Colorado ski area popular with younger crowd

Maybe all that work to shed Aspen's image as a resort for old fogies is paying off.

The four ski areas of Aspen-Snowmass didn't fare so well in a survey of Ski magazine readers, but they cleaned up with the younger crews of Transworld Snowboarding and Freeskier.

“With X Games and other events, we've been targeting the future,” Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman Jeff Hanle told the Aspen Times.

The editors of Freeskier selected Aspen-Snowmass as the second-best resort in North America, trailing only Whistler Blackcomb. The only other Colorado resort to crack the magazine's top-10 list was Breckenridge.

Aspen was selected as the top ski-town airport by Freeskier and the second-best party town, trailing Whistler. Aspen-Snowmass has the fourth-best terrain park, according to Freeskier's editors.

Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk nailed the top spot in Transworld Snowboarding's survey for 2012-13. The magazine raved about the terrain parks and superpipe at Buttermilk, the powder at Aspen Highlands, the lack of crowds at Snowmass and the nightlife in Aspen.

Snowmass snagged the top spot in the survey for terrain parks. Buttermilk placed seventh.

Snowmass fell from fourth in SKI magazine's 2011-12 survey to eighth in the 2012-13 survey. Aspen Mountain slid from 11th last year to 12th this year. Aspen Highlands moved up from 19th to 16th.

The SKI survey top 20 resorts were: Whistler Blackcomb, Deer Valley, Vail, Park City, Telluride, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, Snowmass, Beaver Creek and the Canyons in Utah.

Steamboat came in 13th and Breckenridge at 14th, followed by Crested Butte, Aspen Highlands, Snowbird, Mammoth Mountain, Taos and Copper Mountain.