Building Communities That Last: Aspen One's Housing and Childcare Solutionsd Episode

In this episode Heather Henry, VP of Housing and Childcare at Aspen One, joins the Ski Moms to discuss the critical infrastructure that keeps ski communities livable for families: affordable housing and accessible childcare. 

Aspen One operates Aspen Snowmass (four mountains), Aspen Hospitality, and Aspen Ventures, employing over 4,000 people at peak season. The company provides 1,300 beds, housing 75% of seasonal workers but only 15% of year-round employees. They take a "housing continuum" approach and subsidize housing to keep costs at 20-30% of employee income.

Childcare presents major challenges, with families joining waitlists before pregnancy and waiting three years for spots. Heather focuses on strategic partnerships rather than building massive facilities. The company culture embraces work-life balance, with leadership encouraging employees to "sample the product" through mountain activities during work hours.

We loved hearing about Heather’s favorite apres ski spots including the Sun Deck at Aspen Mountain, Ranger Station at Snowmass and pretty much any sunny mountain location for people watching and hot chocolate (sometimes with Irish whiskey).

Keep up with the latest from Aspen One at https://aspen.com

Notable Quote: "Stable housing means a healthy community, which means a sustainable company."

Junior Lease appointments at Ski Haus are open! Book for each child 16 or under to get skis or a snowboard, boots, and bindings—plus a free Tenney season pass, Cranmore ticket & more. skihaus.com

This autumn, Ulster County is the perfect place for a family-friendly getaway.  Learn more at  visitulstercountyny.com/

Join us at the Snowbound Expo in Boston at the Menino Convention & Exhibition Center from November 14-16, 2025. Get your $5 day passes or $10 weekend tickets with code MOMTRENDS10 here.

Shop the Diamant Weekend Warrior Bag 2.0 at www.diamantskiing.com and use code SKIMOMS to save 10%

Invest in your season with this TSA Approved carry-on boot bag, it's a game changer and built to last. 

Transcript

Speaker A: Welcome back to the Ski Moms podcast. It's season five and we're hitting the slopes. We're sharing real unfiltered stories of motherhood on the snow. From conquering the bunny hill with toddlers to squeezing in your own powder days, this season celebrates every type of ski mob.

Thanks for joining us. We've got a great season lined up and be sure to subscribe. So you never miss an episode. And you're based in Aspen, so basalt.

Speaker B: Yeah. 10 miles outside of Aspen.

Speaker A: And that's heading like towards Beaver Creek.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So if you have i70 and Vail, Beaver Creek, and then you get off in Glenwood, you get off of i70 and Glenwood, and then there's kind of the string of communities.

So it's Glenwood, Carbondale, Basalt, Aspen.

Speaker A: Think as I'm driving through, I'm like, oh, these are where the real people live. You know, the people who are teachers and firemen and, you know,

managers of things that.

Speaker B: Not.

Speaker A: Not that real people don't live in Aspen.

Speaker B: But I know, I know what you mean. Trust me, I know what you mean.

Speaker A: Or the people who run the daycare or the people.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: Well, you're. We're touching on two of our very favorite things.

Housing for families and childcare for families. The ski moms are super excited to be chatting with Heather Henry today.

She is the vice president of housing and childcare at Aspen 1. Two things that Sarah and I do, cartwheels to talk about and to make sure that they are in the forefront of what the ski community is talking about and focusing.

We both love a high speed bubble lift, don't get us wrong.

But we often feel like that's sort of the jazz hands of the ski industry.

And we want to talk about the things that really make the difference when it comes to keeping families in the sport, growing this sport. So we are so excited. Welcome, Heather.

Speaker B: Thank you so much.

Speaker C: If we could just start with telling us a little bit more about what Aspen One is.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Aspen One is the parent operating entity to three different operating companies. So Aspen, Snowmass.

And that's what probably most of your ski moms have known for many years. So that's the Aspen Skiing Company. Aspen Snowmass is our four mountains. Snowmass, Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands and Aspen Mountain right in the town of Aspen.

And then we also have Aspen Hospitality. So that's two brands right now, the Limelight Hotels and the Little no.

And then Aspen Ventures.

