X Games give Aspen an extreme makeover

ASPEN, Colo. — In a marketing-driven marriage of the pierced and the privileged, of extreme athletes and their extremely rich hosts, a horde of tattooed teenagers with rings in their chins and boomboxes in their backpacks has descended upon this millionaires' village in the high Rockies.

Aspen, where the police department patrols in $40,000 Saab sedans and the average home sells for $4.1 million, is playing host to ESPN's rowdy Winter X Games. The noisy pageant of high-flying hot-dog skiers and snarling snowmobiles getting big air off the bumps has attracted tens of thousands of young fans who normally would eschew this resort's $400-a-night hotel rates.

And yet, both sides of the culture clash seem delighted with the results.

"The bars here! The restaurants! I'm telling you, bro, Aspen is a sick town," says ESPN announcer Selema Masekela, using an adjective that means "very, very good" in the argot of extreme sports.

"The X Games and all the kids help us counter the sort of stodgy reputation Aspen used to have," says Ann McLean of the Aspen Skiing Co., the town's biggest employer.

Of course, the two contrasting worlds still cherish their stereotypes about one another.

The X Gamers enjoy making fun of their hosts:

Q: How many Aspenites does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Five. One to screw in the bulb and four to make sure she's wearing the right outfit.

The locals themselves laugh at that one and return the favor:

Q: How many snowboarders does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Fifty. One to screw in the bulb and 49 to go, like, "Yo dude, wicked!"

One thing that Aspenites and X Gamers both understand, though, is the power of marketing.

The X Games — a virtual Olympics of "extreme" sports, involving highly visual, highly dangerous races and stunts performed on youth-oriented equipment such as skateboards, BMX bikes, snowboards and motorcycles — was created in 1996 by ESPN to give the network an attraction for younger audiences and the advertisers who crave them.

For the first few years, the winter version of the games moved from one ski area to another. "When somebody suggested we talk to Aspen, I thought, 'Oh, no, way too ritzy,' " recalls Chris Stiepock, ESPN's extreme-sports manager.

Meanwhile, this upper-bracket resort — Aspen traditionally set its lift-ticket price ($74 this year) higher than any competitor's — was looking for a new marketing approach of its own. As aging baby boomers cut back on their skiing, the ski company's revenue was as flat as a training hill for beginners.

In 2001, the resort opened its trademark resort, Aspen Mountain, to snowboarders for the first time. Inviting the X Games to take over the town for a week in January was the next step.

"We had probably gone too far on marketing that 'exclusive' image," said Jeff Hanle, the ski company's public-relations chief. "The X Games turned out to be a perfect way to sell the fact that our snow and facilities are fantastic for anybody."

Masekela, ESPN's chief X Games announcer, said the aura of Aspen is not lost on younger viewers. "For our core audience, doing it here means one more ... elitist stronghold has fallen to our generation. We are taking over, bro."

One of the keener ironies of the Aspen X Games is that the competition is carried out at Buttermilk Mountain. That's the "bunny slope" of Aspen's four resorts, specifically designed for cautious neophytes who dislike anything steep.

The X Games halfpipe where skiers and snowboarders perform startling leaps, flips and spins actually runs down a mild slope at Buttermilk called "Panda Hill" that is used to teach toddlers how to ski.