A ski racer slides to a stop in the finish area of the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup on Aspen Mountain on March 1, 2024. The finish line is located uphill and to looker’s left of South Aspen Street, where new development is planned in the future.
The future of World Cup skiing on Aspen Mountain was once a central tenet in the campaign for new development in the Lift One corridor. Now, it hangs in the balance because of those very projects — and a hazy timeline for their construction near the finish area.
The vision for South Aspen Street at the mountain’s west base totals about 320,000 square feet of lodging, residential and commercial space, including an 81-room hotel and a separate timeshare complex, both with luxury residential condos, as well as the replacement of Lift 1A (also known as the Shadow Mountain Lift), the restoration and relocation of two historic Skier’s Chalet buildings, and improvements to parks and public spaces. Many aspects of the project are intertwined, including the timing of the lift replacement and the lodging developments next to it. But that schedule is still unclear, as developers work through the city of Aspen’s building-permit review process and coordinate on a construction sequencing plan that outlines major milestones.
Aspen has hosted more than 30 stops on the World Cup circuit since 1968, but the once-annual tradition has had its fits and starts in recent years as the calendar varies. The mountain held races in the spring of 2023 and 2024 but not 2025, and it was not included on the 2025-26 World Cup schedule that the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) released in early May and updated in mid-June. It’s still to be determined when the mountain will appear on the calendar again.
“Aspen remains a valued World Cup venue with a rich legacy in the sport,” FIS spokesperson Giulia Candiago wrote in an email. “However, any decision regarding its short- or mid-term inclusion on the calendar — including potential alternate venue consideration — will depend on clarity around the status and impact of these external development projects.”
Candiago also relayed concerns from FIS chief race officials that “some of the proposed developments in that zone could potentially restrict the space and infrastructure needed to deliver a top-tier event” and, in turn, negatively impact Aspen’s World Cup prospects.
“For FIS, ensuring a finish area that meets all sporting and operational requirements is essential,” she wrote.
In a phone call, Candiago emphasized that the concern is “not a no” to future World Cups in Aspen, and it does not mean FIS has lost interest in Aspen as a venue. Rather, it’s an awareness that if and when these developments take shape, FIS will have to “reconsider whether it’s doable or not, and if it‘s doable, [then] how it’s doable.”
According to local and national organizers, it is doable. Representatives from both Aspen One — which is Aspen Skiing Co.’s parent company — and U.S. Ski & Snowboard said they’re confident in Aspen’s ability to host World Cup races down the line and are committed to making it happen.
“We’ve kept Alpine World Cup races in mind as the base area plans evolve,” Aspen One Vice President of Corporate and Brand Communications Sara Roston wrote in an email. “It’s important to us, and it’s important to the community. Aspen Mountain has always had one of the best racetracks and one of the trickiest base areas on the circuit — which all parties are well aware of. There’s much still in motion, but everyone involved is committed to continuing our rich tradition of World Cup racing in Aspen.”
Deric Gunshor, the senior director of events at SkiCo, acknowledged that Lift One corridor projects will “certainly complicate” the layout of World Cup infrastructure. That much has already been recognized in communication between the local organizing committee and FIS, Gunshor said.
The venue is challenging as it currently stands, as crews have to work with a base area the size of a “postage stamp” on the side of a steep slope, Gunshor said. Add in new development next to existing buildings, and there could be changes to infrastructure such as TV cables, volunteer check-in and the media center for outlets covering the event, Gunshor said.
The access road will also be rerouted: instead of coming straight off of South Aspen Street, it will be a curvier route that weaves between the two lodging developments onto a narrow ski way, as South Aspen Street will end in a cul-de-sac in front of a hotel instead of a dirt lot leading up to the ski hill. (Gunshor said SkiCo has worked with the developers to make sure the plans still meet mountain access needs.)
But the race course, finish line, grandstands and timing shack won’t be impacted, because they’re located uphill and slightly to the east of the new development.