So that's our retail and clothing line as well as our Adventure Concierge Services. And that's under Aspen Ventures.

So Aspen One is the umbrella to that. And so as vice president, I'm in Aspen 1, so that as I'm working on our housing and childcare programs, I'm doing that for all of the employees of all three of those entities.

Speaker A: And Heather, tell us a little bit of your origin story. How did you fall in love with winter and playing outside in the snow?

Speaker B: So I grew up in Connecticut and believe it or not, oh, we used to get tons and tons of snow regularly all winter long.

It's wild now, right? My parents will text me at Christmas and it's like 65 degrees. But yeah, back then we got lots of snow and we'd have six foot snow drifts in the backyard.

And I just loved playing outside with my brother and sister and we'd make snow forts. And my grandparents lived five minutes away. They had the sledding hill,

so we'd go sledding in their yard.

Yeah. So I think that was it. Right? I love the seasons. I love how our seasons change here in Colorado.

I loved it as a kid in New England.

Speaker C: Did you grow up skiing around New England?

Speaker B: You know, I really didn't.

My family honestly was not super well to do when I was a little kid, and that's a. It's a tough sport to get into. And so I did all the things in town.

I played basketball and all those things. And so anything we did in the snow was pretty homegrown.

I put my feet in ski boots for the first time when I was about 17.

The soccer team went up to Stowe, but it was basically following my best friend at the top of the mountain. And the only thing open was Black Diamond.

She's like, you can do it.

Okay,

here we go.

So that was how it started and then really started skiing when I moved out here to Colorado when I was about 24.

Speaker A: You didn't learn as a little kid like many people that we have on the podcast. You probably didn't dream of this career for yourself when you were in high school, because you probably didn't even know these.

A lot of these jobs existed. How did you find your way to Aspen? 1.

Speaker B: I think about this Venn diagram. So professionally I my background is in land planning, entitlements, landscape architecture. I moved to Colorado for the job. I worked for a nationally renowned landscape architecture and land planning company.

So I was doing that.

Then I started my own business about 16 years ago with two other founding partners,

and we were working on all sorts of Projects.

I worked in the ski industry, master planning for ski areas all around the West.

So as soon as I moved out here, I was just like diving into the ski industry and everything that came along with it. And then when I started my own company.

So 16 years ago, this crisis after the Great Recession really started to take hold around housing especially.

So I found myself working on a lot of affordable housing, workforce housing projects, et cetera.

And then in the community,

I was on the planning commission. I was an elected official in Carbondale, Colorado, here in the Roaring Fork Valley.

I was one of the founding members of our regional housing coalition.

So that was kind of happening. And then third in the Venn diagram was just personally,

my daughter, when she was in fourth grade,

one of her best friends was homeless and was living in a tent.

And you know, Eli came home and said, and was crying and said, hey, people are making fun of my friend. They say she doesn't smell good and she's get bad, bad grades.

And it was heartbreaking.

So those three things kind of came together.

And my friends would move away, they'd get married. That'd be the one right life moment. They'd move away and then they'd. Or if they stayed, they'd have kids and then they'd move away.

Just these life moments made it harder and harder to stay here.

So when this position came up, I was not looking right. I had a company I had built for 16 years. I was not looking to move positions or careers. And a friend told me about this position and said, hey, if you know of anyone,

you know,

let us know. You don't have to send us your best employee or anything. And. And I went home and yeah, I, I couldn't sleep. You know those moments when the universe is kind of whacking you with a two by four over the head and I, I couldn't sleep and I couldn't stop thinking about it and I decided this was something that I needed to do.

Speaker A: I am so glad that the universe found you.

And you know our number one podcast to date, number one, most downloads of anything is about affordable housing for the industry.

It's not president of Vail Resort, you know, some, it's not Olympians, it's talking about housing. So that just shows you the community does care deeply. And Aspen One, you know, we think about,

when I think the average person thinks about Aspen, they're thinking about like Rolexes, range rovers.

But Aspen1 made a strategic focus,

childcare and housing. Why do you think they did that?

Speaker B: Aspen is,

is all of those things the, the community of Aspen and it's one of the most generous communities,

you know, in the country. Honestly,

the amount of philanthropy in this community is just absolutely staggering.

