Next weekend two Giant Slaloms and a Slalom will be held in the ski resort of Aspen.
The 2024 Stifel Aspen Winternational Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the first Men's dedicated technical World Cup event in Aspen since 2001. The last time Men raced a Giant Slalom and a Slalom in Aspen was at the Finals in 2017.
Aspen has been home to more than 100 alpine races since local legend Bob Beattie started the FIS World Cup circuit in 1968. From 1939—when the first FIS-sanctioned races took place at Aspen—to 1950, when Aspen hosted the first FIS World Championships outside of Europe, to the 2017 Audi FIS Ski World Finals, Aspen’s Roaring Fork Valley has been the main stage for world-class alpine racing for decades.
Aspen (USA)
March 1st Giant Slalom / Men (replaces Sölden) 1st run 18:00 / 2nd run 21:00 CET
March 2nd Giant Slalom / Men 1st run 18:00 / 2nd run 21:00 CET
March 3rd Slalom / Men 1st run 17:00 / 2nd run 20:00 CET
Lower Ruthie's run racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 2863 m (Giant Slalom) 2690 m (Slalom)
Finish Elevation: 2470 m
Vertical Drop: 393 m (Giant Slalom) 220 m (Slalom)
Length: 1150 m (Giant Slalom) 617 m (Slalom)
In 2017, at the Finals in Aspen, Marcel Hirscher won his third Giant Slalom race in a row to cap off the season where he held onto the discipline title. Hirscher took down first-run leader Felix Neureuther by 0.53 seconds and third-place finisher Mathieu Faivre by 1.19 seconds with a spectacular second run.
In a repeat performance from the 2016 season's finals, Andre Myhrer of Sweden claimed victory in the last Slalom of the year for his first podium finish since St. Moritz. Felix Neureuther skied a blistering second run to move from sixth into second place. Austria's Michael Matt held on for the final podium spot in third.
Aspen Snowmass is a winter resort complex located in Pitkin County in western Colorado in the United States.
Aspen Skiing Company (ASC) operates the four mountains in the Aspen/Snowmass area - Snowmass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk.
Originally a mining town, Aspen began attracting recreational skiers after the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York created an interest in alpine skiing in the United States. The first attempt at developing a resort at Aspen came in 1936 when three men (T.J. Flynn, Ted Ryan, and Billy Fiske) formed the Highland Bavarian Corporation. In 1938, a former member of the 10th Mountain Division, Friedl Pfeifer, banded together with industrialist Walter Paepcke and his wife Elizabeth to make the town and its mountain a destination for those seeking renewal of their mind, body, and spirit. As Walter once said, "Aspen had fishing, climbing, skiing. Aspen had so much to add to leisure, to the renewal of the inner spirit. It was the perfect setting for music, art, education…all the things that make life worth living".
In 1945, Walter Paepcke began acquiring land and met with the original founder of Aspen’s ski club and school, which he was looking to acquire. A deal was struck and in January 1946, the Aspen Skiing Corporation was incorporated.
In 1958 Friedl Pfeifer opens Buttermilk Mountain. Whip Jones opens Highlands. William Janss, a former ski racer and land developer, becomes interested in Snowmass and purchases the majority of the land at its base.
In 1963 Aspen Skiing Corporation purchased Buttermilk Mountain from Friedl Pfeifer.
In 1967 Snowmass-at-Aspen, just 12 miles from Aspen, officially opens December 17 as a joint venture of Aspen Skiing Corporation and the Janss Corporation.