Then & Now: The Evolution of Lift One

HISTORIC ASPEN

Aspen Mountain's Historic Lift One

Skiing on Aspen Mountain predates Lift One. By 1936–1937, Andre Roch had laid out Roch Run and Aspenites were using early uphill transport on the mountain. Aspen hosted the National Ski Championships in 1941.

The original Lift One began operating in 1946 and was formally opened in January 1947, helping establish the western base of Aspen Mountain as the heart of Aspen's lift-served skiing. The lift and the buildings that grew around it became a gathering place for generations of skiers and an important chapter in Aspen's emergence as a ski town.

Lift One A came later as the successor to Lift One. Through these changes, the western base retained its place in Aspen's skiing story — a history that is now being carried forward as the Lift One Corridor enters its next chapter.

THE HISTORIC CORRIDOR

The Lift One Corridor

The Lift One Corridor is the historic heart of Aspen's lift-served skiing. After decades of planning, the corridor is now being transformed into a cohesive mountainside district that will include Chalet Alpina, Aman Aspen, the planned new Lift One high-speed Telemix, combining gondola cabins and chairlift seating, the Aspen Snowsports History Museum at Skiers Chalet, and new public gathering places.

Chalet Alpina is situated at the center of this transformation — a new luxury resort and residential development on a site with deep history, positioned alongside the planned new Lift One high-speed Telemix, combining gondola cabins and chairlift seating, and at the heart of the new mountainside district.

A NEW CHAPTER

Historic Lift One Enters a New Chapter

Chalet Alpina is a new luxury resort and residential development at the base of Aspen Mountain within the historic Lift One Corridor. The project brings together a significant Aspen location with a new era of slopeside living, while the broader Lift One transformation preserves and reintroduces important elements of the area's skiing heritage.

THE TRANSFORMATION

What Is Changing

The corridor will include a separate Aman Aspen Hotel, formerly known as Gorsuch Haus, planned just above the Chalet Alpina site. Aman Aspen is expected to include approximately 74 hotel rooms and four private residences, bringing one of the world's most recognized luxury hospitality brands to the base of Aspen Mountain.

Together, Chalet Alpina, Aman Aspen, the planned new Lift One gondola and chairlift, restored historic structures, and new public spaces will reshape this side of Aspen Mountain while reconnecting the historic Lift One area with downtown Aspen.

For Chalet Alpina owners, the planned lift alignment through the property creates an unusually direct relationship between residence, mountain, and town.

PRESERVING THE PAST

What Will Remain

The original Lift One base terminal and historic lift structures dating to Aspen's early ski era are planned to be preserved as part of the redevelopment — a tangible connection to the origins of lift-served skiing on Aspen Mountain.

The Aspen Snowsports History Museum at Skiers Chalet is also planned as part of the corridor, creating a living connection to Lift One and early Aspen skiing for residents, owners, and visitors.

THE BUYER PERSPECTIVE

Why the Transformation Matters to a Buyer

The importance of the Lift One Corridor is not simply that it is changing. It is that one of Aspen's most historic, lift-served ski areas is being carried forward rather than left behind.

For a Chalet Alpina buyer, ownership becomes part of that continuing story: new residences taking shape alongside the planned new Lift One high-speed Telemix, combining gondola cabins and chairlift seating, preserved historic elements, and a renewed relationship between Aspen Mountain and downtown.

The history gives the location its meaning; the transformation gives it its next chapter.