Total Area 675 acres Annual Snowfall 300 inches 1 Silver Queen Gondola, 1 high-speed quad, 2 quads, 1 high-speed double, 3 doubles Lifts Book It Online! Ski Packages Ski Lodging Only

Aspen''s four mountains, each with its own style, give skiers a variety unsurpassed by any other North American resort. Aspen Mountain, 53 years young this winter, remains a challenging classic, for two-plankers only (no snowboards). Aspen Highlands offers terrain for all ability levels, with great easy slopes on the bottom and spectacular intermediate to high-expert trails, glades, and bowls above. Buttermilk is Aspen''s congenial area for new and intermediate skiers and families, offering terrific ski and snowboard instruction. Customer service at all four areas includes free postcards and postage available at all ticket offices and a huge cadre of volunteer"ski ambassadors" who give complimentary mountain tours and answer questions and more services. Best service idea? It''s pretty cool to check your equipment at the end of the day at the bottom of one mountain, pay $2, and find it waiting for you at another the next morning. Performance Centers on Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk offer diagnostics such as video analysis, as well as boot fitting and canting.

Where: 200 miles from Denver, via I-70 and Colorado 82.

What''s There: Four mountains, accessible on one fully interchangeable ticket. Right in town is fabled Aspen Mountain, with a 3,267-foot vertical drop, 76 trails, 675 acres, one Silver Queen Gondola, one high-speed quad, two quads, one high-speed double and three doubles. Nearby are Aspen Highlands, with a 3,635-foot vertical drop, 112 trails, 714 acres, three high-speed quads, and one triple chair, and Buttermilk, with a 2,030-foot vertical drop, 43 trails, 420 acres, one high-speed quad and five doubles. Snowmass is 12 miles away. Aspen and all four mountains are linked by free ski buses.

What''s New: At the Aspen Skiing Company''s flagship mountain, venerable Aspen Mountain, the old mountaintop landmark called the Sundeck was razed and replaced with a new $14 million summit lodge. The name remains the same, but the new Sundeck features 30-foot ceilings, a huge moss-rock fireplace, and great views. It houses a cafeteria, a sit-down restaurant, and what is described as a "semi-private club." Elsewhere on the mountain, Gwyn Gordon Knowlton, who long operated Gwyn''s High Alpine Restaurant at Snowmass, now runs the restaurant at the bottom of the Ruthie''s chairlift on Aspen Mountain.

Of Aspen''s four ski areas, Aspen Highlands has recently been undergoing the biggest changes. Like Copper Mountain and Winter Park, the simple base area is being redeveloped into a base village over two years. This season sees the opening of a fancy new day lodge, called the Skier Services Building, at the base and the new Cloud Nine high-speed quad has replaced three slow, old chairlifts. This means that no lift at the Highlands is older than five years-the youngest "fleet" in the West.

	Book It Online! Complete Ski Packages - let us do all the work. Complete ski packages including lodging, lift tickets and ground transportation. Ski Lodging - online reservations for top accomodations. Real time rates, availablility and instant confirmations.

Season: End of November to Mid-April.

Snowboarding: Not on Aspen Mountain; permitted at Highlands and Buttermilk.

Terrain: Intermediate 35%, Advanced 35%, Expert 30%

Average Annual Snowfall: Aspen receives approximately 300 inches of snow per season.

Ski School: There are 125 ski school staff members. Instruction at all levels for skiing and snowboarding for adults and children. Adaptive ski lessons are available at all Aspen ski areas.

Contact: Aspen Mountain, tel. (888) 290-1325 or (303) 925-1220.

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