ALL EYES ON ASPEN

A century ago, silver miners were drawn to Aspen in Colorado seeking the fortunes lying beneath its mountain peaks. Today, wealth and thrills above ground keep visitors coming back, writes Kate Allman.

- Kate Allman

Exploring the streets of Aspen at night feels like stepping into the pages of a Disney storybook. Victorian-era lamp posts cast halos of light into the dark. Snowflakes fall in perfect prisms, interlocking as they drift toward the ground. Laughter floats from impossibly chic restaurants and bars. My heart rate quickens. It could be the elevation – Aspen perches 2,410 metres above sea level in Colorado’s towering Rocky Mountains. Or it could be the two margaritas I sipped in the après ski bar of the be-seen Limelight Hotel. But walking these storied streets always leaves me breathless. I’ll call it the Aspen effect – the heady tug that 1.4 million starry-eyed visitors succumb to each winter, despite it being the most expensive ski town in North America. Real estate is dizzyingly expensive. In fact, the region is home to Colorado’s most expensive property – a 10-bedroom, ski-in, ski-out mansion currently on sale for US$100 million. There’s even a neighbourhood at the foothills of Red Mountain, dubbed ‘Billionaire Mountain’, where everyone from the Bezos family to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke has bought in. The A-list of Aspen regular visitors is eye-popping: Kylie Jenner, Gigi Haddad, Mariah Carey, Leonardo DiCaprio and Elton John, to name a few. Trudging through the snowy streets some years back, I almost bowled straight into the security detail of the Obama family. To be fair, this ski powder hound was more focused on hitting first tracks than rubbing shoulders with a former US President.

Good neighbours 

Local real estate agent Lane Johnson tells me Aspen’s allure lies in its money-can’t-buy exclusivity.