Snowboarder Colin Walters rides to the bottom of Little Nell on Aspen Mountain on a cloudy day in Aspen on Thursday, March 4, 2021. Walters lives in Lakewood.(Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Everything was going perfect for Aspen-Snowmass on Saturday, March 14, 2020. The snow was super soft from recent storms. An early wave of the spring break crowds filled chairlifts, restaurants and shops. Skier visits for the season were running on par with the record set in 2018-19.
Then the reality of the pandemic crashed down. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered ski areas to cease operations barely more than 24 hours after he had applauded them in a news conference for taking precautions in order to stay open.
However, for others with lingering symptoms of the coronavirus, that light is harder to see.
“Well, it feels like I’m living a nightmare,” said Clay Shiflet, an Aspen Middle School teacher and valley resident who’s been suffering the effects of COVID-19 for a year. “Literally, it’s hard to wrap your head around feeling like you have something that’s become chronic, essentially.”
Shiflet and others are known as “long-haulers,” and studies across the country are showing that more and more people afflicted with the virus report symptoms that just won’t go away. The number of long-haulers appears to vary, with a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association and a study by British scientists estimating that 10% of COVID-19 patients belong to that group, though others have suggested the number is much higher.
5Point Film partners with CORE the sustainable energy non-profit to present film screening about climate change.
CORE is a non-profit fighting climate change in the Roaring Fork Valley since 1994 by saving energy and reducing carbon emissions, and encouraging residents to do the same. For their Imagine Climate 2021 program, they teamed up with multiple arts organizations in an effort to get individuals to conceptualize climate change in a new way. 5Point Film Festival is one of their partners and Charlie Turnbull, Head of Programming at 5Point, curated a list of five short films for people to stream for a DIY at-home film fest experience. The films take on climate change from a fresh approach, Executive Director Regna Jones said, and were chosen to help spur conversations around climate change.