It’s December—which means that Aspen, Colorado is officially in its peak season. The area’s ski resorts, from Ajax to Snowmass, have opened their snowy slopes. Five-star hotels such as Hotel Jerome and the St. Regis are buzzing with business, while Aspen’s famed après ski haunts, like Cloud Nine and the Little Nell, have maintained their spirited (and in the case of the former, champagne-spraying) debauchery.
Yarrow at Hotel Jerome
This winter, Hotel Jerome opens Yarrow, a boutique spa that specializes in treatments using botanicals found in the Rocky Mountains. Massages use lemongrass and chamomile, whereas facials use cranberry and calendula. Meanwhile, a body treatment includes facial massage with iced marble cold stones, embracing the anti-inflammatory temperature of the season.
Redstone Castle
St. Regis owners Stephane and Sabrina de Baets are in the midst of transforming Redstone Castle, a 1902 Tudor-style mansion 54 minutes from downtown Aspen, into a wellness retreat specializing in treatments developed at the Rakxa medical spa in Bangkok. This year, Redstone Castle will be available for event buyouts, with plans to offer holistic programming in the near future. “Everyone is obsessed with wellness and nature, and it is only natural for Pitkin County to be the epicenter of this trend” Huls says. “During the planning and permitting process the castle will entertain a very limited number of public tours and occasionally be available for some private events/ buyouts.”