Aspen Skiing Company
Encyclopedia : A : AS : ASP : Aspen Skiing Company
The Aspen Skiing Company is a commercial enterprise based in Aspen, Colorado in the United States. Founded in 1946 by Walter Paepcke, it operates the Aspen/Snowmass resort complex, comprising four ski areas near the town of Aspen.
Paepcke, a successful Chicago industrialist, founded the company as part of larger effort at turning Aspen, a somewhat forgotten silver mining town, into an idyllic center for the advancement of the mind and body. As part of the larger effort, Paepcke also founded other cultural institutions such as the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. The company established the Aspen Mountain ski resort on the flank of the mountain of the same name above the town of Aspen. The first single-chair lift, Lift-1, opened on December 14, 1946 and was the world's longest chairlift at the time. In 1950, the company hosted the FIS World Alpine Championships, the first international skiing competition in the United States. In the following decades, the company opened Buttermilk in 1958 and Snowmass (originally the Snowmass-at-Aspen Ski Area) in 1967. In 1993 the company assumed ownership and operation of Aspen Highlands, which had operated under different ownership since 1958.
As of 2005, the President and CEO of the company is Pat O'Donnell.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.