All Images: Courtesy of Aspen Snowmass
All good things must come to an end. Aspen Snowmass has officially decommissioned and begun taking down the Little Nell and Bell Mountain Chairlifts, two of the most historic lifts in the Roaring Fork Valley, and maybe in the world. But you can own a piece of history, as they're being auctioned off this summer.
Together, these two chairlifts put in nearly 120 years of combined service, shuttling skiers up Ajax Mountain since the mid-1950s. But as many who've lapped Aspen know, the lifts haven't seen much use lately, and replacing them was only sensible as the mountain climate took its toll on these engineering marvels.
Each was situated on the front side of Ajax, visible from the resort's base in town. The Little Nell chair sat to the looker's right of the iconic Silver Queen Gondola. It extended up a few hundred feet, where it met the bottom of the Bell Mountain lift. Properly named, it brought skiers up over the nose and face of Bell Mountain proper, one of the best sections of terrain in all of Colorado if caught on the right day.
The two chairlifts are going to be replaced by the modern Nell Bell Chairlift, which will span 2,650 vertical feet and take just eight minutes to ascend.
But the story of these two classic lifts isn't over. Two dozen chairs will also be donated to local groups including Aspen School District, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), Aspen Hope Center, Ski Noir, and others, to be used in their spaces or auctioned off individually by each group. Aspen Snowmass is auctioning off other chairs from both Bell Mountain and Little Nell this summer.
The silent auction began on July fourth, and will continue through July 19. Bidding opened at $250 for The Little Nell chairs and $500 for Bell Mountain chairs, with Aspen Snowmass offering to ship the chairs across the United States.
While the regular chairs will be available to bid on, ten have been turned into unique pieces of art in a collaboration with Buckhorn Public Arts. Each of these limited chairs will start at $2,500. Aspen says that all the proceeds will be donated, stating, "Every dollar raised goes toward strengthening our democracy—funding voter registration, get-out-the-vote efforts, and the protection of voting rights—alongside climate action." Specifics of these donations have not been announced yet.
