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Aspen sits at the southeastern end of the Roaring Fork Valley; CO82 snakes 50 miles “downvalley” through the newly cool, artsy yet athletic communities of Basalt, El Jebel and Carbondale (all worth a jaunt if you have time) to Glenwood Springs (a fun funky city noted, unsurprisingly, for its bubbling waters) at the junction with I-70.

The four mountains owned by the Aspen Skiing Company (each boasting its own varied terrain and unique ambience) lie within a few miles of each other just off CO82, which becomes Aspen's Main Street. Snowmass sits roughly 10 miles downvalley from Aspen (turnoffs are Brush Creek and Owl Creek Roads); it's always been considered more affordable, down-to-earth and family-oriented – 95% of the lodging is ski-in/ski-out. A couple of miles “upvalley,” Buttermilk (accessed via West Buttermilk Road) is the “learning mountain,” yet also home through 2007 to the spiky Winter X Games. Next, on Maroon Creek Road, is Aspen Highlands, which features some hellacious steeps and glades as well as fabulous views of the Maroon Bells. Lodging is scarcer at the latter two areas, though the Highlands base village has gradually expanded since the SkiCo took over in 1993. Finally, you reach Aspen, dominated by Aspen Mountain (also called Ajax, after an old mine, by locals). Like most mining towns, Aspen is laid out as a simple grid, roughly bisected by the Roaring Fork River; its historic West End and Downtown are walkable (though at nearly 8,000 feet, the air is as thin as the svelte residents; adjust to the altitude by taking it easy the first day or two, drinking plenty of water and limiting alcohol and caffeine intake).

The Aspen Historical Society (aka AHS) puts out a self-walking tour map/brochure for $2; you can pick it up at the local office (620 W. Bleeker St.; 970/925-3721 or 800/925-3721) and the Wheeler Opera House Visitor's Center (320 E. Hyman St.). Guided public walks are scheduled only in summer, but private tours for up to 15 ($250) are available in fine winter weather.

Check with the Aspen Chamber Resort Association and the Town of Snowmass Village, for updates on what's open and when. Aspen Magazine offers the scuttlebutt on the hottest cultural, dining, shopping, and barhopping listings, with wittily picky staff picks. Its website is barebones, but that of the weekly Aspen Times, one of several regional papers (check out the discount coupons), also provides some snarkily fun insider dope. The Aspen Skiing Company also offers comprehensive ski/snowboarding info, events listings, live music calendar, and insider tips, plus advice on sunscreen, high altitude dos and don'ts, and ski techniques.

MAIN SIGHTS
Downtown Aspen is easily explored on foot; it's best to wander without a planned itinerary, admiring the colorful Victorian buildings and window-shopping. Many of the chicest boutiques and eateries are located in former saloons and gambling parlors known for the quality of their “waitressing.” In fact, the town's toniest address, Durant Avenue, which abuts the base of Aspen Mountain and features modern luxury hotels with legendary après-ski see-and-be-scenes, once formed the red-light district. As some locals crack, “Some things haven't changed in more than a century; they're just better dressed.”

Founded during a silver rush in 1879, Aspen was originally called Ute City after the (displaced) indigenous residents. The most prominent early citizen, Jerome B. Wheeler (a partner in Macy's Department Store), left an enduring architectural legacy in two elegant 1889 buildings bearing his name, both on the National Register of Historic Places. The splendid sandstone brick Wheeler Opera House (320 E. Hyman Ave.; 970/920-5770) remains one of Colorado's finest performance venues, offering film and lecture series, plays, dance recitals, concerts, operas, celebrity standup (Robin Williams to Whoopi Goldberg), and more. Parts of the original interior remain, from gold plush seats with Moroccan leather cushioned arms to rich hardwood wainscoting. Bentley's at the Wheeler is a consummate townie hangout, especially for the handsome bar (a magnet for half-price happy-hour appetizers).

One block north is Aspen's grande dame, the Hotel Jerome (330 E. Main St.; 970/920-1000). Even if you don't stay or dine here, the ornate public spaces merit a peek, awash in five kinds of wallpaper, antler sconces, etched glass, intricately carved oak and walnut antiques, and nearly $100,000 of rose damask curtains. Its J-Bar is one of the town's enduring watering holes (see our nightlife reviews, below).

Just five minutes' stroll north, across the Roaring Fork River, another historic brick building houses the decidedly contemporary Aspen Art Museum (590 N. Mill St.; 970/925-8050; Tues-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun noon-6pm, closed Mon; $5 admission, seniors and students $3, children under 12 free, Fri free). The stimulating year-round programming includes art talks from leading national curators and the artist-in-residence, multi-media performance art, and superbly laid- and thought-out exhibitions by emerging and established artists. Art After Hours, a free wine-and-cheese reception and tour, is held every Thursday (5-7pm) during exhibitions.

