Aspen

Why go

Four mountains on one pass — Ajax, Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass, each with a different temperament. A silver town, not a purpose-built resort — Victorian brick streets that miners laid out in the 1880s. The Aspen Idea — a 1945 plan that put a music festival and a humanities institute beside the ski lifts. Summer — locals prefer it: wildflowers, the Maroon Bells, and the festival season in tents.

The character

Aspen produced a sixth of America's silver in 1891 and then collapsed within two years when the government stopped buying it; by 1930 the population was under seven hundred and the Victorian houses were being used as barns. Its second life was designed. Walter Paepcke, a Chicago industrialist, arrived in 1945 with his wife Elizabeth and a plan that was unusual for a ski town: a resort, yes, but also a music festival, a design conference and an institute for humanistic studies, on the theory that a person should exercise body, mind and spirit in the same place.

That combination — half sport, half seminar — still describes the town. In winter the mountains are the point, and Ajax rises straight from the end of the main street with no beginner terrain at all, which is a statement in itself. In summer the population changes entirely: the Music Festival brings six hundred students, the Institute runs its programmes, and the Ideas Festival fills the tents. The wealth is obvious and largely quiet — the money in Aspen tends to wear fleece — and the Victorian grid keeps the whole thing at a human scale.

Places of character

Ajax (Aspen Mountain) — no green runs anywhere on it; the gondola from the town centre is the resort's front door. The Maroon Bells — among the most photographed peaks in North America, reached by shuttle to a glacial lake. Wheeler Opera House — 1889, built by the silver magnate, still programming three hundred nights a year. Aspen Institute campus — Bayer's Bauhaus buildings and the Anderson Park earthworks, open to walk through. Independence Pass — the 3,687-metre road east, closed all winter, spectacular the moment it opens. Woody Creek Tavern — Hunter S. Thompson's local, ten minutes down the valley, and unrepentantly itself.

The way to do it

Take the free bus system, which is excellent and links all four mountains. Ski Highlands rather than Ajax if you want space; Buttermilk if you are learning. In summer hike or bike in place of driving, and book the Bells shuttle early. Whatever the season, go to something in the evening: a concert, a lecture, a reading — that is the half of Aspen most visitors miss.

One perfect day

Coffee on the main street, then the gondola up Ajax for first tracks while the town is still in shadow. Two hours of steep groomers, then across on the bus to Highlands for the bowl if your legs allow. Long lunch at a mountain restaurant. Afternoon off the hill: the Aspen Art Museum or the Institute campus in the snow. Sauna, then an early drink at a bar where ski patrol drinks too. Dinner unhurried, and a concert or a talk at the Wheeler afterwards — the town's founding idea, still on the calendar.

Grand hotels

Hotel Jerome — 1889, built for the silver boom with electric light before most of Denver; the bar is the town's living room. The Little Nell — at the base of the gondola, the only ski-in-ski-out address in town and the social centre in season.

When to go

Best expression: March, deep snow with spring light, and the season's best conditions on all four mountains. Consider: late June to August, for the Music Festival, wildflowers and half the winter prices. Avoid if possible: Christmas and New Year, when the town is at capacity and the private jets stack up at Sardy Field.

The frame

Ideal stay 5 nights · Minimum 3 nights · Best arrival fly into Aspen itself, or Denver and four hours by road · Airport ASE, 6 km · Walkability excellent in the grid, with free buses beyond · Best without a car yes