According to Maureen Poschman, PR Director for Aspen Chamber Resort Association, “The town’s going to be packed. When it was the Coors Classic the town was packed. We don’t know how packed it’s going to be. One of the things I say to the restaurants is you need to be ready to capacity but then maybe also do kind of take out table to whatever. Some restaurants may be doing prix fixes. A lot of restaurants have a menu called a bar menu. If you sit at the bar you can eat much less expensively but still have the quality of a great restaurant.”
From 1879 to 1893, Aspen established itself as a bustling silver-mining town, and the foundation laid during this period brought far more than glittering riches. Grid-patterned streets, historic facades, Victorian residences and cultural landmarks including the Hotel Jerome and Wheeler Opera House were built to support the 12,000 residents who lived here in the late 1880s, giving the town the sense of timeless character it still has today.
When silver was demonetized in 1893, Aspen entered its “quiet years,” but emerged when another valuable resource was discovered: snow. With a charming infrastructure already in place, visionaries began to imagine ski runs on the surrounding peaks. World War II slowed the process, but the 10th Mountain Division trained nearby, and ski trooper Friedl Pfeifer vowed to return during peacetime. In 1945, Walter Paepcke, a Chicago industrialist, and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Aspen and decided the area’s natural beauty would be an ideal backdrop for intellectual discussion and cultural events. Skiing came first, and in 1946, Pfeifer and Paepcke collaborated to open Lift 1A on Aspen Mountain.
Following World War II, the Paepckes began their cultural vision with the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. They invited intellectuals, philosophers and artists to attend the 1949 Goethe Bicentennial Convocation and Music Festival. Aiming to mend the rift between the West and Germany after the World Wars, the festival celebrated the Johann Van Goethe’s 200th (posthumous) birthday with a series of lectures, performances and discussions, including the only U.S. appearance by Albert Schweitzer. The goal was to promote world peace and instill humanism in the tense post-war nation and world. The festival was a success, and spawned the current Aspen Institute, Aspen Music Festival and School, the International Design Conference (changed to Aspen Design Summit), and the Aspen Center for Physics.
In the following decades, Aspen built upon its adventurous spirit and unique cultural offerings and expanded to include fine dining, top-rated hotels, an exciting arts and music scene, and excellent shopping, all encompassed in the beauty of the town’s natural surroundings.
They want to keep the quality of the hotels for the teams of relative equal quality. They don’t want some in 4 star and others in lower quality.
The weekend before is big music festival, with Buena Vista Social Club.
L’Hosteria Restaurant was very good.
“The community here is outstanding. I’m so glad we have this tour coming here. I’m happy to promote this.”
An upcoming event is 12 Hours of Snowmass, Sep 10, 2011 7am-7pm www.12hoursofsnowmass.com
12 hr mountain bike race at Snowmass Ski Area. Solo or teams of 2, 3 or 4-8. Free
