I saw the headline — “Aspen Mountain chairlifts up for auction” — and my immediate reaction wasn’t “cool vintage gear.” It was: this is a masterclass in capital project storytelling that almost every resort flubs.
Aspen is auctioning several of its legacy chairlift chairs to make room for the new Nell Bell gondola, a major infrastructure upgrade currently in the works. Denver7 covered the auction news and led with the novelty — old chairs, auction block, collector interest. Which is great click-bait. But the deeper story is what Aspen is doing with its construction narrative.
Capital Projects Are Marketing Events — Most Resorts Treat Them as Nuisances
I’ve watched resorts build new lifts, renovate lodges, and install snowmaking infrastructure while communicating exactly nothing to their guests. The crane shows up, the trail closes, and a sign says “Pardon Our Progress” in 10-point font. Done. That’s it.
Aspen turned lift demolition into a revenue moment (auction proceeds), a community moment (guests can literally own a piece of mountain history), and a PR moment (media picked it up nationally). Three wins from one capital project activity they were going to do anyway. That’s not accident — it’s intentional storytelling. They knew the old chairs had value beyond scrap, and they leveraged it.
Any resort with a capital project underway right now is sitting on the same kind of story. The question is whether your marketing team knows to look for it.
The Nell Bell Gondola Is the Real Story — Don’t Bury the Lede
The auction is the hook. The new Nell Bell gondola is the actual multi-year marketing asset. Aspen is replacing a legacy lift with a modern gondola experience — higher capacity, better guest flow, genuine terrain improvement. That’s a story that pays dividends for years of email campaigns, social content, and pass renewal pitches.
“Our new Nell Bell gondola handles X riders per hour” is a pass renewal argument. “Come experience what we built for you” is a brand moment. Most resorts let those messages die in a press release. Aspen is scaffolding the narrative across multiple touchpoints — auction curiosity now, gondola anticipation later, opening day payoff at the end.
Do you have a capital project timeline your marketing team has actually mapped out as a content arc?
The Playbook — Four Things Your Resort Can Do Right Now
You don’t need a Nell Bell budget to execute this strategy. Here’s what translates to any size mountain:
1. Name the project publicly, early. Give your capital project a name. “New Quad Installation” is a filing cabinet. “The Summit Express” is something guests talk about.
2. Find the artifact worth auctioning or commemorating. An old sign, a retired groomer, historic lift chairs, photos from opening day — there’s something. Fans will bid and share.
3. Create a construction update series. Weekly Instagram stories or a dedicated email touchpoint. “Week 3: concrete poured” isn’t glamorous, but engaged guests watch this stuff obsessively.
4. Map the opening day as a media moment. Not just a Facebook post — a genuine press event, a ribbon-cut video, a ski-out by your team. Make it worth covering.
Aspen has resources most resorts don’t. But the thinking — turn capital spend into audience engagement — costs nothing to borrow. The resorts winning the long game are the ones that understand every operational decision is a marketing opportunity if you’re paying attention.
What capital project is your resort sitting on right now that your marketing team hasn’t turned into a story yet? I’d bet there’s at least one.