As a company,

Aspen One has been a values driven company since its inception.

Aspen One and the Aspen Skiing Company has been working on workforce housing and affordable housing for 30 years. When I joined,

we have 1300 beds that we provide for our employees,

our seasonal workforce. So the group that comes in and runs that mountain, right, it gives everybody this incredible service all winter long.

We house over 75% of that workforce.

So those, those three decades was really working very hard on stabilizing that part of the workforce.

So when I joined,

what we really started to do was focus on the housing continuum.

And this could be a whole podcast,

the housing Continuum. But it's essentially that idea that you have a housing journey. And so our employees, because we're so interested in bringing someone in maybe for a season and then they say I, I love this, I want to stay for a year, I want to get a year round position.

And then they stay for a year and then they're moving up. We're a wonderful company at cultivating from within,

making sure we get people continuing education and then they're able to move into a manager position and then director and senior director and you know, vice president someday. And right.

The one of the ladies that just retired started as a lift operator and she retired, retired as, you know, running all four of our mountains. So we're really good at that.

Right. And so along with that employee journey comes this housing journey and the housing continuum.

So as you change and as you grow as a person,

say you find a partner, then you want to have children.

Right. You're not living in the same studio, you're not living in some of our seasonal housing. What I was able to, to do and kind of what happened, let's say as of two years ago, a year and a half ago, was just shifting the thinking around, really analyzing our,

the housing we had,

what our employees needed and what was the gap and just adding additional resources.

Me along with money and all the things that were going to come along with building more and more housing and more and more housing directed to this gap that we had.

And the gap really being year round housing.

So that's what our primary strategic focus is right now is around year round housing geared towards families and managers and people with partners. And everyone wants dogs, right? Like all of these things,

we laugh and it's incredibly important as you think about the housing continuum and what people are Looking for.

Speaker C: And how does that work for the employees in terms of the package that they're being offered? Is it like subsidized?

Just like financially, how does it all work out?

Speaker B: Let's say compared to if they had to rent in the free market in. Even in the mid valley, meaning basalt. So 10 or 15 miles outside of Aspen right now,

individual bedrooms are renting at anywhere between 2,000 and $3,000 per bedroom.

Somebody we're working with said, wow, you guys are almost creeping up on Manhattan rents.

It's like that's, that's not a good thing.

Absolutely. As we put in housing, we're basically subsidizing that,

that housing so that people are seeing that where it is more comparable to what they can afford.

Right. So using some traditional modeling, around 30% of people's income and,

and, and actually we're looking at that a little bit differently as well. So as you're in lower income categories,

while the model has traditionally been 30%,

that works really well when you're making about the area median income or above.

When you're below that, there's kind of a model around residual income.

So people that are making quite a bit less than that, they really need to be somewhere in the 20% range. Especially if they're renting, they're not going to be able to afford a home.

So a big part of what we're doing is making sure that we are able to rent to our employees. That's something they can afford and have some of their additional income where they're able to save up.

All of our, all of our housing is rental.

What's happening in the community is much more mixed and we help other community programs to make sure that there's other housing available through our affordable housing programs.

So we look to stabilize people so they also have other opportunities on that housing journey. They might be ready to purchase a home, et cetera. So they can be stabilized with us and then start to look around so that maybe they can get into a habitat for humanity home.

They can get into Aspen picking county housing authority or Garfield county housing. They can do the buy down program through the regional housing coalition. Right. They just end up with more opportunities.

Once they're stabilized and they feel like they're not pouring everything into their rent,

then they can look for other opportunities,

stability.

Then they kind of go from there.

Speaker A: One of the things that piqued my interest with talking to was the tiny town.

I love the concept. And when I saw this tiny town meets housing crisis, I was like, I gotta learn More about this. Tell us about Tiny Town.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Tiny Town is fantastic.

You, I'm sure have heard about tiny homes we all have,

right, who are living in the affordable housing space.

And when you have the right site, tiny homes can be absolutely the perfect solution.

And that's what we happen to have. One of the sites that we had was a campground. So it was RV campground and it ended up being a really great fit to transition into tiny homes.

