Ah yes, Aspen. It's right up there with St Moritz and Gstaad as one of those ski resorts that's famous for being famous. It's where Donald Trump sloped off with Marla Maples, where Goldie Hawn, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kostner, Don Johnson, Sally Field, the Murdochs and the Eisners, the Lauders and the 'big swinging dicks' of Wall Street have their other homes. Aspen is snow and glitz, furs and jewels, swanky restaurants, hideaway spreads for the rich and famous. Aspen is all of that but it is also - and this may surprise you - an eco-friendly resort.
The charm of Aspen is that it is all the clichés you ever imagined - and then something more besides. Hidden away, deep in the Rockies, it was once a little silvermining town, a western outpost, and round the sweet Victorian houses and wide streets there still clings something of the old pioneer spirit. Ever since the bottom dropped out of the silver market and skiing eventually took its place, it has always made room for the ski-bums and left-over hippies, the schoolteachers and the dreamers of this world.
Turn up in Aspen as a stranger and you soon run into high-minded little local projects and forceful groups who are determined that the voices of the people who live there year-round will be heard. This is more than a town grown rich on the fur-clad set, they'll have you know - it's a community with a vibrant life of its own and it isn't going to have its interests and its life-blood drained by the extravagant desires of the fly-in-fly-out high-spenders.
Anybody who doubts this should try reading the letters pages of the local newspapers, filled with passionate exchanges on everything from beavers and elks to the evils of the construction industry. This is where the Aspen Skiing Company comes in. This privately owned business which runs the slopes and ski-lifts of the four mountains that make up the resort recently won the long-haul section of the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards for sustainable developments. Its chief executive, Pat O'Donnell, came from that most eco-conscious of companies, the Patagonia Clothing Company. He loves mountains and skiing but says the important thing is to get the balance between 'economic viability and environmental responsibility' right.
But it takes two to tango and none of O'Donnell's ideals would matter a row of pins if he did not work for a company that was prepared to put some money behind the ethos. This means, says O'Donnell: 'We don't have to worry about short-term profits and can look instead to the long term.'
Hence the company has decided that it will not build any new ski areas - a strategy that most other ski resorts would think amounted to economic suicide. 'We think enough is enough. We're upgrading what we've already got, we're linking some ski areas together but we're not going to open up any new ones.'
O'Donnell has brought a handful of hard-core environmentalists from the Roaring Fork Valley (a militant group, judging by their vociferous letters) on to various committees of the Aspen Skiing Company. 'They're all experts on water and trees and creeks and they make sure we toe the environmental line while we try to get them to understand that we also have to make money and bring in the tourists which help provide jobs and incomes.'
The environmental strategy revolves around recycling and making the best use of existing resources. In the old days when they pulled down a hotel they would take the rubble to the landfill pit; these days it is recycled and the demolition department is now a profit centre. And to ensure that apartments don't lie empty for most of the year they have come up with the idea of a private ownership club which gives regular visitors a permanent stake in a property.
However, the company's most novel contribution to its environmental ideals, and the one that caught the attention of the Tourism for Tomorrow judges, is its wind-powered lift, the Cirque. High up on Snowmass, one of the world's great skiing mountains, it is the only wind-powered ski lift in the state and over a full year it would keep 192,000lb of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere and some 80,000lbs of coal in the ground. So as not to disturb local wildlife it was built between animal mating and nesting periods and to protect the delicate tundra it was built by hand, with every single piece of equipment being carried up the 12,510ft mountain on foot and every piece of rubble being carried down. The result is that skiers can now ski over a pristine area which used to be closed to them - but when the wind is wrong or the elk are mating, then the lift is closed. Animals and the habitat come first.
Though we all like to think it matters to us, few skiers choose a resort simply because of its eco-friendly policies: there have to be other reasons why people return year after year, in spite of the jetlag and the high prices. There are. We go because the air is crisper, the snow is drier and lighter than powder, the pistes are never crowded, American skiers mind their manners, on top of the mountain there is free hot apple juice, coffee and muffins, and Aspen is always thinking of new ways to please the skier. There is a constant stream of free buses round the town and between the mountains which are funded by the Aspen Ski Company because they not only cut down on pollution but are a huge help to the visitor. There are free tissues at every lift station. If you lose your goggles or your gloves the lift attendant usually has spares that can be borrowed for the day.
There's the early morning First Tracks programme which allows you to book a ride on the first lift of the day and ski the unpisted trails, feeling as if you have the whole mountain to yourself. There are (very expensive) day excursions on snow-cats which will find you the fresh snow. And we go, above all, because there are four amazing mountains to explore. Because of poor early snow-falls Aspen has had a run of not very special seasons and so it tries harder.
But after all that is added up it still is nice to know that you are skiing in a place where people mind about things that matter. You can only lift your hat.
Aspen fact file
Lucia van der Post flew to Denver with British Airways (0845 77 333 77), which has daily direct flights from Heathrow. From January until the end of March the return fare from Gatwick, including taxes, is around £400. There are connecting flights with United Airlines to Sardy Airfield, 10 minutes from the resort. Aspen is four hours' drive from Denver but cars are actively discouraged. There is a free shuttle bus service between the four mountains and many of the hotels run courtesy services.
Aspen is small by design and is able to accommodate only around 15,000 guests at any one time in both Aspen and Snowmass. Accommodation ranges from a bunk in a simple hostel at the St Moritz, a favourite with snowboarders, to the five-star luxury of the St Regis or The Little Nell.
Van der Post stayed at The Independence Square, which can be booked with all the other hotels through the Aspen Skiing Company (00 1 970 925 1220 or www.aspensnowmass.com).
The Ski and Snowboard Schools of Aspen organise a Winter Wild Things interactive on-mountain environmental programme for children and Fresh Tracks Nature Tours works with the Aspen Centre for Environmental Studies to organise naturalist-led ski tours with snowshoe walks for non-skiers. Aspen had 3ft of snow last week and is to open on Saturday, a week earlier than planned.