Back on the opposite side, to the southwest, is the main location of the non-profit educational Aspen Center for Environmental Studies aka ACES (100 Puppy Smith St.; 970/925-5756; open Mon-Fri 9am-4.30pm during winter, closed Sat-Sun; $3 admission, $2 children 7-17, free under 7), which sits amid the Hallam Lake Nature Preserve. The facility, which specializes in wildlife rehabilitation, contains fascinating displays on the fragile ecosystem and occasional interaction with local wildlife, plus offers several on-mountain programs from mid-December through mid-April; we like the twice-daily naturalist-led snowshoe tours of Aspen Mountain and Snowmass (10am and 1pm; $45 adults, $29 children covers snowshoes, snack, basic instruction and lift if you're not skiing) that provide incredible glimpses into the natural habitat (sightings of bighorn sheep and elk are common). Two very cool winter evening series include Potbelly Perspective lectures (Wed 7.30pm; January–March), which see local zoologists, botanists, and adventure mavens sharing stories and slides, and Naturalist Nights (Thur 7.30pm; January–March) which cover current natural history topics ranging from falconry to global warming. You'll find info about both on the center's website.

Walk south into the West End, Aspen's highest-rent district, filled with opulent Victorian mansions (many owned by celebs like Jack Nicholson). Here, the Aspen Historical Society (620 W. Bleeker St.; 970/925-3721; Tues-Sat 1-5pm, closed Sun-Mon; $6 admission, $5 seniors, $3 children 13-17, under 13 free) has transformed the magnificent 1888 Queen Anne Wheeler/Stallard House into a museum scrupulously documenting Aspen's changing lifestyles, from the indigenous “Blue Sky People” and mining camp days onward. Main exhibits rotate, showcasing everything from Victorian women's fashion accessories to John Denver's environmental activism (yes, “Rocky Mountain High” was written in Aspen).

The AHS admission fee includes entrance to the unique Holden/Marolt Mining & Ranching Museum (40180 Highway 82; 970/544-0820; open daily by appointment). It's located roughly 1/4 mile from the AHS: walk south on 7^th Street from Main, turn right onto the pedestrian bridge crossing Castle Creek; it's on the hillside to your left. Located on the site of the 1891 Holden Lixiviation Mill, the museum is crammed with mining and ranching displays, remnants of its short-lived (14 month) stint as one of only 18 plants built worldwide to utilize the experimental Russell Lixiviation process (a combination of crushing, heat and chemical salts) to refine low-grade ore.

Nearby Snowmass is home to the renowned Anderson Ranch Arts Center (5263 Owl Creek Rd., Snowmass Village; 970/923-3181; Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; free). Remarkable hands-on workshops with leading artists and curators are mostly held in summer, but winter visitors can still tour the exhibition galleries, meet artists in ateliers, and hear lectures. The store (ArtWorks) and galleries, housed in beautifully rustic turn-of-the-20th-century sheep-ranch buildings, display works in various media produced by Ranch artists, while the Hansen Print Gallery features highlights of the Anderson Ranch print collection (collaborations between visiting artists and master printers).

DOWNHILL SKIING & SNOWBOARDING
The four ski areas – Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass – are open roughly from Thanksgiving to early-April and boast every kind of terrain, from runs smooth as glass and wide-open, above-treeline bowls to bronco-busting bumps and steep glade chutes. We've covered basics like lift tickets and rentals in our Making it Happen section. All of the mountains are accessible via www.aspensnowmass.com.

Aspen Mountain
Still known to many locals as Ajax (after a long-gone silver mine), Aspen remains one of skidom's ultimate ability tests. The runs here are not for beginners – all of them are black and blue (in more ways than one) and you won't find any beginner greens. Indeed, 65% of the trails are rated advanced or expert – and a single diamond here would likely qualify as double that on other slopes. The narrow mountain is laid out as a series of steep, unforgiving ridges requiring utmost concentration and pinpoint navigation down the fall line, with several knee-knocking stomach-churning thigh-burning mogul runs, steeps, and glades where you slalom through tightly packed aspen stands. Obviously, shredders – who were finally permitted on the slopes April 1, 2001 – are just as stoked.