Tinytown has been about over five years in its evolution.

Because we started really small, we said let's do a phase one, let's move some tiny homes in and, and see how it goes, see how they're received,

see how people like them, see what the transition is like. And it was really, it was really great.

So we ended up doing phase at a time and we were able to move tiny homes in right about 20 at a time, let's say something like that.

And now we have 95 tiny homes out. And so we've fully transitioned the RV campground into the tiny homes.

And the wonderful part as well about tinytown is that it is very flexible and very kind of resilient.

So right now, our last phase, we're using these really fabulous new two bedroom tiny homes for that year round employee.

And then a number of the other three bedroom homes are for our seasonal staff. So folks that are here all winter and then we transition into the summer,

we're able to provide some community housing not, not our employees in the summertime as well and we might have fewer seasonal employees, et cetera.

So it's been really great and it's just this fabulous, fabulous little community.

We struggled to figure out how to name it or what to name it. And everyone said, well, we already call it Tiny Town. Why would we call it anything different?

So okay, Tiny Town it is. And now we're making the signage and just rolling with its quirkiness and you know, all the fun things that go with tiny towns. So it's been really great, super well received and it's really lovely to have some of these units as well be able to serve our year round employees.

Right. It's perfect for a couple that can come in. And again it's about that like stability.

They can be in one of those units,

there's parking,

all those things that, right you need when it's that next step on the continuum moving away from seasonal and you just want somewhere to be around.

Doesn't fit everywhere. Just so everyone knows I am not like tiny homes everywhere proponent. But it, it really, when you, when it's the right site. We talk about like, right site, right fit, right housing.

And you put those together and that really was, it was such a perfect fit.

Speaker A: We've heard about tenants for turns in the Mad River Valley.

I see an, an AD every preseason in, in the fall at Sugarbush.

Tell us more about that. It seems like a pretty creative idea for some of the housing issues.

Speaker B: It's such a great program. It's this wonderful way, I think the community is always,

everyone knows the crisis. Everyone knows the right breadth and depth of, of the housing crisis in there.

The community, I think, comes forward, how do we help? What can we do?

And so Tenants Returns has become this amazing way for the community to be able to participate in the solution just on this really easy day to day basis.

So our Tenants Returns program is in its fifth year.

Last year we housed almost 200 employees. Yeah, phenomenal, right in this valley,

you know, we're up to probably half a million dollars to build an affordable housing unit.

So do the math.

200 employees. It's absolutely amazing, the program.

So essentially anyone in the community can put their,

a spare bedroom,

an adu,

you know, if they have a second unit that they own in the valley, they can put their whole unit, whole house into this program.

And essentially they list with us and they list their home or,

or space, right? Bedroom.

And if it's rented to one of our employees,

we then give that landlord some perks.

So they can choose a ski pass or day passes, right? They already have their ski pass, but friends come to town and they want to use those day passes or a gift card.

And so it's kind of this win, win. They, they rent to our employee. They still get all the rent. They would, they would like, they list at whatever they want to put their unit up for, but then they get this extra perk from us on top of it.

I always thought of it like foreign exchange program,

right? Like when kids are in high school and they go somewhere, but they're living in someone's home and they're living in the community and, and you have that mutual sharing of someone from somewhere else shares their experience and then there's someone who's living here and they might give our employee little tips and tricks about how to take the bus and where to go to dinner and you know,

where the cheapest pupusa is and all those, all those things. So I kind of think about it that way. So it's a huge win win. And when you look at how many employees we're able to house through this program, it's just wonderful.

Speaker A: Before we jump to childcare, is there anything else in the housing continuum? We're gonna, I'm gonna say that a lot today that you want to highlight that Aspen One has been doing.

Speaker B: You know, I'm, I'm really excited for our future plans and our strategic goals. I think you, you mentioned it, right? We're trying to get away from that.

Ugh. How do we just cling to season,

season by season and really take the long view?

That's one of our values, is to take the long view and look at how we can make sure that we stabilize our employees. I think stable housing means a healthy community,

which means a sustainable company.

Right. And those things are just leapfrogging off of each other. And yeah, our whole team is just so excited about what the future holds.

