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5:48 Morning Edition host Eleanor Bennett talks with recently retired Aspen Highlands Patrol Director, Mac Smith, about his memories of growing up on the mountain and running the ski patrol for four decades. Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol Director Mac Smith passed the baton on Jan. 31 after 42 seasons on the job. Though, he will remain on the patrol during the winters and help as needed throughout the next several years.  He first stepped foot on Highlands when he was only 8-years-old, and got his start on the mountain washing dishes at the Merry-Go-Round restaurant after graduating from Basalt ...

Anna Stonehouse/Aspen Times file photo Sunday was a day that was inevitable but still hard to fathom when Mac Smith stepped down as Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol director in his 42nd season in the post. Smith, 68, will remain on the ski patrol for the foreseeable future during winters and work on special projects during summers. He said Monday he is “half-retiring.” “Elvis hasn’t left the building. He’s just gone to a different room,” Smith said with his signature sense of humor. Lori Spence, a longtime member of the Highlands patrol, was appointed as acting director. She is the firs...

Mac Smith is retiring as Aspen Highlands patrol director after 42 seasons. Every day for the last 42 years, I have saddled up and rode into responsibility. The time has come to step down and pass the yoke. The Highlands Patrol is strong, competent and can take the weight. It’s been a helluva ride on a myriad of horses; many gentle and kind, some fast witted and snappy, some with only one speed … a dead run, a few rank and bucking. I am proud to see what the Highlands Patrol now stands for and to see the unique symbiotic relationship they have nurtured with our amazing ski community. This ...

While the backcountry has a dangerous snowpack that inexperienced skiers best approach with extreme caution, in-bounds terrain at the four area mountains of Aspen Snowmass is controlled and safe — when users uphold their end of the safety bargain. “It is very important for the public to understand that when we have runs closed, there is a good reason,” Aspen Skiing Co. vice president of communications Jeff Hanle said Monday.  Looking up from the top of Little Nell run to Silver Queen and environs, which slid recently and is currently closed. M...

In the past nine days, 84 human-triggered avalanches were reported and more than 200 natural avalanches in just the central mountains of Colorado. Researchers in the field investigating Friday’s slide in the Anthracite Range, a popular backcountry skiing area off Kebler Pass west of Crested Butte, captured this telltale image of the dangerously weak snowpack pervasive across Colorado’s mountains right now. On Saturday, two backcountry skiers were “caught, buried, and killed in an avalanche in the North San Juans,” the Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported Sunday n...