Doing a Season in Aspen

Aspen is the most famous name in American skiing. It's also genuinely one of the best ski resort areas in the country — Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass together form the Aspen Snowmass complex, covering more than 5,300 acres across four distinct mountains with four distinct characters. The glamour is real; so is the skiing; so is the cost. Here's what a season there actually looks like when you're working it rather than visiting it.

The Four Mountains

Aspen Mountain (Ajax)

The one visible from downtown, rising directly above the town's Victorian streetscape. Summit at 3,418m, around 1,000m of vertical, and no beginner terrain whatsoever — Aspen Mountain is entirely intermediate and expert. This is unusual among major US resorts and worth knowing before you arrive: if you're learning to ski or bringing a beginner partner on days off, Ajax is not where you'll be spending that time.

The terrain is exceptional. Walsh's, Deception, Spar Gulch, the Bell Mountain chutes — the expert runs are genuine expert runs, not intermediate blue-runs renamed black on a marketing map. The resort's relatively compact footprint means runs are concentrated and consistently good rather than diluted across a vast but mediocre area.

Aspen Highlands

The most dramatic terrain of the four, and arguably the most rewarding for a serious skier doing a season. The Highland Bowl — accessible by hiking from the top of the fixed-grip chair — delivers genuine high-alpine skiing in a setting that feels more backcountry-adjacent than anything else in the Aspen Snowmass complex. The hike is real (30–45 minutes of bootpacking in ski boots), and the reward is real. The Maroon Creek valley views from the ridge are among the best in Colorado.

Highlands has a smaller, quieter resort village than Ajax and attracts a more local, less tourist-facing crowd. If you're a serious skier, this is likely where you'll spend a lot of your days off.

Buttermilk

The learning mountain. Beginner and lower-intermediate terrain, comprehensive ski school infrastructure, and the terrain park that has hosted the Winter X Games slopestyle and halfpipe events for years. The park is world-class — some of the best park infrastructure in North America. Not where the expert skiers go, but if you're a park rider or teaching beginners, you'll know this mountain well.

Snowmass

Largest of the four by terrain — over 3,300 acres, 16 lifts, a vertical drop of more than 1,400m. Snowmass has a genuinely complete mountain: beginner terrain through expert, long cruising runs for rest days, sustained steeps, glades, and enough variety to avoid repetition across a season. It also has its own separate base village (Snowmass Base Village), which means its own employment economy, its own restaurants and bars, and its own seasonaire community that is distinct from Aspen town.

The Snowmass vs. Aspen town divide is real and worth thinking about before you take a job. Working in Snowmass and living there is a different experience from working in Aspen town — quieter, more contained, with its own pros and cons.

Working Rights

The US does not have a working holiday visa arrangement with most countries. The two main routes for international workers:

J-1 Cultural Exchange Visa: arranged through approved programme sponsors (BUNAC, CIEE, and others). Aspen Skiing Company participates in J-1 programmes. The J-1 is the most common route for international seasonaires at US resorts. Apply well in advance — processing takes months.

H-2B Seasonal Worker Visa: employer-initiated, used for specific seasonal roles. Aspen Skiing Company and resort employers use H-2B, but the annual cap on H-2B visas creates uncertainty — your employer applies and may or may not receive an allocation in a given year.

Aspen Skiing Company is a well-resourced employer that understands international recruitment — they are not learning the process as you go. But start early and confirm your visa route before accepting any offer.

See /visa-guides/usa for current specifics, cap dates, and sponsor lists.

The Town of Aspen

Aspen (population around 7,000 permanent residents) is unlike any other ski town in America. The Victorian mining-era streetscape is largely intact — Aspen was a silver-mining boomtown in the 1880s and retains the architecture from that period in a way that feels genuine rather than curated. The Wheeler Opera House still runs a real programme. The Aspen Institute is a serious intellectual institution that brings speakers and events to the town year-round. The Aspen Art Museum is a legitimate contemporary art museum, not a gift shop with paintings.

The famous wealth is also real, and visible. Aspen is one of the most expensive zip codes in the United States. The restaurants are priced accordingly, the retail is luxury, and the social dynamics of a very small town where the wealth gap between visitors and workers is extreme can take adjustment.

What is also real: the permanent community is grounded. Aspen has long-term residents who have been there for decades, who work in the trades, who raise children in the local schools. The town has done more than most ski towns to preserve affordable housing for workers — more on that below — which means the community is more mixed than you might expect from the exterior glamour.

The Job Market

Aspen Skiing Company (a private company, owned by the Crown family of Chicago, operating all four mountains) employs over 4,000 seasonal workers. It is by far the largest employer in the area, and its recruitment is professional and well-organised — applications open in the summer for the following winter season.

Beyond Aspen Skiing Company: the hotel market is significant and employs at the premium end. The St. Regis, The Little Nell (one of the only ski-in/ski-out five-star hotels in the US), the Residences at The Little Nell, and the Limelight Hotel are the flagship properties. Restaurant jobs are numerous and well-compensated. Retail, childcare, wellness, and resort services round out the picture.

Wages are good. Colorado has a relatively high state minimum wage, and Aspen's economy pushes market rates above that — particularly in hospitality. The competition for housing rather than the wage level is the constraint on affordability.

The Housing Reality

Housing in Aspen is the hardest problem to solve and the most important to solve before you arrive.

Aspen's housing market is among the most extreme in America — not just among ski towns. The market-rate cost of a room in Aspen is prohibitive on a seasonal wage without employer assistance. This is not a matter of being frugal or finding a deal; there are simply not enough affordable units relative to the seasonal worker population at market rates.

Aspen Skiing Company operates employee housing — deed-restricted affordable units and dormitory-style accommodation reserved for seasonal workers — and this housing is essential for most people doing a season there. When evaluating any job offer with Aspen Skiing Company or a major employer, confirm your housing situation as part of the offer, not as an afterthought. Housing waitlists exist; priority typically goes to full-time-equivalent seasonal workers in higher-demand roles.

The Snowmass Base Village has a more accessible housing market than Aspen town itself, which is one reason some workers prefer Snowmass-based roles.

Is It Worth It?

Aspen rewards workers who have a specific reason to be there: the skiing is exceptional, the cultural richness of the town is unlike any other resort in America, and the employment infrastructure of a major, well-resourced operation makes the practical side manageable for those who plan ahead.

It is harder to access than Breckenridge or Steamboat — Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field, ASE) is a small regional airport served by limited carriers, and the drive from Denver is around four hours. Budget more time and money for travel than you would for a Colorado resort with a major airport nearby.

Compared to Whistler for a non-US worker: Aspen is more expensive to get to, harder on working rights, and smaller in terms of terrain. The cultural experience and the skiing quality at Aspen Highlands and Ajax are exceptional. If Aspen is specifically where you want to be — if you have hospitality qualifications that put you in the premium employment segment, or if you want to experience one of America's genuinely distinctive towns — it is worth the extra effort. If you want the most accessible, most affordable, highest-terrain US season, it probably isn't.

For the right person, doing a season in Aspen is one of the best versions of what a ski season can be.