by Curtis Wackerle, for the Aspen Daily News (12/29/11)
The Aspen Historical Society is expanding opportunities to learn about area history while skiing local mountains.
For three seasons, the society has offered ski history tours on Aspen Mountain, but this year, the tours are being offered at Snowmass and Aspen Highlands as well.
Aspen Highlands tours are every Monday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., starting at the guest services hut near the Merry-Go-Round restaurant; Snowmass tours are on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., meeting at the top of Sam’s Knob; Aspen Mountain tours are every Friday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. meeting at the guest services hut at the top of the mountain.
Mike Monroney, history coach at the society, has been leading the Aspen Mountain tours since their inception. More so than any of the other mountains, “the mining history is right underneath your feet while you are skiing,” Monroney said of Ajax. The tour focuses on the early development of skiing in Aspen, as well as some of the visible evidence throughout the mountain of the mining days. For example, the tour makes a stop at the Tourtelotte Park run, where there was once a small mining town.
The Aspen Highlands tours goes through that mountain’s history as the one-time “black sheep” of ski hills, which remained independent of the Aspen Skiing Co. until the 1990s. Whip Jones, the mountain’s founder, made a unique mark on the sport, hiring Stein Ericksen to run the ski school in the late 1950s and embracing freestyle skiing early on. Highlands tours are lead by Jane Click.
Snowmass tours take participants up the Big Burn lift to overlook the whole valley. The area’s ranching history, Native American past and the recent ice age discoveries are the focus of the Snowmass tours, led by Alexander Hunter. The tours will work their way down the Sneaky’s side of the Big Burn.
Each tour lasts about an hour, Monroney said, although the length can be tailored to whatever the group wants.
Great write up. It is indeed the chance encounters with friends that can be really enjoyable.