High Points: Hanle hangs it up
Anna Stonehouse/The Aspen Times archive
I knew it was coming. But still, I must admit I felt more than a bit melancholy this past Monday when Jeff Hanle, the face and voice of Aspen skiing for the last couple of decades, hung up the company phone for the final time.
In September, it was announced that Hanle, vice president of communications for Aspen One (formerly known as the Aspen Skiing Company), would be one of three people, including Chief Human Resources Officer Jim Laing and Senior Vice President of Mountain Operations Katie Ertl, who would be leaving the company in the coming year. For Hanle, that time came at the end of March. Combined, the trio had nearly 100 years of experience in the ski industry, and each contributed mightily to making the company what it is today. Hanle, because the nature of his position required him to be out front in the community, may well be the best known of the three.
I first met him back in the late 1990s, when he was in the radio business working for KSPN. He was a fun guy — outgoing, always good with a wise crack, and a very solid skier. But I didn’t see him as the kind of guy who would end up being a corporate flack for SkiCo. It turns out he was tailor made for the job. Honest and endearing, he was always there with the truth and a quip.
His job was multifaceted, as he worked to get company messages out to the local public while also endeavoring to inspire ski and travel journalists from around the world to tell the Aspen story to their audiences. He has many admirers among those in the global ski media who relished the opportunity to ski first tracks with him followed by a pancake breakfast at Bonnie’s, as he regaled them with Aspen lore.
Often irreverent, two of my favorite Hanle-isms are, “Of course I’m not at my desk … I’m in PR!!” which is only outdone by the truism, “Marketing buys ads, PR buys drinks.” Both brought guaranteed laughs and gestured toasts whenever he uttered them.
When he began with SkiCo, Pat O’Donnell was the president and CEO, but in 2006, Mike Kaplan took the reins of the company, and he and Hanle worked closely throughout his entire tenure until Kaplan’s retirement in 2023. Over the years, anytime anything happened on our mountains, it was Hanle who worked on the messaging and made the announcement as the company spokesperson. If the season was going to open early or if there was a death on the slopes or the FIS was bringing the World Cup to Aspen or new terrain was opening, good or bad, it was him who was the spokesperson for the company. And the community of local journalists at both papers trusted and relied on him.
Hanle’s skill set was vast, and he had a great sense for selecting his supporting team of public relations professionals over the years. The town is filled with many who cut their teeth in communications while working for Hanle. It was more than a job; it was an adventure.
He also had the unique ability to speak the language of the community when he made announcements. He did not talk like a corporate spokesperson but rather like the skier he is.
For example, in 2005, three years after the Highland Bowl first opened, he was asked by the Aspen Daily News about a December closure from an avalanche. Pulling no punches, he told the paper: “After that big storm, the middle slid. It’s not unusual — the place up there is a wild zone. The wind and weather and everything changes. This isn’t normal, abnormal, or anything else,” he said.
There is no such thing as a regular opening schedule for the bowl, as it varies tremendously each year, depending on the weather, but he confirmed the slides had delayed things a little.
“There’s no date on anything,” he said. “They are artists up there, and we are not going to rush them.”
Hanle said that when ski patrol does open up parts of the bowl, it does so with little fanfare.
“My advice would be to keep your eyes open and get there when the going’s good.”
Fine advice to this day.
Hanle and his beloved wife, Mo, are spending much of their time in a lovely little house in Palisade in Colorado wine country. In a text on Monday, he wrote, “It was a good run, and I could not think of anything I would have rather done over the last quarter of a century.”
Who among us can say that?
