Singles on the slopes: Finding friends and lovers at Aspen Snowmass

Watching a group of around 60 mostly single adults split off into groups over the course of a weeklong ski vacation is kind of like a mini reality show.

It starts on a Sunday night, said Chuck Artillio, co-owner of Singles Ski, a travel company that organizes ski trips for single adults. Everybody’s at the welcome party and on the first night, the group does introductions around the room. People are just kind of looking at each other.

By Tuesday night, people break out into little groups and are socializing. Then they tend to gravitate toward their desired partner.

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“And then by Wednesday night,” he said, “there’s always a hookup.”

But the trips are more than speed dating on the ski lifts. Attendees range in age from young 20s to post–retirement, though the average is about 50. And they’ll tell you the trip is about the skiing: finding skiers of a similar level and joining a trip with a full itinerary. If they meet someone, that’s just a bonus. 

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Artillio and fellow co-owner Tracy Parnes met on a Singles Ski trip in 2014. Both had gone on trips with the company but did not meet until a trip to Big Sky. They hit it off, and he relocated to Florida to be with her. They are one of about 34 couples that have met on a trip and eventually married. 

Artillio said he joked with the founder back on his first trip in 2008 that he’d like to buy the company. After a decade, Artillio and Parnes bought Singles Ski and run it — just the two of them. They attend every trip, usually 8-10 per season. 

“The previous owner wasn’t sure if we were going to do well as a couple running a singles trip. But we actually think it’s better that way. The previous owner had a (male employee), and then the guy started hooking up with all the girls,” Parnes said with a laugh. “We feel like at least like we take like the competition off of both of us. Because we’re together, we’re not, you know, getting together.”

The trips range across ski areas in the United States. Their season’s first trip was in Aspen Snowmass, and they’ll be back in March for peak-conditions skiing. The group always stays at Stonebridge Condominiums in Snowmass. 

The company opened its season at Aspen Snowmass. On Dec. 15, the group skied Snowmass after a week of ski days across the other three mountains. 

Costs depend on the mountain, but a private room for the Dec. 10-16 trip to Aspen Snowmass cost $2,975. It includes everything but airfare, including dinners, happy hours, and ski rentals. The days are blocked out by meal times, group or free skiing, or other activities. Attendees can participate in as much or as little as they want.

Beverly Zebrowski is from the Boston area and has been on several trips with Singles Ski. 

“Over the years, people stop skiing, they pass away, you get divorced. It’s all these things, and I just lost all my ski buddies over the years. And I thought, ‘I want to go skiing somewhere and not have to join a ski club,'” she said. “You just show up, and everything’s handled. I don’t feel like I have to worry about anybody. I don’t have to babysit anybody. And that leaves me open to meeting whoever I want to meet.”

She did meet someone on a trip, and they saw each other for about a year and a half. It ended amicably, and they still sometimes see each other on trips. Meeting people who like skiing, biking, and hiking (Singles Ski also organizes some summer trips) is the main appeal, she said, and a romantic connection is just one type of relationship to blossom out of a trip. 

The group out with Artillio, Parnes, and Zebrowski lapped chairs together, waiting for each other at the top then weaving around each other as they make their way down the hill. Artillio, on his snowboard, tended to hang toward the back of the group, like he was herding a group of cats down the mountain.

He said that the company has seen some injuries in its 21 years, from broken hips to altitude sickness. When that happens, he said, he helps get the injured person to the hospital or whatever care they might need. 

After a morning of turns, many of the attendees converged at Elk Camp Restaurant for lunch. The group sprawled out across four tables, with folks who might not have skied together that day meeting up for a beer and some french fries. 

“Even if we weren’t at the same skiing ability, it’s nice to not have to walk in the lodge by yourself. I’m fairly newly-single myself, and it’s so nice to have people to talk to,” said Liz McCarthy, who was on her sixth trip with Singles Ski. She’s a hardcore skier, and Parnes joked that anyone who skis with her has to sign an extra waiver. “Everybody comes in being a little nervous because you don’t know what to expect … And it would be different if it were couples, it wouldn’t be the same dynamic — and it’s not that it’s a hookup scene, it’s just that we all like skiing and it’s a way to not ski alone.”

For Eric Jacklin, finding Singles Ski when he needed it most. After his marriage of 22 years ended, he found himself wondering how to move through the world without a partner. He called Artillio before booking the trip, and Artillio checked in with him weekly leading up to the summer trip to Pittsburgh. 

He’s been on at least six trips now, though Parnes said that estimate is likely too low. 

“This program gave me a whole new start in life to not have to feel so dependent on somebody,” Jacklin said. “And this gives you a chance to kind of get to know different people who have the same kind of mindset … I’ve met so many great friends that I don’t feel so dependent on somebody.”

Another longtime attendee Greg Smith, who lived in Aspen back in the ’70s, said coming back to Aspen with Singles Ski makes him nostalgic for the “good ol’ days” of Aspen, but he’ll keep coming back for the community.

“I think you bound with different people in different ways,” he said. “You come back year after year, and you get to know people a little bit better and so forth. It’s like a summer camp for adults, single adults in the winter, right?”