Aspen’s skiing history began long before there were any lifts. In the late 1800s, immigrant Norwegians came to work in the silver mines and brought their skis along with them. After working in the mines on winter days, they would ski back down to town when their shift was over. In the 1930s Andre Roch laid out some of the first ski trails and Aspen actually hosted ski races. Then in 1946 the Aspen Ski Corporation built the “World’s Longest Ski Lift”, an 8000 foot long single chair. By the way, Stowe held that particular record with its 6000 foot single chair before the Aspen lift.
In the 1950s Aspen became a destination resort and one of the regular visitors was Bill Janss. Janss had been a ski racer and actually raced at Aspen before there were lifts. After WWII Bill and his brother Ed would take over their family’s successful real estate development business. On a 1955 Aspen visit, Bill and Ed began a discussion with Aspen local and ski instructor Kinsgbury Pitcher. The Janss’ wanted to develop a new ski resort and they looked to Pitcher to find a Colorado location.
Pitcher actually did do an extensive search, but in the end decided on Mt. Baldy which was only 8 miles west of Aspen. One of the features of that mountain was a large open area created by a forest fire in the 1880s which locals had named “The Big Burn.” It was a popular destination for local back country skiers. It’s interesting that the term “back country” hadn’t been coined in the 1950s and they were referred to as “bushwhackers!” Another interesting side fact is that Mt. Baldy was also considered by Pete Seibert, but Seibert chose the Vail location instead.
In 1958 Janss started buying land that would be at the base of the ski area. By 1961 he had acquired enough land to start making his plans for a ski area with a European-style village come true. An agreement between the Janss corporation and the Aspen Ski Company led to organized snowcat ski tours on the Big Burn. The two corporations also worked on a master plan for the ski area. And in 1964 the U.S. Forest Service approved the Snowmass-at-Aspen ski area.
Snowmass-at-Aspen opened on December 16, 1967.
I received several correct answers to last week’s trivia. Larry Heath was first to respond that Snowmass was the area with the Big Burn. Larry was a ski bum in Aspen in the 1960s and says:
“I lived in a bunk house with no bathroom in Woody Creek with a couple of UVM’s ski team guys. I worked in the Little Nell ski barn repair shop. You could pack ski trails on your skis to earn a day ticket. Ajax number one ski lift was a single chair. Aspen was still part old Colorado mining town. Back then even a pitcher of beer was under a dollar at the Red Onion.”
Other correct answers came from Jeff Jackson, Mike Weisel, and Scott Dorwart. Scott was there in 1968 when it first opened. And Mike and I were there in 1969.
The Snowmass that I visited in 1969 is in a completely different class than today’s Snowmass. Today’s area is a behemoth both in terms of skiing area and village size! Its skiing acreage is larger than Aspen (Ajax) mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk combined.
Similarly, the area we skied was short on expert terrain. We did find some challenge off the Campground lift. Those expert trails were eastern-like except wider and no ice!! The Big Burn was an intermediate pitch at best, but would be a great place to learn to ski powder. Now their trail map shows a lot more expert terrain and some truly “alpine” runs.
Another observation looking at images of the area is that trees have started to grow back in the Big Burn so it looks more like a collection of trails (some with bumps!) than the wide open slope I remember.
Bill Janss’ direct involvement with Snowmass was brief. He had purchased the Sun Valley resort at the same time he was developing Snowmass. In 1968 the Janss Group would sell its share of Snowmass to concentrate on Sun Valley.
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