Project · Aspen, Colorado
Advisory on an experiential alpine lodging and ski-touring retreat concept — guiding the expansion from day-use ski touring to overnight cabin accommodations with operational and brand discipline.
Overview
The Ashcroft Ski Touring High Alpine Retreat is an experiential lodging and ski-touring concept set in the high alpine near Aspen. Projects like this live or die on authenticity: the experience has to be true to the place, the operating model has to work in a demanding mountain environment, and the economics have to support both.
Having built and operated a globally recognized outdoor and experiential hospitality brand, we bring a rare combination to a concept like this — the creative instinct to shape a distinctive guest experience and the operational rigor to make sure it can actually be delivered, season after season.
At the heart of the engagement is a strategic expansion: evolving the property from a day-use ski-touring operation into a destination with overnight cabin accommodations — extending the guest experience, deepening revenue per visit, and doing it without losing what makes the place special.
Testing the concept against the realities of the site, the season, and the market — so the vision rests on a foundation that holds.
Shaping an experience that's distinctive, authentic to the alpine setting, and memorable enough to drive demand and advocacy.
Designing how the retreat actually runs — staffing, service, and logistics tuned to a remote, seasonal, high-alpine venue.
Charting the path from a day-use ski-touring operation to overnight cabin accommodations — phasing, unit mix, permitting realities, and the guest-experience and operating implications of adding lodging.