White Space

With climate change impacting the ski season, Aspen is leading resorts around the country in a fight to hold on to winter

JONATHAN THOMPSON

Beneath his easy demeanor and Hollywood smile, the mayor of Aspen is a worried man. He knows how this pretty mountain town once collapsed along with the silver-mining industry. Now he’s frightened about the loss of an equally valuable resource. “Our snow is running out,” says Torre (like regular Aspen-goer Rihanna, he goes by just one name). “That’s a major problem when you’re a ski resort.” The numbers are, frankly, alarming. Aspen already gets a month less of skiing than it did in the 1940s, with snow levels across Colorado having receded by 20 to 60 percent. If drastic action isn’t taken, the Environmental Protection Agency warns that the standard ski season will be halved by 2050. “We have to keep shouting this message from the mountaintops in order to preserve…

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Conde Nast Traveler (Digital) - 1 Issue, January/February 2021

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