“The shape of the mountain and the race course is not changing, and that’s what continues since 1950 to draw elite-level racing to Aspen Mountain,” Gunshor said.
A view of the west base of Aspen Mountain and South Aspen Street, as seen from the Ajax Trail on June 2, 2025. The mountain access road that extends from the terminus of South Aspen Street will be rerouted between new buildings as development takes shape in the Lift One corridor.
Gunshor said the local organizing committee has shared plans for the new development with the FIS since at least 2015, with the latest update around 2024, and they’re in ongoing communication.
“As long as the course is there, we will adapt and figure out what to build around it from an infrastructure standpoint,” he said. “It’s about the sport, right? It’s about race. … And beyond that, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’”
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association also affirmed its confidence in Aspen’s World Cup venue prospects.
“We do not foresee any problems when it comes to hosting World Cups in the future and remain committed to bringing races back to the historic Aspen venue and beyond,” U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Communications Manager Sierra Ryder shared in a brief statement.
World Cup legacy
Aspen has a storied history as a World Cup venue and an even-longer legacy as a elite ski racing hub, dating to the Roch Cup that began in 1946 and the FIS World Championships in 1950. A smattering of World Cup events followed in the 1960s and 1970s before men’s races became an annual springtime tradition in the 1980s and 1990s; women’s races came and went then but turned into an early-winter fixture throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.
But those events have been less frequent in recent years; the latest, in 2023 and 2024, followed a half-decade hiatus after the 2017 World Cup Finals.
The schedule is subject to some variability, and even marquee events aren’t a guarantee. (Consider Killington Resort in Vermont, which has hosted races nearly every Thanksgiving weekend since 2016 but opted out this year because of its own lift-replacement project,)
Still, Aspen’s comeback in 2023 was a surprise to some ski racing fans because FIS had maintained throughout much of the 2010s that Aspen would need to update the aging Lift 1A (which opened in the winter of 1971-72) and make other improvements to facilities in the race area if it wanted to remain a World Cup contender.
At the time, SkiCo officials said they wouldn’t replace the lift just for World Cup’s sake. The company wanted to see a comprehensive plan for the neighborhood before proceeding.
So, lift replacement became intrinsically tied with the larger proposal for redevelopment — including a “Gorsuch Haus” hotel and “Lift One Lodge” timeshare-hotel concept — that was put to voters in 2019.
A site map of the Lift One corridor project from 2020 shows where historic buildings and new lodging developments will fit along South Aspen Street, as illustrated by Design Workshop and posted on the city of Aspen’s website The hotel formerly as “Gorsuch Haus” will now be developed by the OKO Group as an Aman destination, while the Lift One Lodge has been rebranded as Chalet Alpina, developed by HayMax Capital LLC and Irongate Group.
‘Where is everything going to go?’
SkiCo and Aspen city officials had previously insisted that the request for updates wasn’t an ultimatum, but some onlookers saw it that way, and it became a rallying cry for proponents of the new development proposals.
The extension of the lift toward Dean Street and the original base of the mountain was a selling point, too, as it would save skiers and snowboarders the 2½-block walk uphill to the current loading area. Proponents also lauded the addition of “hot beds” to the town’s lodging inventory, the revitalization of a quiet neighborhood and a surge of tax revenue to the community.
Opponents, meanwhile, argued that the lift replacement could happen with or without new development flanking an extended ski way; they also voiced concerns about traffic congestion, a shortfall of affordable housing and other potential impacts, including cutting off of the lower Norway ski run and space restrictions on World Cup infrastructure.
Aspen City Council member John Doyle — whose opposition to the project helped jumpstart his political career — was among those worried about the development’s impacts on the World Cup.
“I definitely brought that up before my time [on council],” and he wasn’t the only one, Doyle said in a recent interview. He wondered then, as now: “So we’re going to have these two new hotels that are obviously going to increase their footprint at the base of the mountain. Where is everything going to go?”
The response, according to Doyle, was that planners had it figured out — along the lines of “Don’t worry about it.”
