have a bit to do with the happy hour (with half-price cocktails) that goes for three hours. But there’s also the upscaled après fare, including charred zucchini dip and crispy brussels sprouts with truffle honey and chilli flakes. If you have room left for dinner you can’t miss the charred cauliflower banh mi or the delectable curried salmon.
New Spa Experience
What you need before a hard day of skiing is a Mountain Metamorphosis. No, that doesn't mean transforming into a mountain goat, it’s a treatment from the brand-new spa and fitness centre at beloved hotel The Little Nell. The Mountain Metamorphosis involves a salt-infused infrared sauna session to prime the body and boost the respiratory system. It’s one of many therapeutic treatments offered at the region’s only ski-in/ski-out luxury spa at the base of Aspen Mountain. If a pre-prep doesn’t help you ski better, then at least the post-ski recovery session will make your body feel better.
New On-Mountain Restaurant
Where else but Aspen is on-mountain dining more caviar and wagyu than pizza and hamburgers. There is something delightfully decadent about refuelling at lunch on chicken cordon bleu with a mustard beurre blanc, a glass of Moët & Chandon in hand, while wearing slippers. The former Gwyn’s High Alpine Restaurant at the top of the Alpine Springs lift on Snowmass is now The Alpin Room, under the stewardship of new chef Emily Oyer. The menu is predominantly Alsatian, with a nod to French, Swiss and Austrian fare. Finish with one of the frighteningly good desserts, including Alsatian-style beignets and black forest cake, and you’ll be rolling down the mountain after lunch.
New Après Ski Bar
They do après ski different in Aspen. At the new Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge, which is a short walk from bottom of the Shadow Mountain ski lift, you can sit at a copper-and-wood panelled bar sipping a glass of America’s most awarded single malt whisky, while grazing on a Colorado lamb flatbread with roasted tomatoes, feta and mint hot honey. If it wasn’t for the backdrop of majestic mountains through soaring windows, you could be in the latest place to be seen in New York City. It’s only all the people wearing ski boots that gives it away. If your legs are feeling a bit wobbly after skiing Aspen Mountain all day, then the flight of four different whiskeys will fix you up.
New Ski Area
Aspen Mountain just got 20 per cent bigger. The new Hero’s ski area has added more than 21 new runs and 61 hectares of chutes, glades and trails. Plus, there's a shiny new, high-speed quad chairlift that whips you to the top in minutes. This is the first significant expansion at Aspen since the 1985 addition of the Silver Queen Gondola. It’s mostly rated double-black diamond, which made me a very happy camper as I spent a busy morning lapping the steep, wide bowls and dancing through the glades. We pretty much had the slopes to ourselves, and this season there will be even more trails as more extensive tree-clearing took place over the summer.
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