Whip Jones had always imagined a gondola at Aspen Highlands.
It’s right there in the early plans, circa 1957, that mapped out 10 other chairlifts and six pomas, too. They would serve bunny slopes to extreme terrain, a Stein Eriksen Ski School and a base lodge by Fritz Benedict, with a renegade spirit you couldn’t find at the other ski hills next door: Under Jones, Highlands would become Aspen’s “maverick” mountain, promoted with savvy, too.
The ski area debuted the following year, with a couple of lifts, a rope tow and a T-bar, then doubled the fleet in a decade and added several more by the ’70s. The Merry-Go-Round sold lunch out of a prefabricated building originally designed for a grocery store; Cloud Nine served picnics on the deck of patrol headquarters. Ski patrollers launched off a jump above the building, and bawdy locals schussed down in nothing but their ski boots. Its success lay, in part, in its wildness.
But compared to the high-speed chairs installed at other ski areas in the ’80s, Highlands’ old doubles were starting to show their age. So were the buildings at the base. Under pressure to upgrade, the head honchos developed new plans — such as a European base village and the gondola pitch again. But they were stymied by financing, land-use reviews and Jones’ own reluctance to spend money, retired ski pro John Moore wrote in “A History of Aspen Highlands.” By the early ’90s, “cutting corners was a way of life,” according to Moore. And before long, Jones called it a career.
He donated a chunk of Aspen Highlands stock to his alma mater, Harvard University, in 1992, and then helped sell the whole thing to developer Gerry Hines the next year. Hines had his eyes on a new base village and cut a deal to merge the ski area with the Aspen Skiing Co. In the years that followed, SkiCo removed or replaced every lift on the mountain and opened hundreds of acres of expert terrain in Deep Temerity and the Highland Bowl. The restaurants eventually got facelifts, too, and Cloud Nine leaned into fine dining.
Highlands’ lift fleet has changed little since that push for upgrades in the ’90s; the youngest chair, Deep Temerity, could buy a beer at the Alehouse next winter. The mountain still has a “nostalgic and independent essence,” as planners put it in their latest visioning document for the mountain, and they want to maintain that as they look to the future.
But SkiCo also wants to “be in business forever,” and it can’t do that on essence alone. Whip Jones, from the great beyond, could finally see his gondola — just not all the way to the summit.
The master plan
It’s one of many projects that SkiCo officials might want to pursue in the next decade or so: a 10-person Maroon Bells Gondola, replacing the Exhibition lift with a stop at the Merry-Go-Round and continuing to the top of Cloud Nine. (The Cloud Nine lift would stay in place.) They could also extend snowmaking, expand both on-mountain restaurants and launch summer operations to make Highlands a warm-weather destination on par with Aspen Mountain’s scenic hiking and gondola spiel.
The 2025 Aspen Highlands Master Development Plan lays it all out, building on master plans from 1997 and 2013. The document, submitted to the U.S. Forest Service late last year, is under review.
The Forest Service will “accept” the plan “if it determines the conceptual projects described meet Forest Plan goals and objectives,” according to the agency’s website, but doing so does not actually approve any of the ideas within the 140-page document.
Individual projects will require more detailed review down the road, including environmental analysis in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. The plan is also subject to land-use review by Pitkin County; a small sliver of the ski area at its base is within the city of Aspen, which may require its own process “or participate as a referral agency during Pitkin County’s review,” according to the document. The Aspen Highlands Base Village, which is not owned by SkiCo but is a gateway to the mountain, is also in the city of Aspen.
The point of the master plans — which are submitted by all 11 ski areas that operate on White River National Forest lands — is that these documents “help the ski areas articulate their long-range vision, and they help the Forest Service anticipate future use,” according to the Forest Service website. The plans also “provide local governments, other agencies, and the public with information about possible long-term plans that may affect them.”
The Forest Service expects to complete its review of the Highlands plan around “early summer,” according to David Boyd, a public affairs officer for the White River National Forest. Public comment isn’t part of the agency’s master plan acceptance process, but there will be opportunities during the environmental analysis of different projects. County review also has the potential for robust public discourse, as was the case with the Aspen Mountain 2019 Master Development Plan and the terrain expansion now called “Hero’s.”
The most recent Highlands master plan also mentions a replacement for the Thunderbowl lift (from a fixed-grip triple-seater to a faster detachable quad) and a new Apple Strudel quad to lap midmountain cruisers, as well as some concrete footings on the Smuggler run near the base to “support a short, portable rope tow” for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. The rope tow would serve only club training sessions and events, and would be intended for young children.
