Seven years ago, Aspen voters narrowly approved elements of a plan to redevelop the Lift One corridor at the western base of Aspen Mountain.
The project involves a new lift, two luxury developments, commercial spaces, and the relocation of two historic buildings, one of which will house a new snowsports museum.
Alongside the developers and the Aspen Skiing Company, the city of Aspen finalized an agreement on July 31 that outlines construction plans over the next few years, with the new lift scheduled to start spinning in 2029.
Freelance reporter Kaya Williams dug into the complex plans and spoke with Aspen Public Radio’s Sage Smiley about the details.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Sage Smiley: I'm wondering if, first, you can place us in space. What is the Lift One corridor, at its core?
Kaya Williams: The name comes from Lift One, which was basically the dawn of modern skiing in Aspen. People had been going up and down the mountain; they had a couple of sort of jerry-rigged systems, but this chairlift that debuted in the winter of 1946-47 basically opened the floodgates to skiing as we know it today on Aspen Mountain. It was the longest, tallest chairlift in the world, and it was this little single-seater chair.
In the 70s, it got replaced with Lift 1A, which has basically been spinning there ever since. It's this double chair — doesn't have any safety bars. It kind of whips around behind you when you get on it.
But I'm speaking in the present tense when I should be saying the past tense. Lift 1A has started to be taken down this summer in preparation for the Lift One corridor as we know it: a new chairlift as the centerpiece. Flanking that chairlift will be major new developments as well as the restoration of some historic buildings. So there's a Skier Chalet Lodge and a Skier Chalet Steak House — both of those are going to be restored, renovated, relocated on the site, and kind of brought back to life.
At the same time, two different development groups are building these major lodging complexes. So, timeshares for the project called Chalet Alpina and a hotel that is known as an Aman Aspen hotel. And those major developments, in conjunction with the lift and all of these sort of public amenities related to ski areas and parks and public facilities, that together is the Lift One corridor.
Smiley: You made it clear why maybe the lift itself would need replacement or revitalization — that it was old and that [they’re] updating those technologies. But what about this whole project necessitates this development? Why does it need to be redone, revitalized, and what will be new?
Williams: The question of need is something that has come up a lot. This project in various forms has been talked about for decades. It really got serious in the 2000s and the 2010s. To be clear, Lift 1A was still spinning and humming along at the end of last season. It's had some mechanical issues over the years, but they've figured out workarounds.
The Aspen Skiing Company, though, has said in the past that they wouldn't really replace that lift unless there was a master plan of revitalization of this neighborhood, because in the 80s, they put in the Silver Queen Gondola a little bit to the east, and all of a sudden everybody was getting on the gondola. So Lift 1A, while beloved by ski bums, nostalgic people and folks who live and work on this side of town, just didn't get a lot of use.
Revitalizing the entire neighborhood would bring the people there in order to justify higher capacity — a higher-speed lift — because all of a sudden you've got a hotel, timeshares and also some luxury residences and new facilities too. So that was a big aspect of the [developers’] campaign for the Lift One corridor too, like, “If you want a new lift, well, how about some development to get that going?”
Another big part of [the design] was bringing the loading station for this lift further down the hill. Lift 1A was this huge schlep up a steep slope. This new lift would have a lower loading point. Maybe it's a skier preference. Some people might say it's a need, but it was a huge part of this campaign.
Lastly comes ski racing history. There was a period of time in the 2010s where the leaders of the International Ski Federation were saying, "You've got to upgrade this lift. You've got to upgrade this area in order for us to bring ski races back.” So that also became part of the Lift One corridor campaign: “We've got to save ski racing in Aspen, and if they're not going to put in a new lift without putting in a new development, then we’ve got to have the whole package.”
Funny enough, leadership changed at the International Ski Federation, and eventually they were like, “Actually, this lift gets the job done.” So Aspen was able to host races after the point at which that organization said “You've got to replace the lift.” As to when we'll see those races next, I think probably to be determined. There's a lot of construction that has to happen first.
Smiley: There are a lot of parties involved with what needs to happen to make this whole Lift One corridor area a reality and functional and open to the public. Can you tell us about the major points of this newly released construction sequencing plan?
Williams: A huge part of this construction sequencing agreement is, “When are we going to get a new lift?”
The big takeaway is that we aren't going to have a lift there for probably three winters, and that's if things go according to this estimated timeline.
The timeline is not legally binding on its own. But for the average person, the big takeaway is: mark your calendars for 2029 to 2030, maybe, in order to get back on the new Lift One.
But there's a lot of stuff, as you noted, that has to happen first. The base terminal sits on top of a subgrade structure that includes a parking garage, so they have to dig out the subgrade structure, build that, put the base pad on top in order to even put a base terminal on there. There's also a lift tower that could potentially have its foundation structurally integrated with the Aman Aspen hotel foundation.
