A freak like me
LIKE West Side Story’s Sharks and Jets, but on skis, the ritzy American resort of Aspen has its very own gang culture.
When settling into the Silver Queen Gondola lift that takes winter sports lovers from the town’s East Dean Street and five-star Little Nell hotel to the top of Aspen Mountain, a ride soaring some 3,300 vertical feet, don’t be surprised if a bunch of skiers burst in barking like rottweilers or start serenading you with some Marvin Gaye. And, when you get to the 11,200ft summit, good luck trying to keep up with them on the way back down. You have just encountered one of Aspen’s notorious ski gangs, a counterculture dating back to the early 1970s.
The Flying Flynns, the Bell Mountain Buckaroos and the Dogs were among the first posses on the scene, forming in 1971. The ski gangs are tribes, like college fraternities, each with their own reputation. Unlike urban gangs, they share the same territory—in