Aspen Mountain Powder Tours (book as far in advance as possible through SkiCo or at the AMPT desk in the gondola building; $225) accesses 1,500 acres (and up to 10,000 vertiginous vertical feet) of prime untracked stashes, most negotiable by assured intermediates, on the backside of Aspen Mountain via Sno-Cat. Even if you don't hit this powder, exploring the rest of the resort is just as rewarding. The area named Bell Mountain (ridge, face, shoulder and back runs) provides some of the gnarliest bump skiing anywhere, followed by Walsh's Gulch, Hyrup's and Kristi (the latter three funnel into Lud's Lane where steep and deep glades drop from either side). That said, many skiers cling to the ridge tops and knobs circling the summit, or the intermediate trails off and under the Ajax and Ruthie's lifts. Ruthie's Road/Run, Dipsy Doodle, Buckhorn and Copper Bowl (on the other side) are the classic cruisers. International is usually one of the more forgiving black runs for improving skiers wanting to test their mettle. Be sure too, to look for the four “shrines” hidden throughout the woods, paying tribute to John Denver, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Jerry Garcia.

Aspen Highlands
This delightful, less-heralded area offers challenges to equal Aspen Mountain, shorter lift lines, and truly awesome panoramas of the Maroon Bells Wilderness and Pyramid Peak. Old-timers still fondly recall its pre-1993 days as the maverick area, when the ski patrol enacted daily daredevil jumps over startled diners every noon at the deck crowning the Cloud Nine lift. That anything-goes spirit may have diminished, but who could argue with the newer high-speed lifts, the now gourmet mountaintop Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro or the posh Ritz-Carlton Club (and its superlative Willow Creek Bistro)?

Anyway, the thrilling chilling descents on Olympic Bowl and Steeplechase (a precipitous cluster of chutes, glades and mini-bowls acting as a powder magnet) are like bungee-jumping without the cord. Then there's the near-legendary Highland Bowl (whose apex, accessed by hiking, added 717 feet to the 3,635-foot vertical rise), dropping into the steep tight glades of Temerity. A new Deep Temerity triple chair opens this season, climbing 1,700 vertical feet in a dizzying 7.3 minutes – one of the steepest chairs anywhere, a virtual elevator that opens 180 acres of new advanced, expert and extreme terrain previously only available via Sno-Cat and strenuous hiking. G-Zone is a fierce beauty, often developing Volkswagen-sized bumps, slicing right down the bowl's median, while Go-Go Gully is an extreme hair-raising thrill ride with a 48-degree slope angle. Still, roughly half the terrain is rated novice or intermediate, primarily mid-mountain off the Exhibition and Cloud Nine lifts (typified by the lovely wide-open Golden Horn that empties into Thunderbowl). Just beware of turnoffs to the bad-ass glades of Moment of Truth, Sherwood Forest and Golden Horn Woods.

Snowmass
This 1967 European-style development nestled in the Brush Creek Valley is finally emerging from Aspen's shadow as a great destination resort in its own right. Currently being revitalized, thanks to a partnership with Intrawest that will add a second base village and more lifts, among other ambitious projects, Snowmass already offers one of the world's finest intermediate areas (the silky runs off the Big Burn lift are particularly revered) and can claim nearly triple the black and double-diamond terrain of its more famous sibling. One look at the plunging chutes and gullies of the Hanging Valley terrain (now lift-serviced) should settle (or unsettle) the matter. The double-diamond runs off Cirque (such as the 40-degree AMF) are no joyride either. The area's only drawback is its vastness: You can get lost on the five mountains – fortunately all but true novices can pick their way down and you can always stop at the cozy Gwyn's High Alpine for a warming meal.

Buttermilk
Last and perhaps unfairly least of the four areas, Buttermilk is often dissed and dismissed as a mere “learning mountain,” with 74% of its terrain designated green or (powder) blue. It's certainly one of the finest places to get your ski/ride legs on long mellow runs like Red's Rover and Upper Larkspur which help set the standard by which beginners' areas measure themselves. Intermediates can go top-to-bottom on the likes of Buckskin and Magic Carpet. But the Tiehack section on the east contains several wonderfully cut advanced runs as well as sweeping views of Maroon Creek Valley, dropping into tree skiing off Tiehack Parkway which then splits off into Racer's Edge, Javelin and Tiehack Trail. And powder sticks around longer because so few serious skiers realize what they're missing, making that “sissy” rep undeserved. As for snowboarding, well, Buttermilk is the first resort to hold the Winter X Games more than two years' running (the contract goes through 2007). The 2-mile-long Playstation 2 Crazy T'rain Park is the world's longest such development, with an X course that ends with two 70-foot jumps for the ultimate in big air – or you can cut out to the 530-foot Superpipe and Jacob's Ladder Rail Park (whose stair sets, c boxes, long boxes with ledges, 30-foot-lip slide box, and new 20-degree Studded Kink flat-down redefine sick leave).

