Eleanor Bennett

Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol Director Mac Smith passed the baton on Jan. 31 after 42 seasons on the job. Though, he will remain on the patrol during the winters and help as needed throughout the next several years. 

He first stepped foot on Highlands when he was only 8-years-old, and got his start on the mountain washing dishes at the Merry-Go-Round restaurant after graduating from Basalt High School in 1971. 

One way to take care of yourself during the coronavirus pandemic is to stay connected to your loved ones, but what happens when you have a disagreement or a falling out with the people you’re supposed to feel most connected to, and how does that affect your mental health?

In a normal year, local musician Shea Freedom can be found tearing up the stage at Belly Up in Aspen or performing for passersby on main street in Carbondale, but when the pandemic hit, his gigs were cancelled. 

As protests and social justice movements spread across the country, that forced free time gave Freedom a moment to reflect on what he was seeing and he used his creativity as a way to process everything. 

Traditionally on Martin Luther King Day, the Aspen Chapel invites locals to cook a special dinner for people who visit the Aspen Homeless Shelter. Last year, nearly a hundred adults and children gathered for the annual meal at the chapel. 

“It’s always a lovely experience of doing everything together, but this year with COVID-19, we obviously couldn’t have a hundred people in a room together,” said Nicholas Vesey, the minister at the Aspen Chapel. 

On a recent morning, local naturalist Rebecca Weiss led a small group of amatuer birders through the frozen cattails near the John Denver Sanctuary in Aspen. Dawning binoculars and masks, they stood at the edge of the Roaring Fork River to get a closer look at an American Dipper bobbing in and out of the frigid water as it foraged. 

“We heard this gorgeous singing and we were all looking and listening as hard as we could to try to pinpoint the sound and who was making it,” Weiss said. “And finally, we got a line of sight on the dipper.” 

For many of us, the ongoing pandemic has impacted our mental health in surprising ways, and this includes young people.

In the latest conversation from our “High Risk At High Altitude" series, Aspen Public Radio talked with local behavioral intervention specialist Sonja Linman about what she’s learned from her work with local kids and their families.

With no end in sight for the pandemic and cases surging in the Roaring Fork Valley, many nonprofits have had to shift online and rethink the way they operate. And for some, that’s had an unexpected silver lining.

That’s the case for the local English tutoring and cultural exchange organization, English In Action. They help match adult immigrants with trained volunteer tutors in the Roaring Fork Valley. The program is so popular there’s about 170 people on the waitlist and some participants wait up to a year or more.

Pueden encontrar la versión en español aqui.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the valley, local schools are having to rethink their plans for the winter months. As of last week, nearly 250 students were quarantined in the Roaring Fork School District and the entire Roaring Fork High School moved to online learning for the week after several staff were exposed to the virus. 

“It’s very disruptive, the pivoting back and forth between distance learning and in-person learning,” said the district’s superintendent Rob Stein.

With election day less than two weeks away, many in Colorado are looking to a growing group of Latino voters who could be a big part of deciding the outcome. According to the Pew Research Center, Latino voters are the largest non-white voting demographic this year, making up 16% of Colorado voters in 2018. And yet, Latinos have been historically underrepresented in political office in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys.

To coincide with the 50th anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson’s historic race to become sheriff of Pitkin County, the new documentary, “Freak Power: the Ballot or the Bomb,” debuts on Friday, Oct. 23. While the film chronicles the gonzo journalist’s 1970 campaign in Aspen, parts of it feel eerily similar to today.

As temperatures rise and wildfires continue to burn across the West, many in Colorado are turning their attention to fire prevention. There's a woman who comes to the Roaring Fork Valley every year known as the "goat gypsy." Lani Malmberg and her herd of 1,200 Spanish cashmere goats help with fire mitigation, land restoration and weed control on private and public lands across all 13 Western states. 

• Independence Pass Closed Near The Summit For Rockfall Safety Work On Sept. 30 And Oct. 1 
• The Red Brick Center In Aspen Has A New Exhibition Featuring Works By Local Artists
• Colorado’s Recent COVID-19 Spike Appears To Be Leveling Off, But It's Too Early To Celebrate 
• Public Land Use Decisions Are Under Scrutiny Following The Removal Of The Director At The Bureau Of Land Management

• Colorado’s Colleges And Universities Will Allow Students To Apply For Free On October 13
• It's Especially Important To Get A Flu Shot This Year, But Less Than Half Of Americans Typically Get The Vaccine
• Drug Overdose Deaths Have Increased In Colorado During The Pandemic
• Colorado Continues To See A Surge In People Wanting To Sign Up To Be Poll Workers

• 2020 Census Extension May Allow For More Accurate Count Of Local Population
• With The Voter Registration Deadline Just A Month Away, How To Make Sure You Get A Ballot
• Colorado Regulators Are Now Requiring Oil And Gas Operators To Monitor Fracking Emissions Earlier And More Often

• Recent Wildfire Smoke In The Roaring Fork Valley Has Been Coming From Out-Of-State Fires 
• The Westbound Deck Of I-70 Reopens Friday, Sept. 25 In Glenwood Canyon
• The State Is Winding Down A COVID-19 Health Equity Initiative Governor Polis Formed To Tackle Racial Disparities
• A New Study Suggests Wildfire Smoke Is More Dangerous Than Other Air Pollutants For Asthma Patients         
   

• Colorado Is Bringing Nearly 400,000 Fish To Alpine Lakes, Including Some In The Roaring Fork Valley
• Some School Districts In Colorado Struggled To Balance Their Budgets Even Before The Pandemic
• Hotels In Colorado Saw Occupancy Rates Increase Again Last Month
• The State's Emergency Rent Fund Has Paid Out About $7.5 Million To Cover Housing Costs For People During COVID-19

• Registration Is Now Open For The Aspen Music Festival And School’s After School Music Classes
• Colorado Health Officials Say COVID-19 Cases Have Increased For The Third Consecutive Week
• Many Colorado Workers Will Be Forced To Take Days Off Without Pay Because Of Budget Shortfalls Due To The Pandemic
• Large Numbers Of Migratory Birds Have Dropped Dead Across The West.

• The Next Film Playing At Buttermilk’s Drive-In Theatre Will Have Audiences Dreaming Of Winter
• Officials Report That Warmer Weather Is Expected To Increase Fire Activity Near Grizzly Creek
• Colorado Researchers Call For National Guidelines On Alerting Potential Suicide 'Hot Spot' Schools