Aspen Mountain Pandora Expansion Gets Final Approval
UPDATE 11/17/2021: The Pandora expansion has now been fully approved.
A key terrain expansion at Aspen Mountain is likely one step closer to approval after a straw poll from Pitkin County commissioners last week. The commissioners indicated they would give Ajax—as the resort is referred to by locals—a thumbs up to add 153 acres of traditional and glade terrain on the resort’s upper east flank.
If approved, the new expansion will bring several new intermediate and expert trails to the ski area, all directly serviced by a new high-speed quad. The new lift will also directly service three existing double-black trails off the resort’s summit. While yet to be determined, the nearby Gent’s Ridge Quad may be removed as part of this plan.
The Pandora project is set for completion for the 2023-24 season at the earliest. The terrain expansion is set to be the first at Aspen Mountain since 2000, when the Trainor Ridge expert zone opened. The project is one of a series of lift, trail, and snowmaking investments proposed in Aspen Mountain’s 2018 Master Development plan.
The plan for the Pandora upgrade as detailed by the Aspen Skiing Company. While several proposed trails are marked with single-black diamonds in this figure, the written plan clarifies that all these runs will actually be double-blacks.
Our Take
Aspen Ski Co President Mike Kaplan argued that Pandora’s terrain expansion was needed to keep Aspen Mountain relevant, and it’s hard to argue his point. Ajax may be the most convenient Aspen/Snowmass mountain to the physical town of Aspen, but it offers a much less impressive experience than its Snowmass and Aspen Highlands siblings, which offer larger footprints, less frustrating on-mountain logistics, and terrain for similar demographics.
The Pandora expansion probably won’t elevate Aspen Mountain to the same status as Snowmass and Highlands—it won’t be a huge expansion, and it won’t bring any above-treeline or beginner terrain to the mountain—but it has the potential to address some key issues. The addition of a new easily lappable high-speed zone to the resort should help spread crowds around the mountain, and it should plausibly help combat the less-than-ideal logistics in some resort areas (although some of these places are candidates to receive their own upgrades prior to the Pandora expansion). Moreover, all of Ajax’s current double-black runs are out of the way to reach or undesirable to directly lap; given the considerable proportion of double-blacks proposed in the expansion, this project should cut directly to the heart of that issue, making the mountain more enjoyable for experts.
While it won’t see a direct replacement, the Gent’s Ridge lift’s removal makes a lot of sense if the Pandora expansion goes through. Most of the trails that won’t be serviced by the new Pandora lift are lappable via the Ajax Express, and the Gent’s Ridge lift is so slow—a ride takes over 12 minutes to go up only 1,000’ vertical—that most guests already opt to skip riding it entirely.
The one demographic that likely won’t see much benefit from this expansion is the advanced-but-not-expert visitor. The project looks to bring new intermediate and expert terrain to Ajax, but not much in between. It’s plausible that some of the double-blacks will be on the easier side, but we’ll have to wait to try the trails out for ourselves to truly assess this.
For more on Aspen Mountain as it currently exists, check out our Aspen Mountain review. Additionally, check out our Colorado rankings and Rockies rankings to see how the resort stacks up across the competitive landscape.
