Situated on the north flank of Aspen Mountain (for which it is named), its summit elevation is 11,212 feet (3,417 m) above sea level.

Fritz Benedict visited Aspen for the first time, the father of the 10th Mountain Hut and Trail System.

Many of the first employees were veterans of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, which had trained in Colorado at Camp Hale north of Leadville, including Friedl Pfeifer of Austria and Pete Seibert.

Access to the mountain was radically changed in 1986 with the installation of the Silver Queen Gondola, which ascends to the summit up the east side of the area with a vertical rise of 3,267 ft (996 m).

The average annual snowfall is 300 inches (25 ft; 7.6 m), and it has snowmaking capabilities of 210 acres (0.85 km2), approximately one-third of the area.

The ski area has a unique "homespun" culture that dates from its early foundation as part of the Utopian social experiment in Aspen created by Walter Paepcke in the 1940s, retaining somewhat of a throwback culture in comparison to the other three areas of the complex.

The culture is reflected in the numerous homemade memorials and tributes that dot the trees of mountains created in honor of famous personages such as John Denver and Hunter S. Thompson.

However, it was soon sold, at a substantial profit, to the OKO Group, an international real estate development company owned by Vladislav Doronin, a controversial transaction.