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Aspen Journalism
Data dashboard: Three-quarters of the rooms in Aspen and Snowmass were booked in February
Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. Paid occupancy in Aspen reached 77.5% in February, down from 79% last year. Snowmass recorded 74.3% paid occupancy, down from 2023’s 74.9%, according to the February 2024 occupancy report for Aspen and Snowmass lodges, compiled by local tourism officials and reservations tracking firm Destimetrics. February occupancy reached 75.9% for the two towns combined this year, down from 76.9% last year.
The recycling symbol’s Aspen roots
As a shy and bearded young architecture student at the University of Southern California in the spring of 1970, Gary Anderson happened upon a flyer advertising a graphic-design contest. It called for students to create a symbol to promote the recycling of paper products, with a winner to be selected at that summer’s International Design Conference at Aspen.
Crystal River mapping project
Beginning high in the Elk Mountains, the Crystal River flows 40 miles through three counties, cutting a canyon under the flanks of Mount Sopris and winding past the towns of Marble, Redstone and Carbondale before joining with the Roaring Fork River. Along the way, its waters turn mesa hayfields, acres of alfalfa and Carbondale parks and lawns a verdant green.
In dry years, Colorado’s Crystal River runs at a trickle — but why?
In 2012, one of the driest years in Colorado in recent memory, the Crystal River practically dried up. Ken Neubecker, a now-retired Colorado projects director at environmental group American Rivers and former member of the Pitkin County Healthy Rivers board, recalls the stream conditions. “I took a photo on the...
From Bauhaus to birdhouse
Eggheads meet cowboys in this story about Herbert Bayer’s journey from Austria to Aspen. Indelibly shaped by World War I and his studies at the German Bauhaus design school, circumstances chronicle Bayer’s hasty exit in 1938 to escape Adolf Hitler and settle in idyllic 1946 Aspen as Walter Paepcke’s go-to designer in the reinventing of the town.
Lower basin calls for upper basin cuts; upper basin says ‘no way’
In two separate proposals for how the nation’s two largest reservoirs should be managed, the upper and lower Colorado River basin states agree on a couple things, but can’t find common ground on whether the upper basin should take cuts when reservoir levels fall. Proposals submitted to the...
Data dashboard: Lake Powell’s water levels down, Roaring Fork snowpack is up
Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. Snowpack in the Roaring Fork basin reached an average of 13.4 inches of snow-water equivalent per site on March 3, or 100% of median. That’s up from 12.2 inches on Feb. 25 and from 96% of median, according to NRCS.
Data dashboard: Swinging air temperatures
Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. Snowpack in the Roaring Fork basin reached an average of 12.2 inches of snow-water equivalent per site on Feb. 25, or 96% of median. That’s up from 11.8 inches on Feb. 18 but down from 102% of median, according to NRCS.
SkiCo closes Hero’s ski area boundary, impacting backcountry access
Aspen Skiing Co. has closed the operating boundary around the skier’s right and bottom portion of the new Hero’s terrain on Aspen Mountain, in a departure from its preexisting open-boundary policy in place with few exceptions across its four local ski areas. The move to close the boundary,...
Data dashboard: January occupancy influenced by global economy
Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. Paid occupancy in Aspen reached 69.3% in January, down from 79.3% last year. Snowmass recorded 72% paid occupancy, down from 2023’s 73.1%, according to the January 2023 occupancy report for Aspen and Snowmass lodges, compiled by local tourism officials and reservations tracking firm Destimetrics. January occupancy reached 71.6% for the two towns combined this year, down from 76.1% last year.
The battle for the Aspen Idea: Community or commodity?
“Aspen is caught between two competing triads: The Platonic – representing the good, the true and the beautiful; and the Machiavellian – representing money, fame and power.”. – Mortimer Adler, resident philosopher of the Aspen Institute. When Elizabeth Paepcke (1902-1994), in her final years, reflected on the Aspen...
Colorado Springs agrees to give up water rights for Summit County reservoirs
Colorado Springs has agreed to give up water rights tied to reservoirs in the Blue River basin in exchange for the ability to expand Montgomery Reservoir on the east side of the Continental Divide without opposition from Western Slope entities. Colorado Springs Utilities had been fighting in water court since...
Presentation details Lincoln Creek contamination but solutions unclear
Presenters at a public meeting Thursday about contamination on Lincoln Creek hosted by agencies that oversee water quality offered a lot of information, but few solutions yet to the problem. The meeting, held at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Basalt, featured the results of water quality sampling and presentations from...
Post-war rise of skiing and culture creates both opportunity and rift
Editor’s note: A thorough examination of the evolution of the Aspen community requires the division of five historic epochs: the Utes, silver mining, the Quiet Years, culture and skiing, and the age of affluence. As a subset of the “In search of community” series from Aspen Journalism and Paul Andersen, we examine this progression in a four-part story “Aspen’s embattled community.” This is the third part, looking at the post-war rise of skiing and culture. Read other stories in the series here.
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Aspen Journalism is a local, nonprofit and investigative journalism organization in Aspen, Colorado. Our mission is to produce excellent journalism, as well-informed citizens make better decisions and journalism is key to a functioning democracy.
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