Aspen, part IV -- climbing that mountain

It's been an interesting and enlightening visit to Aspen (as well as entertaining and relaxing, of course). Aside from all the fun side trips and good meals and pool time, I've had the chance to engage in some geological and economic reflection. To wit:

We've heard numerous times that this is the snowiest winter anybody here can remember. As of two weeks ago, all the streets in town were one-way because the snowbanks were encroaching on the lanes. (At left, you'll see workers shoveling snow off the roof of the restaurant atop Mount Ajax.) There's serious concern about flooding this spring. But we Nevadans are hoping that all this snow will trickle down to us via the Colorado River. Anybody who's been to Lake Mead in the past couple of years knows how low the water level has dipped -- some have speculated that the lake itself will be dry by 2021, and the underwater ghost town of St. Thomas, which was flooded when the dam was built, has recently reemerged from its watery grave. So bring it on!

This week has also provided a stark lesson on the relative weakness of the American dollar. Everywhere we turn, we're face-to-face with foreign tourists who are taking advantage of the strength of their native currency to enjoy Aspen on the cheap (relatively speaking). Germans, French, Italians, Spaniards, Brits -- they're everywhere. On the bright side, it's nice to see that the world's supposed anti-American sentiment isn't preventing our allies from spending their money here -- or at least the skiing portion of that population.

Then again, I can't see why anybody would turn down a chance to come here. I don't even ski (haven't been on skis since a rather embarrassing and frustrating trip to Mount Kato in about 1984), but there's still plenty to do. The whole family took the gondola to the top of Mt. Ajax on Wednesday for a little lunch and some hiking around. And the views from 11,000 feet are spectacular. Fiona and I returned on Thursday for a snowshoe tour of the back side of the mountain, and despite the thin air we huffed and puffed our way through a great 90-minute hike.