Under the planned expansions of existing restaurant buildings, the Merry-Go-Round could grow to about 19,420 square feet from about 14,030 square feet, enough room for more than 640 indoor seats, instead of the current count of about 420.
The Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro, currently about 2,870 square feet, could expand to nearly 7,250 square feet with upstairs and downstairs dining areas. It has more than 100 indoor seats now and would get 40 more, plus a grab-and-go window for more casual bites and a lot more kitchen and food service space. (Outdoor spots aren’t included in these seating calculations because those seats aren’t always available, but the plan states that each restaurant would have more than 100 seats to eat al fresco in this upgrade plan.)
Other proposals are more subtle, at least to the average visitor. Hundreds of acres in glading and forest health projects aim to improve wildlife habitat and address wildfire risk, in partnership with fire agencies, but can also appeal to skiers once the snow falls. Some grading projects could smooth out the egress routes that bog down returns from steeper slopes, particularly in terrain on skiers’ left of the mountain, including No Name, Olympic Bowl and Moment of Truth.
Broadway, a narrow strip of snow that leads skiers down from Loge Peak to open slopes, could become a wider trail. There are also plans to widen the road up Temerity Ridge, used by the Highland Bowl snowcat that shuttles people to an upper hiking point, for safety of both snowcat passengers and the many hikers who skip the ride. The main route for uphillers — currently a winding, off-kilter skin track that links to smoother trails above — is flagged for improvements, too, along with some other spots around the mountain.
The master plan considers snowmaking to the top of Cloud Nine, and it also mentions an idea for insulating snow coverings, which can be placed over large piles of the frozen white stuff in one winter to preserve it for early-season skiing and race training the next in the Golden Horn and Thunderbowl area. It’s a concept already in use at several European race hubs and some ski areas in North America; Idaho’s Bogus Basin and Canada’s Sun Peaks are among those that picked up the practice last year.
New water infrastructure, such as storage tanks and water towers, would help keep “domestic water” flowing on the mountain for uses such as drinking, bathrooms and restaurant facilities.
The water for Highlands snowmaking, which SkiCo purchases from the city of Aspen, gets pumped up from the Thomas Reservoir (fed by Castle and Maroon Creeks, and located near the mountain’s east flank) to a pumphouse northeast of Highlands Village.
According to a memo by the firm LRE Water and other sections of the master plan, Highlands currently uses water for about 63 acres of snowmaking — averaging 243,640 gallons per acre, about 47 acre-feet per year — on select parts of the lower mountain. Thunderbowl already has top-to-bottom snowmaking, but the main route down from the Exhibition lift has coverage only on its bottom half.
This plan would double the snowmaking coverage to about 124 acres, with potential on trails served by the Cloud Nine lift as well as Exhibition (or the Maroon Bells Gondola, in the possible future). SkiCo has already received Forest Service approvals for snowmaking on a couple of midmountain trails, along with a new “booster station” to help pump the water. Aspen Highlands “will redirect a portion of its previously approved snowmaking coverage to the top of Cloud Nine,” according to the master plan.
The plan’s snowmaking expansion map highlights midmountain trails such as Prospector, Exhibition and Red Onion for coverage, as well as Cloud Nine offshoots such as Scarlett’s, Gunbarrel and Wine Ridge. That 124 acres of snowmaking is “consistent with prior approvals issued by federal and local agencies,” the LRE Water memo states.
The memo also confirms that the company has sufficient water supply (and the legal right to use it) for the snowmaking expansion, and notes agreements to limit snowmaking if streamflows drop below a designated threshold. SkiCo’s 2025 master plan does not include any snowmaking water storage tanks — but the proposed midmountain pumphouse for snowmaking could be in the same vicinity as a new pumphouse and water tank for “domestic water.”
Other facilities upgrades will also support mountain operations, including a midmountain patrol building, utilities upgrades and a lift evacuation training area near the patrol headquarters by Loge Peak.
Building ideas beyond the page
Not all of these projects may come to fruition: A ski area’s master development plan lists all the work that a resort might want to pursue in the somewhat-foreseeable future, but it isn’t a promise of execution and is largely conceptual in nature.
Consider the Snowmass Master Development Plan, the latest from 2022: SkiCo has already implemented a number of projects from that document, including new chairlifts and restaurant revamps. But a Burnt Mountain lift, which has existed in various proposals since the 1990s, is still a concept, not a reality. Previously approved ideas can also get knocked off the ranks: Aspen Highlands’ pitch for a Golden Horn platter lift was referenced in the 2013 master plan and authorized by the Forest Service in 2018, but the lift is “not currently planned,” according to this 2025 plan.
It’s not exactly throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks, said Chris Kiley, senior vice president of planning and development at SkiCo’s parent company, Aspen One. But it isn’t yet an action plan either.