“Somehow, none of this surprises me,” Doyle said in response to FIS’s concern about the finish area and local organizers’ subsequent assurance that it won’t be an issue.
Aspen voters approved the Lift One corridor concept by a margin of just 26 votes.
Then, a change in leadership at FIS came with a change of tune. FIS Secretary General Sarah Lewis, who was among those pushing for improvements, was ousted in 2020. And other World Cup officials determined the fixed-grip double chair would be just fine for alpine racing. Aspen’s persistent commitment to World Cup racing helped it secure more events in 2023 and 2024, and FIS maintains its confidence in Lift 1A today.
“While it is true that the current Lift 1A is older and slower compared to modern standards, it continues to operate reliably and fulfills its role during World Cup events — both in terms of capacity and functionality,” wrote Candiago, who is now external relations manager for FIS. “From a logistical standpoint, the existing setup works quite well.”
Both lodging proposals have since rebranded, and one was sold to a new developer. Lift One Lodge is now Chalet Alpina — still overseen by HayMax Capital LLC, led by Michael and Aaron Brown, and Irongate Group, led by Jason Grosfeld. The former Gorsuch Haus concept will be developed by Vladislav Doronin’s OKO Group as an Aman hotel; local developers sold the land and the approvals for a hotel to an LLC linked to the luxury development magnate Doronin in 2022.
The plans for those projects, filed in building-permit applications with the city, have not changed substantially from what voters approved in 2019. Both developers have made some tweaks to their overall configurations, and Chalet Alpina is awaiting approval on some amendments to its timeshare layout, but the footprints are largely the same.
“From the very beginning, the idea was that the World Cup venue could be maintained and the area had been set aside,” said Richard Shaw, a landscape architect and principal with Design Workshop who was involved in the design and planning of Gorsuch Haus as well as collaborative discussions among different stakeholders during the development process. Design Workshop has done some advising for the new developers of the project — Aman Resorts and OKO Group — but is no longer involved in a planning capacity, Shaw said.
Past site plans of the project from developer land-use documents noted where the World Cup finish area would fit into the overall vision, located in its usual position above the existing Mountain Queen condominiums. An artistic rendering for what was then the Gorsuch Haus even featured a depiction of the World Cup finish line. Gorsuch Haus plans also included a “World Cup Terrace,” which was “named because of its location and its ability to observe the race,” Shaw said. (A 2025 building permit application for the Aman property includes mention of a “World Cup Bar.”)
“The plan, illustrations, every aspect of the project had anticipated that ski racing would be retained in the way it always had been,” Shaw said, and the SkiCo was “instrumental” in conversations about the layout of the corridor.
SkiCo’s Gunshor said much the same. He has also been in direct contact with Markus Waldner, FIS chief race director for World Cup men, to get clarity about the federation’s concerns.
“They want to guarantee a great race experience,” Gunshor said. In his view, that’s not only possible but enhanced by these new projects — so long as the community continues to support Aspen’s World Cup legacy.
“How we get the resources and the support to get the infrastructure in is a communitywide effort, and it requires the cooperation of everyone, from the neighbors to the developers to the city to you name it,” Gunshor said. “Everyone needs to be involved and be supportive of it. And we’ve had that level of support, and we’re confident that the community will rally, or we hope that the community will continue to rally around supporting it. And if we get that support, then we’ll be able to deliver a great race.”
Who makes the call?
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation considers a number of factors for World Cup venues, working with both U.S. Ski & Snowboard and local organizing committees when selecting American stops on the World Cup circuit.
Aspen’s local organizing committee is led by the Aspen Skiing Co. under the umbrella of Aspen One. According to Sara Roston, vice president of corporate and brand communications for Aspen One, it has members “representing almost every division of the company.”
U.S. Ski and Snowboard makes recommendations to the federation, “but FIS ultimately decides if the venue meets the criteria and requirements to host,” according to Sierra Ryder, the alpine communications manager for the American ski association. Organizers often plan races several years in advance of setting the schedule.
—Kaya Williams
