Top 5 most-read stories last week
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Stories in this list received the most page views on aspentimes.com from April 14-21.
Independence Pass might open the earliest it has ever on record, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Above-average temperatures and low snowpack levels have prompted a tentative Indy Pass season opening of April 28. Historically, the high-mountain route between Aspen and Twin Lakes tends to open around Memorial Day, with the previous record for the earliest opening set on May 11, 2012.
CDOT crews plan to begin resurfacing and conduct bridge updates on the east side of the pass on April 21. That same day, a CDOT maintenance team and avalanche experts from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center will begin snowpack assessments to determine whether the road can safely open the following week.
-Westley Crouch
2. PHOTOS: Alehouse hosts annual closing day party at Aspen Highlands
The Alehouse restaurant hosted its annual closing day party on Sunday at Aspen Highlands, sending the popular ski area into the offseason with an emphatic bang. DJs performed, and people danced into the evening after taking their final lift-assisted bowl laps of the winter.
With Buttermilk having closed last weekend, only Aspen Mountain and Snowmass remain open, and both are set to close this coming weekend. Snowmass will host its annual Elk Camp Surf and Snow Beach Party on Saturday — the mountain will also remain open for final laps on Sunday — while Ajax will host its closing day party and last laps on Sunday.
-Austin Colbert
3. Carbondale-based Revel Bikes to close doors
A Carbondale-based bike producer is going out of business.
Revel Bikes, a 2019 company known for its innovative approach to carbon bike designs, announced in a Thursday email to dealers that it will be entering an “orderly wind down.” The company, which plans to liquidate in the next four to six weeks, cited a soft bike market, product delays, and overdue payments as contributing elements to the closure.
The Revel Bikes crew includes 31 employees, according to their website.
-Skyler Stark-Ragsdale
4. Aspen liquor store employee allegedly assaults former coworker
A former Aspen liquor store employee lost his vision in one eye after he was allegedly assaulted by his old coworker in October 2024.
Suspect Anthony James Neuroth, then 46, has a Monday, April 21, arraignment after previously posting bond.
Neuroth allegedly charged at his former coworker when his back was turned, “attacking (him) from behind” at the 400 block of E. Main Street shortly after 8 p.m., Oct. 1, 2024, according to surveillance footage.
-Skyler Stark-Ragsdale
5.Prescribed Fire across from Aspen Mountain started Monday
At 10:30 a.m. on Monday, April 14, helicopter blades began slicing through the air on a grassy field above houses that overlooked Aspen Mountain.
The blades beat faster and faster until the helicopter lifted off and turned toward the hillside, doing circles above the landscape. Meanwhile, on the ground, White River National Forest crews worked to give the go-ahead for a “test fire” of the “Sunnyside Prescribed Fire” that was scheduled to take place that day.
After a few laps, the helicopter got approval to drop ping pong ball-like capsules filled with potassium permanganate powder, a strong oxidizing agent that would ignite the ground below it.
-Colin Suszynski
Carbondale-based Revel Bikes to close doors
A Carbondale-based bike producer is going out of business.
