Aspen Skiing Company

The Aspen Skiing Company, known locally as "Ski Co", is a commercial enterprise based in Aspen, Colorado in the United States.

History

Founded in 1946 by Walter Paepcke, it operates the Aspen/Snowmass resort complex, comprising four ski areas near the town of Aspen. The history of the company has in many ways paralleled, reflected, refracted entertained and tormented the inhabitants of the former silver town hamlet. Born out of the imagination of a cadre of World War II veterans, they hoped to create a skiing wonderland nestled deep in the middle of nowhere Colorado. In fact the company never paid dividends until its sale to Twentieth Century Fox. That is when the ticket prices began to soar. In the Seventies, ticket prices were just over 10 dollars a day. Now they are just over 100 dollars a day. Season passes are nearly 2000.

Paepcke, a successful Chicago industrialist, founded the company as part of larger effort at turning Aspen, a somewhat forgotten silver mining town, into an idyllic center for the advancement of the body, mind, and Spirit. As part of the larger effort, Paepcke also founded other cultural institutions such as the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. The company established the Aspen Mountain ski resort on mountain of the same name above the town of Aspen. The first chair lift, Lift-1, opened on December 14, 1946 and was the world's longest chairlift at the time. In 1950, the company hosted the FIS World Alpine Championships, the first international skiing competition in the United States. In the following decades, the company opened Buttermilk in 1958 and the Snowmass (originally the Snowmass-at-Aspen Ski Area) in 1967. In 1993 the company assumed ownership and operation of Aspen Highlands, which was founded in 1958 by Colorado Ski Hall of Famer: Whip Jones. Previously, Jones successfully sued Aspen Skiing before the Supreme Court for antitrust violations in Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp.

The Aspen Skiing Company is currently owned by the Crown family of Chicago, who are also among the most influential stockholders and board members of defense contractor General Dynamics. In addition, the family is a significant stockholder in JP Morgan Chase. As of November 2006, the President and CEO of the company is Mike Kaplan, who succeeded Pat O'Donnell.

In 2010, the Colorado Department of Labor became involved when Skico refused to pay for required meetings for employees. This in turn triggered the involvement of the National Labor Relations Board in federal labor law violations. During the 2010-2011 winter season, the Aspen Daily News published the fact that the Crowns had donated a million dollars to the Tocqueville Society, part of the United Way. The Tocqueville Society works "to promote a living wage for healthy families."

In addition, the Aspen Times reported that Skico paid $9.25 to some of its entry level employees, and paid $69.00 for a full day ski lesson to some of its instructors on a product Skico charged over $600 to the skiing customer. Neither is considered a living wage in Aspen.

One of the Crowns serves on Obama's Presidential Arts Commission. In 2010-2011, Skico banned a singer [Dan Sheridan], a song [big $], a newspaper [the Aspen Daily News], and then fired and banned a whistleblower [Lee Mulcahy] from Crown-owned property including National Forest, which Skico leases from the American taxpayer.

Skico was required to remove sentences deemed illegal in the employee handbook regarding employees speaking out on pay and work conditions. In addition, Skico was required to abandon its nearly two decade old Ski School structure because the NLRB found it was "designed to prevent a union." The whistleblower, Lee Mulcahy, was terminated and the NLRB did not require Skico to rehire him.

External links

• Aspen/Snowmass website
• Aspen history timeline