Have you ever been on top of a mountain and thought: “This would make a good beach?”
If not, then you aren’t Gray Malin — a Los Angeles-based fine art photographer who made several trips to Aspen Mountain before pitching this idea to ASPENX.
“What if we created an activation here that was a beach club,” he recalled. “People could come up here in the afternoons and lay out in a cabana or in a chair and enjoy an après ski moment.”
It’s a return to his roots — and a change from his ongoing project of photographing dogs in luxurious settings, including the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Malin’s most recently released shoot, titled “The Dogs of Aspen,” re-created a previous photo session featuring area models in retro ski gear.
“I was just like, ‘Wow, there is such a dog culture here,’ and I'm talking gorgeous dogs, beautiful dogs,” he said. “So I instantly thought: What if we could do a project with dogs in Aspen and sort of revisit some of the locations I had shot in 2019, but instead of using people, what if we used dogs.”
But Malin is best known for his aerial photography — some of his most popular series feature overhead views of beaches and ski runs.
That’s what he’ll try to re-create in February, on the snow next to the ASPENX Mountain Club, which is inside the Sundeck restaurant building at the top of Aspen Mountain. Beach chairs, cabanas and lifeguard towers will be set up before Malin lifts off in a helicopter to shoot the scene.
“I really want people to step into a Gray Malin photograph and create their own memories,” he said.
The project is a collaboration with Aspen Skiing Co.’s new brand — ASPENX, the brainchild of Paula Crown, a member of the family that owns the company.
The brand offers high-end ski gear, mountain fashion — and “experiences.”
Those experiences — like most things in Aspen — won’t be cheap. Snow Beach prices range from $300 to $4,800.
“(Aspen) is not an inexpensive place to visit,” said May Selby. She does public relations for ASPENX, The Little Nell hotel and the Limelight hotels.
“We understand that it is an expensive investment to come here on vacation,” she said. “But if it's available to you, we will make it so worth its weight in gold.
SkiCo’s business model, Selby said, is built on a few pillars: skiing, of course, as well as hospitality. ASPENX is a new pillar, bringing SkiCo further into the world of retail fashion, high-end gear and luxury experiences.
Collaborations — like the Snow Beach with Gray Malin — are foundational.
“ASPENX is meant to be a multiplier,” Selby said. “We're just ‘Aspen’ ‘X’ and then the next brand behind it.”
For example: “ASPENX Prada” features a line of luxury ski gear, with jackets ranging from about $2,000 to $5,000.
James Parker is ASPENX's general manager.
“My favorite product in the shop is probably the insulator jacket,” he said. “It's part of our uniform collection. It's waterproof, and it's super warm, and it's really comfortable. I wear it on a regular basis.”
As he explains, ASPENX also offers high-tech products, including a ski-boot sole insert that tracks pressure points as you shred, “And then it reports back to an app via Bluetooth and gives you kind of ways to improve your skiing.”
Snow Beach will kick off the first of ASPENX’s experiences. The experience starts Feb. 18 and runs every weekend through the end of March.