Speaker A: I just have a question about just.

Speaker C: The scale of all this. Like how many employees are we talking about approximately, I guess say at the peak, and how many or what percentage of that are you housing through these various programs?

Speaker B: Yeah, so we balloon up to over 4,000 employees in the wintertime. So at the peak.

And so our 1300 beds of those,

probably about 75% are for our seasonal housing. And that's where we, we have stabilized about that 75% of our seasonal housing workforce.

And then the, the rest, say the 25%, they're able to find housing in the Aspen, picking county housing authority tenants, returns, et cetera. So that's where we're able to stabilize that workforce.

As soon as we move past that,

that's where we really drop off. Right. And we're only housing,

say 15%, something like that of our year round workforce.

So that's where our strategic housing plan for the next five to 10 years is really focused on that year round employee. And our goal will be to house 50% of that part of our workforce.

And then again all those other programs that are in the valley, what we want to do is make sure people are stabilized and then they're able to tap into other programs, other affordable housing opportunities, et cetera.

Our free market housing in this valley. And even as you go outside the Roaring Fork Valley and you're getting to sort of the I70 Colorado river corridor,

free market housing is, at this point, unless we see a very significant correction,

is, is really out of reach for pretty much most of our workforce.

And so we've got to look at those kind of numbers to stabilize and then also helping the community continue to build more and more affordable housing that's accessible for, for Everyone.

For the entire workforce, our employees, and everyone else in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Speaker A: Well, I feel like housing and families go hand in hand when we're talking about making mountain towns more livable and keeping talent in place, specifically, you know, families.

We know that childcare access can be a major stressor for continuing for both men and women in their careers. You know, we've got to stop talking about as an issue that just affects women.

And we were excited to see in that press release, not only was it about tiny homes, but it was about a partnership with a group called the Blue Lake Preschool.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that partnership?

Speaker B: We built the story a couple minutes ago about housing, I think,

and when we talk about this, it's gonna resonate, I'm sure, with your listeners all around the country.

It's astonishing how severe the issue is here.

And for us, it's both cost and access.

So just the cost of childcare and then access to seats.

You know, people are.

Sometimes they.

They're not even pregnant yet. They're just thinking about starting a family.

And you have to call around and put yourself on wait lists. Even when people do that, they'll be on the wait list for three years or more and. And maybe never even get a C.

And so then there's the scramble when you do finally have kids. And when I talked about friends moving away,

often it's move back to family,

to wherever family is. Right. And so it's sort of this forced migration because they have to go somewhere where there's some additional resources,

grandparents that can watch your kids, et cetera.

And so the Blue Lake partnership was amazing.

They came to us and said,

we have our building permits.

We have the site. This was an expansion on their existing facility in Carbondale.

We're. We're ready. We have shovel ready. That's what we call it, right? Shovel ready. To add,

it was essentially an infant room.

Expand the toddler room and add after school care, which their Carbondale facility did not have,

and so add enough seats to help probably 70 families.

We're ready.

What we don't have is the financing.

So they had been doing certain government, you know, USDA loans,

just taking a really long time. Very uncertain whether those were going to come through.

Interest rates are through the roof. So really traditional financing,

they had a whole bunch of their own matching funds, private donations, et cetera.

They were going after grants. So here was this gap to fill, and they really just needed this. This nudge to fill that gap and be able to put the shovel in the ground and get going.

And so we were able to help with that. We did a partial donation as well as a partial low interest loan,

so low interest financing and arranged the donation through the Aspen Community Foundation.

And boom, Shovel in the ground had that extra nudge.

So when you think about that wait list, how long people are waiting, the minute you can open the doors to any other licensed seats, it's a game changer.

So I think our partnering,

we find that to be a really unique way to quietly,

I mean, we could go and build a huge childcare facility and put someone's name all over it, things like that.

But this is a better use of funds because our funds can go a really long way when we do this and we're operating through these entities.

Blue Lake has been in operation for 27 years, something like that.

So just a really strategic way to leverage funds from our perspective where it can make a huge difference. $1 goes a lot further than just $1.

So it was a great partnership and I hope, right, it's like that one bump to get 70 families off the wait list.

