Natural selection
Aspen may be a magnet for the glamorous ski set but the Colorado city has a wealth of attractions in the summer, too - even for non-musical Asians, Jeff Chu reports.
Aspen, Colorado, may be best known as one of the most luxe winter-sport resorts in North America, but it's no less stunning after the snow melts.
In winter, it's a playground for the rich and the beautiful. In summer, thanks to the Aspen Institute - which regularly convenes gatherings of world leaders, chief executives and other talking heads - it has become an intellectual Valhalla. So when friends suggested a trip to the city, to hike in the Colorado Rockies, it was with fear, trembling and an eye on my credit line that I agreed.
trumped by my fear of falling off a mountain as we drive the harrowing road from Denver, the nearest major airport. Wealthy visitors may land their jets at Aspen's much-smaller airfield, but they miss the legendarily curvaceous route over Independence Pass, 3,650 metres above sea level. In parts, the roadway, impassable during the snowy season, narrows to the width of one car. Nearly as dangerous: the entrancing, eagle's-eye vistas of ice-topped peaks and verdant valleys.
We make it safely to Aspen, which sits tucked in a deep valley. Shortly after our arrival, we attend a concert at the Aspen Music School. We don't have tickets but, years ago, philanthropists endowed the lawn around the open-air symphony hall so that anyone can attend concerts for free. We can hear but not see the musicians and, as I lay on my back, watching the silver-green leaves of the town's namesake trees shimmy in the breeze, as if dancing to the music, it feels as though I have the best seat in the house.
The featured soloist on this occasion is violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, performing Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No1 in G minor. Perhaps there's no better metaphor for this resort town than this romantic masterwork. What is Aspen if not rich, magically melodious and, perhaps, slightly too popular?
Aspen has blue-collar roots. Settled as a mining camp, a silver boom in the 1880s drew thousands of prospectors. As in many mining boomtowns, Chinese labourers came too. In Aspen, they were met with disdain. Aspen Times editor B. Clark Wheeler icily suggested they go instead to America's Deep South: "People down there do not object to cheap labor," he wrote in the 1890s. "The Chinese would take the place of the emigrating darkies."