Aspen Party Wars

Everyone in Aspen knows that going hard is a life-style.  Whether you're a world-class mountain athlete, a weekend warrior, a socialite, a patron of the arts or a world class partier...Aspen provides the venue. 

Last weekend AspenSpin experienced the perfect storm.  Opening Day (Pow Pow) FIS World Cup Skiing and more events than you can count.   In Aspen... people don't just talk about going BIG....they do it. It's all part of living the dream.

AspenSpin crashed every party in Aspen in our effort to capture the energy, document the festivities, and blow the sh*t up virally on the web.     Click for pix.

ASPEN PARTY WARS (part 1)  and

LEGEND of Aaahhh's (movie premier)

Detroit in da House.

Kaycee,Stump and the Oates at Legend of Aahhs'

Skiing Legend Micah Black and his posse.

The Tiara Girlz and friends.

Aspen World Cup Skiing : Slalom

The fastest ladies on earth raced down Aspen Mountain at the FIS World Cup Skiing Event.

Slalom Final Results:          4 more pix, Click   FAST GIRLZ in ASPEN

Gold: Maria Pietilae-Holmner (SWE) Silver:  Maria Riesch (GER) Bronze:  Tanja Poutiainen (Fin)

FIS World Cup Skiing in Aspen. Slalom Podium

Lindsey Vonn brought the Vonntourage to Aspen.

Its always a POW day in Aspen for Resi Stiegler

AspenSpin and the Girl with the Gold Medal. Super-Swede Maria was stoked by her first World Cup Victory in Aspen

First Chair: Best Opening Day Ever in Aspen.

The Deep. Photo: Frank Shine / ASCAspen is a ski town, first and foremost.  Aspen has arts, culture, history, glitz and glamour....but its the mountains and the snow that are Aspen's greatest attributes.

When you live in a ski town the anticipation for opening day is palpable. Locals have been chomping at the bit since a huge blower storm hit us on on October 25. That POW followed by several blizzard-like cloudbursts  provided us with the best  pre-season base in recent memory.  We give THANKS 4 POW. Props to all those who have been working on the ski hill prepping for the rest of us. Kudos to those who have been earning their turns by skinning up the Power of Four. We've seen plenty of POV vids and professional photos from  FOSC.....Friends of Ski Co. ....jealous. But, 11/24/10, the day before Thanksgiving, ski season 2010/11 kicked off with a BANG in Aspen.....a full fledged POW DAY. 

AspenSpin is calling it the BEST OPENING DAY...EVER. Click 4 pix.

Turkey getting after it on Bell Mountain. Photo: Jeremy Swanson / ASCThanksgiving is the "official" opening date for Aspen Mountain and Snowmass.  It's become a tradition that AJAX opens a day early to benefit AVSC (Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club).  For a $40 donation to AVSC anyone can ride....all day.  With a 48 hour total of 17", AVSC Day became Aspen's  BEST (unofficial )opening Day Ever.  It was a legit POW DAY.  Pockets of waist deep, untracked snow were there for the taking.   FAT SKIS were de rigueur.  We've never needed a snorkel on opening day before.... but face shots were plentiful., it was Legit. It was also bitter cold and windy too..... nobody cared.   Winds of up to 75 miles an hour were forecast.....but it never got that bad and the trusty Gondola ran all day.   The red cars have even added solar powered MP3 players this year----pretty sick.

Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday on its own--but when you throw in opening of ski season it becomes EPIC.  While the official turkey day opener was a bit anti-climactic after AVSC day, it was still awesome.   Aspen was beautiful, bluebird sunny and brrrrrrrr  minus 10 degrees.   The Dogs got the first chair...as always. 

So lets get-it-on. Lets roll.  Expectations are high.  Big snow is forecast.  Pack your warm stuff and your gear. Book your flights.  Get here now...by any means necessary. 

 First Chair at Snowmass. Photo Jeremy Swanson /ASCPOW day opens the season in Aspen. Jimmy on 3. Click 4 pix. Gordon Bronson broke out the Spacesuit for Opening Day in Aspen. Click 4 more pix.

Cash Money Tweeters.

Social Media thought leaders @briansolis and @Pistachio at TwtrconTWTRCON is Business in Real Time. TWTRCON SF 2010 in San Francisco was a HUGE success.  Business leaders, geeks, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, new media innovators, content creators and one ski bum gathered to discuss.......Twitter. 

TWTRCON has blown up since the first event in May 2009 (see our 2009 take It's Twitter, bitches.)  More than 6,500 FourSquare check ins occured from across the planet asTwtrcon was live streamed on JustinTV.  The #twtrcon hashtag had several million impressions and Twtrcon was the top trending twitter topic in San Francisco on the day of of the con.  A-Spin spoke on the panel twitter for small business ..... we killed it.....obviously.

Click for more PIX.  TWTRCON

Brevity is a blessing in the Twitterverse . AspenSpin gives you a few observations:

* LISTEN !!!  Twitter is real time and its a great sentiment indicator.

* There are no rules, twitter is untamed.  Best practices are still being established--and they change at the speed of light.  Etiquette exists, so be careful.  Keep it interesting.

* Analytics and data are extremely powerful.  "If you ain't trackin' ...its just noise"

@scottmonty from @ford and @cotweet at TWTRCON SF 2010* Engage, Engage, Engage...that means different things to different people,brands, industries etc.   

* Authenticity is key.  Team tweeting is a good tool,  just show some I.D.

* Per @maksim   " You don't earn your reputation by talking, you earn your reputation by listening" 

* Per @Southwestair   "We're a customer service company... that flies planes"

* Per @Avinash    HITS =   How Idiots Track Stats.

* Monetizing social media is proving to be a tricky situation but per @bhuberman . "money follows attention" and "attention is the scarce commodity".

*Per @pistachio   Listen, Learn, Care, Serve

* Per @aspenspin    "I use a tool,  its called real life"

Special Thanks to Modern Media , @tonia_ries and @anneweiskopf & the whole MM team. Great job!! Feel free to quote me. #twtrcon in SF was a stone cold groove.

Adam Bain the new Director of REVENUE at twitter makes his point to Kara Swishertwitter legend @adventuregirl

@avinash "godfather of google analytics".@theroxy and @aspenspin and the small business panel brought the tweet heat..

Aspen: Storm before the Storm

Rumors are running rampant in Aspen about an early opening on Ajax.  After 6" to 8" of FRESHIES fell on Tuesday stoking the fire, the talk around town was viral.  Several anonymous sources have indicated that Aspen Skiing Company executives have lowered the "cone of silence" to discuss a possible 11/20/10 start date for ski season 2010/11.  No official word yet---but we think Ski Co. will stick with the Thanksgiving Opening (11/25).  We will see you there.

Local Aspen ski-mountaineers Chris Davenport and Ted Mahon managed to get a few early turns in on Back of Bell on 11/16/10.   These 2 guys usually don't stay in bounds---so you know it must be good if they are taking laps on Ajax.  One mystery remains--did the boyz "earn their turns" by skinning up the mountain??  A-Spin's sources indicate that Dav and Ted were given special dispensation for their years of service to the community..so we're guessing they rode up. 

SNORKEL SHOTS on Back of BELL. YES PLEASE!!!  SKIER:  Chris Davenport  PHOTO:  Ted Mahon.

Early Season Skiing on Ajax. Chris Davenport / Snorkel Shots. Photo: Ted Mahon

 Aspen Ski Company Board Room: "Should we open early?" "I dunno, should we?"