A group of skiers and riders gathered at the base of the new Hero’s chairlift on Aspen Mountain Friday morning to celebrate the official opening of the Hero’s terrain area, formerly known as Pandora’s.
Aspen Skiing Company’s new CEO Geoff Buchheister gave remarks before the ribbon was cut and the lift started spinning.
He honored late Skico owner Jim Crown, who passed away in June — and also thanked the many company staff, contractors and agency partners who helped open the area.
“As you all well know, this is the first significant change to Aspen Mountain since 1986 when Walsh's and the Silver Queen Gondola went in, and it took monumental effort from so many people,” Buchheister said. “And in honor of the late Jim Crown, we couldn't feel like we have any more tailwind from his family in terms of being able to do things that others in the industry can't do.”
Longtime Skico instructor and mountain planner Victor Gerdin was one of many in the crowd who have been working on the terrain expansion for over a decade. He recounted figuring out where the base of the new lift should be located.
“I probably stood here in this spot about 15 years ago was the first time I found this flat spot and, you know, I mean my job was just such that I wandered around in the hills and I looked for, ‘Oh, this is where it's going to go,’” Gerdin said. “We have such a great team who got through the approval process, I just gave them the raw materials to work with and they put it together.”
Civil engineer J.R. Spung, accompanied by his family, was part of the design team that worked on the new lift.
“It means a lot, you know, we spend a lot of time in the office putting stuff together and getting permitting through the county and it's really cool to see the public be able to enjoy it,” he said.
For his part, Spung’s 11-year-old son Hamilton was ready to hit the newly opened runs for the first time.
“I’m excited, I’ve only skied on the Couch over there, but not here,” he said.
While many in the community supported the project, there were also environmentalists, backcountry goers and residents who live nearby who opposed the expansion.
In an interview after Friday’s ribbon cutting, Aspen Mountain Manager Travis Benson acknowledged those who were not on board with Skico building a lift and trails in the former backcountry area.
“I think we have to live as a community and be sensitive to each other's feelings and I truly hope that, you know, we can honor all sides,” Benson said. “We aren't always going to be perfect in what we do, but we are definitely going to try to hold ourselves to a high standard of excellence.”
Longtime ski coach Willie Volckhausen and fellow skiers Chris Tatsuno and Jonathan Love caught one of the first chairs up.
They’ve been skiing in the backcountry area for decades, and the official opening was bittersweet.
“The first thing we all said when we sat down was, 'Say goodbye to Second Helping and say goodbye to D’Kine Bowl and say goodbye to these things that'll never be the same again,’” Volckhausen said. “It's going to change the dynamic of how it skis, but it's going to be excellent with just more laps, more vertical, more powder days.”
“And on those really deep days it's going to keep the traffic off of the rest of the mountain tremendously,” he added.
Carbondale resident and outdoor enthusiast Jeff Colt has also been skiing the backcountry area for years. He’s glad it will be safer for the public now.
“The fact that it's now controlled terrain and Aspen ski patrol, who are all experts at what they do, are responsible for keeping the terrain safe, I'm for it,” he said. “It was fun to ski while it was backcountry terrain, but I think it's going to be really fun to ski as inbound terrain too.”
More than half of the 153 acres in the area opened on Friday. Benson said Skico hopes to open the rest when more snow falls.
“Our traditional terrain of Walsh's, Kristi’s and Hyrup’s are opening when we get the first chair to the top, so it’s a good opening,” he said. “And once we get some more snow we'll get the rest of the chutes open. We want to make sure everybody's safe.”
