Aspen One Auctions Ski Lift Chairs for Voting and Climate Funds

Why does a town with a median home price hovering near $4 million need to auction off plastic seats from ski lifts, and who actually gets to buy them?

Aspen One announced Tuesday that it is liquidating more than 100 ski lift chairs from The Little Nell and Bell Mountain lifts. These chairs saw their final runs this past April. The auction runs from July 4 through July 19, coinciding with the FIFA World Cup Finals. The goal isn’t just to clear storage space. Aspen One is directing all proceeds to support voter registration, get-out-the-vote efforts, and voting rights protection, alongside climate action. The specific recipients haven’t been named yet.

Let’s do the math on what it costs to own a piece of Aspen’s infrastructure. For context, bidding starts at $250 for the 15 chairs that came from the Little Nell lift. That’s a steep entry fee for a molded plastic seat. The 100 chairs from the Bell Mountain lift start at $500. Aspen One assumes the Bell Lift will be more popular. They’re probably right.

There’s also a tier for people with deeper pockets and less patience for basic utility. Ten chairs have been “reimagined into unique pieces of art.” These start at $2,500 each. Some are re-upholstered in leather. Others feature painted landscapes or wood coverings. Local artist Rae Lampe finished one, featuring a setting sun and snowflakes over the mountains. It’s item #7 in the online auction. If you want bling, it costs more.

Aspen One isn’t ignoring its own workforce. Employees can buy $10 raffle tickets for either the Nell or Bell chairs. It’s a way for former lifties to take home a piece of their labor, similar to how miners used to take silver from Ajax. It’s a nice sentiment for the staff.

The company is also donating two dozen chairs to community organizations. The Aspen School District, the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the Aspen Hope Center, and Ski Noir will receive them. These chairs will likely end up in lobbies or charity auctions themselves. You’ll see them swinging in local buildings for years.

The Aspen Times reported that this initiative was handled by a team working to create myriad methods for folks to acquire memorabilia. The auction is hosted online at us.givergy.com/AspenChairlifts/?controller=home. Anyone, anywhere can bid in a silent auction format.

On paper, this is a clever recycling program. In practice, it’s a marketing exercise that turns public infrastructure into private decor for the wealthy and staff perks. The $250 to $2,500 price points filter out the average resident. If you’re not working for Aspen One or wealthy enough to bid on an “art chair,” you’re just watching the auction from a distance.

The funds raised will go to climate and voting rights groups. That’s a noble aim. Justice and climate change are worthy candidates for funding, according to the announcement. But don’t expect the money to lower your property taxes or fix potholes on Main Street. It’s going to political and environmental causes that haven’t been specified.

The real cost here is access. Only those with internet access, a credit card, and disposable income can participate directly in the primary auction. The rest of us get to see the chairs hanging in school lobbies or sitting on the patios of people who bought them for $500. It’s a memento, sure. But it’s also a reminder of who gets to participate in the local economy and who just watches from the sidelines.