“I think everything that’s in here is a serious idea and consideration, but there’s not really a priority list of ‘This is what we’ve got to do first,’” Kiley told Aspen Journalism. “A large part of this is ‘Let’s get this document out there so that we can start to talk with our partners and our stakeholders, the Forest Service, the community. Let’s test some of these ideas and start to build them beyond just a couple of paragraphs on the page.’”
Master plans can also be amended, with projects introduced outside that review cycle that occurs about once a decade. The proposed Nell-Bell chairlift at Aspen Mountain, for instance, wasn’t in the most recent plan but is now under Forest Service review and has gone through both the city of Aspen and Pitkin County processes. SkiCo sought approvals for the Coney Express chairlift at Snowmass in parallel with that master plan review a few years ago because it was such a high priority. None of the proposed projects in the latest Highlands plan has that kind of urgency yet.
Highlands experienced “a major influx of capital” after it became part of SkiCo in the ’90s, according to Mak Keeling, SkiCo’s vice president for mountain planning and development, and “there is still some life left” in those lifts that were installed in the mid-’90s. So, there’s no “hair on fire” rush, Keeling said. Planners would actually prefer to spread improvements over several years, so they don’t get stuck with a big push to replace a lot of infrastructure at the same time.
“Going back the last 20 and 30 years, we’ve had a couple of periods where a lot of lifts have gone in at once, and now we’re seeing them all age out at once,” Kiley said. “We want to stagger that out so that 25, 30 years from now, we’re seeing a more regularized pattern of being able to do the lift upgrades, lift replacement. So we’ve had to play some catch-up. We’ve had phenomenal support from ownership and leadership in doing that.”
The mountain’s “Comfortable Carrying Capacity” — representing the number of people who can comfortably fit throughout the ski area at a given time — would increase, under the upgrade plan, to 4,180 guests from 3,500. That’s “largely due to the upgrade of the Exhibition lift to a gondola and the addition of the new Apple Strudel lift,” the plan states.
The estimated number of skiers per acre could also increase a bit, due to the greater lift capacity, while the “target density” for the resort could decrease some as the mountain introduces more skiable glades. (You don’t want to see as many people navigating a shaded grove with obstacles as you might on a wide-open run.) But the density numbers still track below many other resorts in the state, and the plan asserts that “Aspen Highlands will remain an uncrowded and world-class experience.”
Higher-speed, higher-capacity lifts could even reduce crowding at the base. The Thunderbowl-Apple Strudel connection would also offer an alternate route to midmountain lifts and terrain. Currently, you can lap Thunderbowl but can’t get any higher unless you ride Exhibition.
How to ‘be in business forever’
This master development plan is part business sense, part response to customer experience and part adaptation to climate change: Warmer, shorter winters impact both the environment and the bottom line, but there’s a future for Aspen Highlands that can still exist if there’s mud at the base.
Aspen One also advocates for policy and legislation that combats climate change, and has made that work a hallmark of the company’s sustainability strategy. Still, the region has already lost about 30 wintry days per season, compared with 1980.
The 10-person gondola, with a plaza at the base and two spots to unload on the mountain, could usher skiers to the upper slopes and whisk them back down again when there isn’t enough snow to ski all the way to the bottom. It would also enable SkiCo to sell tickets to nonskiers who still want the Highlands views and still want to dine in warm and cold weather alike.
It’s a “key element” of the summer concept, Kiley said. With ideas such as new hiking trails, scenic pedestrian suspension bridges, a concert and events lawn at the Merry-Go-Round and guided hunting (separated from the other activities), the Highlands summer experience of the future might be a far cry from the often-empty work road and mellow base patio of today.
Yet the concept could also be a return to form for Aspen Highlands: The resort offered a “Summer Sky Ride” by chairlift with mid-mountain lunches from the 1960s into the ’80s, sometimes with concerts, too, and contemplated a revival of summer operations in its 1997 planning process. Through an environmental review at the time, the White River National Forest concluded that “summer operations could occur at Aspen Highlands,” according to this latest master plan.
The base already sees plenty of summer foot traffic through guest services and a parking garage: As the loading station for summer shuttles up to the Maroon Bells Scenic Area, Aspen Highlands welcomes more than 150,000 people on their way to the Bells each year. Highlands parking — currently fixed at 450 paid spaces in a multilevel structure — isn’t slated for expansion in this master plan, which instead points to “parking management, shuttles and public transit” as solutions for guests to access the resort while “minimizing private vehicle trips on Maroon Creek Road across multiple levels of visitation” throughout the year.