Obviously, they need to figure that out and get that set up before they put in the tower. Eventually, these buildings also need to have walls and roofs on them, and some functioning life safety systems in order for SkiCo to be able to spin the lift.
Smiley: You said much of this isn't legally binding, but what is in place to make sure all the parties are fulfilling their ends of the various bargains to maybe, potentially, allow us to have a lift 2029 to 2030?
Williams: The big thing here is greenlight notices. Basically, the developers have these estimated timelines for when they're going to dig their holes and put stuff in them, but once they get to a certain point, they will give SkiCo a heads up that says, "Hey, we're getting close. We are committed at this point to finishing the following items so that you can put in your lift next year.”
That greenlight notice triggers some binding obligations. For instance, if the developers give SkiCo the greenlight notice, but then they get stalled out, and it takes them a long time, and SkiCo has ordered the lift and now has to store it somewhere or do something with it while they wait for developers to finish up, then developers have to pay SkiCo some fees. And it goes the other way too. If developers say, "Hey, we're committed to finishing these things. We've finished them,” and SkiCo delays their lift installation and operation for some reason, SkiCo owes the developers fees.
There's some flexibility in when they can give this green light, but if it gets too far down the line, [2031], starts to trigger these extension fees, which are $3.5 million a year, basically to say, “Okay, we're punting a year on this.”
The whole reason for those greenlight notices is that SkiCo needs some heads up to order the lift, and they need a certain window of time, about seven continuous months, to actually put it in.
Smiley: Beyond the obvious construction impact to the Aspen community, what are other potential impacts, either to the community, to events regularly held on SkiCo properties, to skiers both visiting and local? What does it look like to have this multi-year construction in the Lift One corridor area?
Williams: Well, folks who have condos over there, houses or things like that, they're probably going to notice there's a lot of construction coming, and there's going to be a lot of trucks coming and going. This sequencing plan has provisions for when they can do certain things, how they can advise road closures and stuff like that, so the impacts aren't so terrible.
When it comes to the skier experience, obviously you're not going to have a lift up that side of the mountain. So if that's your favorite little powder stash, you're going to have to find another way to get up there. We'll have the Silver Queen Gondola. This coming season, we'll also have the Nell Bell lift, a new chairlift loading over by the gondola, and that'll get people up the mountain pretty fast. You'll still have to kind of cut over and make your way to [the west] side of the mountain, but it will still be there. And there should be a skiway when conditions allow to actually ski down to South Aspen Street, where all this construction is. The agreement says there should be a ski corridor here, so people can get off the mountain that way.
You just might not see all of your favorite runs. Norway is not going to be open, I heard from a SkiCo leader, but Schuss Gully, which is one of the ways down, they're going to try and keep that open again as conditions allow.
When it comes to events: ski racing on that side of the mountain [is] pretty unlikely. I think that's fair to say without a chairlift and given that there's a giant construction site at the bottom. That being said, some of the other events on the mountain could still very well happen as they do already.
Smiley: So this agreement, this construction sequencing agreement, is now in place. What will people see first if they're walking around that area of town?
Williams: It's going to be digging first, really. So the Chalet Alpina project, which is timeshares, lodging, a lot of commercial space, also the restoration of the Skier Chalet buildings, they've got a head start. The community development director at the City of Aspen told me they could move the Skier Chalet buildings as soon as this fall, but a lot of moving dirt has to happen first.
Smiley: You've been covering the Lift One corridor for a while, doing iterative reporting as new steps happen. But in journalism, there is always something that gets left on the cutting room floor, even if it's interesting. What didn't make it into your reporting this time that you think might be interesting or relevant to the audience?
Williams: I think there's still some questions about what World Cup skiing will look like there in the future. I did a story last year where, basically, I had been working on a general update to the Lift One corridor, reached out to the International Ski Federation and said, "What do you think about everything that's going on?”
Their response was that they had some concerns about the layout of the Lift One corridor and how that could affect their ability to run World Cup races there in the future. The conclusion, after many phone calls, interviews, emails back and forth, was “It’s not a ‘no.’ We have to figure it out down the line.”
But it is going to look different there than it has in the past, because there will be buildings where there weren't buildings before.
I'm also curious to see what kind of lift SkiCo ends up putting in there. A lot of the talk in the past has been about a “chondola,” which is a chairlift-gondola hybrid. When I was working at Aspen Public Radio, I actually went and rode a chondola at another mountain to do some research for this kind of reporting. But lately, when I've been checking in with SkiCo, it has been more like “We're not quite ready to confirm what exactly that's going to be.” I think there are still some questions there that I'll be following up on.
Smiley: Well, thank you for sharing your reporting with us.
Williams: Thanks, Sage.
Read Williams’ recent reporting on the Lift One corridor here.
