The Ski Issue

A new volume, and we open it the way we opened the last — in winter, this time in Colorado. Aspen is a former silver-mining town at 8,000 feet that struck a second fortune as a ski resort, and it still has the brick streets and the Victorian opera house to show for the first one. Four separate mountains ring the valley, one small walkable town anchors it, and January sits in the heart of the season.

The four mountains are really four different days. Aspen Mountain — Ajax — rises straight from the end of the main street, steep and without a single beginner run; Aspen Highlands is the locals' powder mountain; Buttermilk is the gentle one, and home to the winter X Games; and Snowmass, a few miles down the road, is the vast, family-scaled giant. One lift ticket covers all four, and a free bus runs between them.

So the where-to-stay question is unusually simple, and unusually expensive. Aspen's real gift is that you can sleep in a proper town — bookshops, restaurants, a life beyond the lifts — and still ski in and out; the slopeside places suit hard-charging skiers, the town hotels suit everyone who also wants dinner and a walk, and Snowmass is the easier base for families.

The last decision is the table. The après scene is loud and fun and books out; the quieter, better dinners are a reservation you make before you arrive, not after the last run. And for a calm half-day away from all of it, drive up-valley to the ghost town of Ashcroft and the groomed cross-country tracks under the peaks.

— Vivienne Hartwell, Editor-in-Chief