Even in the most beautiful places on Earth, people still find ways to make each other miserable. 

...As summer draws to its close in the Northern Hemisphere and backpacks fill with books, Midwesterners head to the lake, the Europeans lay bum to bum on Mediterranean beaches while East Coasters sit bumper to bumper on Highways 27 and 6, I’ll be perched upon a mountain under the big skies of the American West. The view here is–in the strictest Kantian definition–sublime, the air as crisp as a gluten free bagel chip and fragrant with sage and pine and just a hint of smoke from a forest fire in some distant valley

My first story (and cover story) for The Aspen Times, I go deep inside the world of Aspen / Snowmass Lift Operators.

In a 2004 episode of The Simpsons, Marge has an old classmate over to dinner who has become a Diane Sawyer-type success. Afterward, while washing a serving bowl the friend had brought over, Lisa says, "Even her bowl smells glamorous." Marge rips it away incredulously, smells it and sighs, "It's like Christmas in Aspen."

It all started with the “youth quake” of the late ’60s and early ’70s, when the baby boomers collided with puberty, which then collided with Aspen. There were 20-somethings everywhere and all looking for a good time.

The seminal film about Aspen turns 25 this year. Here is a look back at what the film meant from the mouths of those who lived – and skied – it.