The plan also acknowledges the future possibility of an aerial tramway connecting resort destinations which could play a role in summer and winter recreation. Although “land use complexity, infrastructure costs and construction logistics in the Roaring Fork Valley are such that implementing a linked aerial tramway system across all four ski areas at Aspen/Snowmass provides a tremendous challenge,” the plan states that a connection from “Aspen Highlands to Aspen Mountain, to Buttermilk and/or to nodes on the valley floor may prove feasible in the nearer term.”
“Additionally, there are several conversations occurring in the Roaring Fork Valley — some as formalized as the Transportation Coalition for the 21st Century, a community task force that includes multiple elected officials and transportation planners from the upper Roaring Fork Valley — that have asked that gondolas be studied as transportation solutions for our communities’ congestion challenges.”
SkiCo wants the Forest Service and Pitkin County to be aware of their long-term thinking and the potential for further study, and the company “would like to have a process to follow for submitting future Master Development Plan amendments to the county and the U.S. Forest Service to consider an aerial tramway for Aspen Highlands as well as for the other ski areas.” The company is not seeking “any formal approval or disapproval analysis” for the concept through this master plan.
The plan suggests that summer operations at Highlands could “ease pressure on congested [White River National Forest] trailheads and facilities,” including “roads, trails, bathrooms [and] parking,” and “enhance access to surrounding public lands and enrich the greater community’s summer activity offerings.” Planners envision more opportunities to enjoy the mountains “regardless of age, fitness or ability level” — a proposition that also happens to reach more potential customers. Summer offerings “tend to attract a more diverse range of new guests than do skiing and snowboarding,” across gender and age, “which is essential to the continued success of the resort,” the master plan states.
“This is something that makes things more accessible, which is one of the primary functions of our mandate from the Forest Service: Make the forest as accessible as it can be for as many people as possible,” Keeling said. You don’t have to ski to enjoy a scenic lunch or some interpretive signs about nature; two suspension bridges, proposed between Picnic Point and Bob’s Knob and across Loge Bowl, would be accessed via hiking trails connecting to other upper-mountain nodes in the summer.
The bridges would include “scenic viewing platforms” meant to “serve as educational touchpoints” on a “memorable and enriching experience for all visitors,” according to the plan. Come winter, the cables could remain with the planks removed, Keeling said.
More ambitious types could find new adventure with a proposed trail through the Highland Bowl, creating a loop through rugged terrain that connects up to the ridge. With the development of other new routes as well, racers in the Power of Four Trail Run ultramarathon may in the future compete on a technical singletrack loop rather than the work road out-and-back.
Summer operations also give the company more bang for their buck, according to Kiley: “One of the themes in the Highlands master plan that we carry forward from Snowmass as well is: How can we make investments in infrastructure that we’re able to use more often? And increasingly, that means summer, and in a nonsnow capacity.”
July is, after all, one of the busiest months of the year. But even in winter, people aren’t skiing the whole day like they used to, and there’s a “growing demand for mountain destination resorts to provide activities outside of snow sports,” the master plan states.
Its authors attribute that to high-speed lifts that satisfy skiers’ appetites faster; aging guests who don’t have to ski as much vertical to get their fill; and vacationers’ expectations that the trip should include more than just skiing. “All of these trends add up to a significant demand for attractions and amenities that complement a resort’s skiing facilities,” the plan states, so many of these proposed projects are a response to “changing guest expectations.”
There is still a contingent of the Aspen Highlands crowd who believes in skiing and skiing first (or snowboarding and snowboarding first, as the case may be). There are bowl rats with 100-plus laps so far this season and a strong old guard attached to the Highlands of yesteryear. Cloud Nine may be known these days for Champagne showers and curated menus, but there are still spots on the mountain for picnickers and bootpackers, too.
“We know, and we embrace the Highlands local as a big part of this community, and know that they’ll have opinions” on these proposals, Kiley said. “But, we’re also Highlanders ourselves.” And company officials have talked to a lot of those diehards in developing this master plan.
“The operations teams over at Highlands, the patrol, the grooming teams, the [food and beverage teams], the lift maintenance teams, they’re those same wonderful, passionate individuals, and they’ve seen these, they’ve heard these concepts,” Keeling said. “We’ve had debates, we’ve had conversations, and … everything included in this plan has at least passed that round of through the crucible.”
Keeling believes that this plan speaks to both “the duct tape and diamonds” crowds — as well as those somewhere in the middle.
“We’re trying to accommodate all of our guests, no matter the age, no matter the ability of skiing level, no matter the season,” Keeling said. “And we feel like this plan will accomplish that.”
Kaya Williams can be reached at kaya.noelle.williams@gmail.com.