Speaker C: I'm sure there was a lot of excitement around that. I'm just kind of, I remember in New York City when you had to get on those wait lists and, and run around and do interviews and crazy things for, for preschool.

So I'm sure people really appreciate that. And is there.

So with these additional seats that are opening up, is there like a, is there also a partnership? Is it with Aspen1 in terms of your, your own employees or is it just still going to be like an open, first come, first serve?

Speaker B: Yeah, we, we do some priority. So, so with doing, with doing the loan funds, we're able to do some priority for our employees.

Yeah, and great. It's, it's both. Right? So that 70 families, that, that's not all Aspen one. So we're able to open up that wait list to the community as well as our employees.

So that's the other piece of this as such an amazing partnership.

Speaker A: You know, we both love the comfort of a high speed tram getting us up to the top of the mountain faster.

But I get more excited. I mean, honestly, like tears are coming to my eyes. I'm literally on the edge of my seat as you're talking about like tiny towns and expanded childcare.

Because I do feel like that is something that truly moves the needle for everybody's ski experience.

Have you seen a lot of support from the community?

You know, do you hear like a great exhale amongst the locals in Aspen that Somebody is at the helm and really fighting for their family life.

Speaker B: Yes.

Within the community of Aspen 1 and the employees. I mean, when the Blue Lake, right.

Press release went out,

I probably got almost a dozen direct emails, right, that just said thank you so much.

So one mom, soon to be mom,

emailed and said,

I am due in October.

And we had been on all these wait lists and this is now making open and available and this edition. And now I like, breathe a sigh of relief. I know that in.

Right. Three months,

I like, my kid has a place I can do maternity leave, I can focus on that, then I can focus on going back to work,

all these things. So I think certainly our employees have reached out and it's been really well received.

I think the community is really excited to see all of us, Aspen1,

as well as other employees as well as our municipalities,

just be laser focused on. On how to get this done.

It can seem like a very daunting problem,

right. When you think about the cost of building housing and the breadth and depth of the crisis. Who's struggling with both housing and childcare?

Our childcare providers are trying to find housing for their employees. And that's. Right. One of their. That's the. This nexus and one of the things that they're struggling with. So the.

The more we're all rowing in the same direction.

Speaker C: Well, it's obviously amazing all of the things that you're doing in your role and I would just love to hear a little bit about what your day looks like.

I know there's probably no. No typical day, but if you were to give me just like a high level of what a day looks like, how you spend your time, I'd love to.

I'd love to hear.

Speaker B: So I have three big chunks. I have a development team and so we're working on what we've been talking about in terms of adding new housing. So we have two new housing projects that were in that press release that will equate to about 140 new units here in the Roaring Fork Valley.

So that takes a lot of time. They're in design phases, they're in land use entitlement phases.

I'll go to a meeting in Snowmass this afternoon to take the next step on one of the projects there.

I have an operations team.

So that operations team is the one making sure that 1300 beds,

you know, are rented to our employees and the leases are in place and we're doing our budgeting.

So we're looking at a lot of efficiency improvements in our operations team and how we operate, knowing we're going to add a lot of housing in the future,

different types of housing,

we're pulling apart, putting back together some of our processes around that.

And then the child care team. And so that's really keeping track of what's happening in the, in the Valley.

We're moving forward with a child care subsidy program that we're really excited about. So that's coming to its culmination to be able to release that in the next few months to our employees.

So that's helping with the cost side while we do some of these other partnerships to help with access side.

So I'm working with that team. So that tends to have a few touches,

you know, at least during the week, if not every day, especially right now.

And yeah, so that's. And then it's budget season,

so we gotta do budgets too.

Speaker A: Heather, are you in the office every day?

Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Sometimes I get to work from home.

You know, Carbondale is just a little ways away, but I'm 10, 10 miles away or less.

But sometimes I like to just, yeah. Hang out at home and do my work, but pretty much in the office every day. Yep.

Speaker A: So. And how do you find time? I mean, the reason people come to Aspen is I'm glad that you're working on all these big projects, but people come there for the outdoor life and to get out into nature.

How are you making sure that you do that so you stay fueled and creative and motivated to do this important work?