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Aspen/Snowmass Nordic Trail System, North America's most extensive groomed Nordic network – 80km+ dubbed the “fifth mountain” and “Aerobic Avenue” by locals – uniquely links Aspen with Snowmass. As it's also free, it's arguably the town's greatest bargain. Terrain and scenery vary: the Snowmass Club and Owl Creek Trails offer particularly inspiring vistas (meandering through meadows and aspen stands past babbling brooks and elk herds) and a fairly vigorous workout. The flat Rio Grande trail, and Aspen and Snowmass golf courses, are ideal for beginners. Most of the system is groomed for both classic and skate skiing and there are several trailheads, all easily accessible via public transportation. Snowshoers will also adore the endless variety and bountiful amenities. The system is bracketed by two sterling centers run by the Ute Mountaineer store: Snowmass Lodge Cross-Country Touring Center (970/925-2145) and Aspen Cross-Country Center (970/925-2849) Both offer equipment ($16.95 for snowshoe gear, $19.95 for classic set-ups and $21.95 for skaters; 12 and under $12), instruction (from $35 group; $59 per hour private) and guided tours ($130-$280).

Aspen's other cross-country system, Ashcroft (11399 Castle Creek Rd.; 970-925-1971; day pass $15 adult; five-day punch pass $50), is also hard to beat for sheer dramatic beauty, superlative snow conditions, and top-notch amenities. Located in a high alpine basin (the Castle Creek Valley between Ajax and Highlands, 12 miles from Aspen), its 40 km of groomed trails weave through the high peaks of the Maroon Bells/Snowmass Wilderness in White River National Forest and Ashcroft Ghost Town, a turn-of-the-20th-century mining community on the National Register of Historical Places. The affable, knowledgeable staff excels in recommending just the right route for your ability and interests. Arguably its jewel is the ski-in/ski-out Pine Creek Cookhouse (11388 Castle Creek; 970/925-1044), a homey log cabin with simply stunning lunchtime views; dinner (arrived at either by ski or horse-drawn sleigh) is equally memorable as longtime executive chef Kurt Boucher gives the freshest seasonal ingredients a Euro-Asian flair (foie gras with sour blueberry chutney, caramelized pistachios, and apples & Muscat gelato; Jack Daniels-marinated caribou with wilted dandelion greens and sweet potato pave) – it's a true Rocky Mountain high.

BACKCOUNTRY SKIING
Adrenaline junkies will love the area's wilder, woollier terrain. The 10th Mountain Division Hut Association (970/925-5775) commemorates the endurance of the US Army's skiing soldiers. During World War II, the group, camouflaged in white parkas, practiced maneuvers in freezing temperatures and blinding blizzards, preparing for European alpine combat on hickory skis at Camp Hale between Aspen, Vail and Leadville. Strong intermediates and experts can literally follow in their tracks (on slightly sturdier equipment) on 350 miles of zigzagging trails. The other major backcountry network is the even more grueling, avalanche-prone Alfred A. Braun Hut System (970/925-6618 or 800/643-8621), whose trailhead leads from the Ashcroft Touring Center into the Maroon Bells/Snowmass Wilderness to Crested Butte. If you're doing it alone, be sure to carry sufficient food, water and clothing and study the terrain beforehand, always checking for prevailing conditions with the U.S. Forest Service. If you're inexperienced in backcountry travel, we strongly recommend hiring a reliable guide, either through Aspen Expeditions (970/925-ROCK), who can turn even powder poodles into pit bulls, or Aspen Alpine Guides (970/925-6618 or 800/643-8621) which customizes multi-day tours (starting at $885/person) along the 10th Mountain and Braun Hut Systems. They also offer several half- and one-day options from $150 per person, including snowshoeing tours (a highlight is the Hunter Creek ghost town).

OTHER (FREE) MOUNTAIN ACTIVITIES
Intermediate skiers and shredders can take the free Mountain Orientation Tour with an ambassador at all four mountains daily at 10.30am. All ages can ride with the snowcat groomers at Snowmass and Aspen Mountain (limited space; call ahead for reservations). Powderhounds can head out with the Mountain Operations teams daily on Aspen Mountain (and Wed and Fri at Snowmass) to carve Free First Tracks (valid lift ticket and reservations required). Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) provides free, 45-minute Naturalist-Guided Skiing/Riding Tours of Snowmass (970/925-5756; 11am and 1pm daily; 8 years and older; lift ticket, ski/snowboard gear and intermediate ability suggested though the terrain is mostly gentle), meeting at the top of Elk Camp outside the Wapiti Wildlife Center, which offers free hot chocolate and cookies, and an interesting warming break with information on local wildlife). Snowmass Village presents free Storytelling by Campfire selected evenings, with roasted marshmallows, cocoa, and Wild West tales. Free entertainment runs from the Bud Light Big Air Friday eight-week series starting in January showcasing top skiers and boarders doing tricks at Snowmass Mall to the Budweiser Hi-Fi Concert Series held at various outdoor venues through Aspen and Snowmass (past performers have included Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Prodigals, and Arrested Development).

See Aspen Travel Guide