Speaker B: I try really hard to make sure I'm not just a weekend warrior. That's for sure.

I am definitely out on the weekends, but our company is really supportive of exactly that. Right. So this, like, live fully and honor people in place.

And you can't do that unless you get out in and,

and sample the product,

as our CEO says.

So,

I mean, even if it's just head out onto the mountain. At lunch,

I snuck out and did our downhill bike park in Snowmass. Oh, just fantastic. And I did a little clinic that was just amazing last week.

So you just have to make the time. I think our housing is up and down the valley, so I can go up, see the housing team in Snowmass and then head up and, and get a couple laps on the mountain.

Right.

And so just making sure that I combine those things and,

and,

and, and spend the time with my family as well.

My daughter loves skiing also, and so we make sure we get out as much as we possibly can.

It's. It has to be a priority.

Speaker A: So I'm imagining all of the corporate offices there.

Either in ski season, there's skis in the corner with a. And will have their, like, base layers on at work. Or in summer, there's, like, a mountain bike propped in the corner.

Is that right?

Speaker B: Yep, that's. You nailed it. I mean, several skis. Yes. Yep, Yep. Ski racks, basically, in most of the offices. Yeah.

Speaker A: And I'd love for somebody from the operations team to say, like, Heather, maybe we could go talk about this on. On the lift. And you're like, you know what? That's a much better idea than in an office.

Speaker B: Yep, totally. Yep. That's exactly right. Somebody. Or I'll come up with the idea. Let's go meet up there. Yep. You got it. Yeah.

Speaker C: Like you had. You said you have to do your research. You have to. You have to go test the product. This is part of the job.

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker C: It's not easy. Someone has to do it.

Speaker B: Totally.

Speaker C: At the end of your ski day, we always love to ask people, especially in Aspen. I feel like it's the.

The home of apres ski in many ways. Where do you apres ski in Aspen? You know, we'd love to hear about some of your favorite little spots and, you know, and what.

What does it look like?

Speaker B: It's definitely on the mountain. I love apres. As you get into the spring where the air is cold, but the sun is just so warm and you've got,

like, a tank top on. Just sitting in the snow in the sun and hanging out. And so it's never one particular place. Right.

The sun deck, obviously, at Aspen Mountain.

But I like hanging out the ranger station in Snowmass, too, and watch. I like being on the side of the mountain for apres. Right. Just to watch people ski, too.

They're either ripping it if they're like, my daughter and her friends,

or they're, like, absolutely exhausted.

The little kids melting down.

Right.

Moms, dads enjoy that moment. I think it's, like, beautiful. It just shows they had an amazing day,

as hard as it is when they're just losing their minds at the end of the day.

But my daughter's 16 and time flies, so I don't know. Enjoy those moments. So that's. Yeah. I still like hot chocolate. It might have some Irish whiskey in it, but I still like that part for sure.

Of apres.

Speaker A: Well, we are so thrilled to have had you on the podcast, Heather, if people are interested in either learning about employment opportunities within the Aspen world. Of the three things that Aspen, one does or finding out more about the initiatives that you're taking.

Where can they go to learn more and find out more?

Speaker B: This is Aspen.com pretty easy. So that's that page is the Aspen one page and everything is on there, from careers to tenants returns,

a lot of our housing that'll take you to our housing page, et cetera. But from there you can get to Aspen Snowmass. If you're interested in working on the ski mountains,

you can. You can get to our Aspen hospitality, our limelights in all sorts of different places, right? We have a Denver Limelight and a Ketchum Limelight, and we're opening Boulder and Mammoth in the fall.

There's a lot of information on aspen.com to learn more about all the pieces of the puzzle.

Speaker A: Hey ski moms.

Speaker D: We hope you enjoyed today's episode and got some great tips for your next family ski adventure. If you had as much fun listening as we did making this episode, we'd love for you to hit hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on our latest episodes.

And don't forget to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love and helps other ski moms find our podcast.

Plus, we love hearing from you.

So whether you're on the slopes or just dreaming of your next snowy getaway, stay connected with us, follow us on social media,

share your favorite episodes with your friends, and let's keep this awesome community growing.