When Jon Busch co-founded the first Aspen Gay Ski Week in 1977, he wasn’t trying to start a movement. He was simply trying to repay a favor.
For years prior, several gay ski clubs made an annual trip from California to Aspen to enjoy the slopes and they would invite locals like Busch to their condos where they hosted dinners and parties to celebrate the season.
“One year, we decided we had been taking advantage of their generosity and we needed to put on a party for them. That is how gay ski week officially started,” Busch said.
Aspen Gay Ski Week, which celebrates its 49th year this week, was unique at the time, but it eventually inspired similar events across the world. Today, ski towns in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australasia show their pride by welcoming LGBTQ+ folks for dedicated weeks that include shredding the slopes, drag shows, networking, parades and more.
About 5,000 people come to Aspen annually for gay ski week to indulge in curated dinners and dance parties out on the town, said Kim Kuliga, executive director of organizer AspenOUT. Its signature event is a downhill costume contest in which attendees dress in lavish outfits — or show lots of skin — as they ski to the base of Aspen Mountain. Drag queen Mariam T. hosts and an expert panel of judges evaluate each contestant’s look as they arrive in front of a rowdy crowd seated at the bottom of the slopes. To cap off the event, a team of people descends with a 70-foot rainbow flag blowing in the breeze.
While it is mostly fun and games, Aspen Gay Ski Week is also tied to a mission. In 1996, the organizing body — then called the Aspen Gay and Lesbian Community Fund — transitioned to become a nonprofit and invested the money it raised from ski week to support other community initiatives. Today, the organization, now called AspenOUT, offers year-round programming such as youth pride hikes, queer sober clubs, art groups and hot springs meetups to connect LGBTQ+ individuals in its home region. Aspen Gay Ski Week is the organization’s primary fundraiser, Kuliga said.
Though its early days weren’t explicitly tied to a cause, Busch said activism was woven into the fabric of the event from the start. The same year Aspen Gay Ski Week began, its host town passed a pioneering law that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, public services and accommodation practices.
Busch helped lead that initiative as well as others, such as establishing a hotline for LGBTQ+ youth struggling with their identity. Even after Colorado voters passed Amendment 2 in 1992, which effectively banned municipalities from establishing gay protections, Busch says his hometown remained a safe haven for the community. (The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled Amendment 2 as unconstitutional.)
Looking back, Busch said “the welcoming vibe by the local population” makes him most proud. “Aspen really showed its colors,” he said — and he means that in a good way.
Gay rights have come a long way in the nearly half a century since the country’s first gay ski week, but representation remains an important pillar of uplifting the LGBTQ+ community especially in rural areas of Colorado, said Mads Partridge, executive director of Mountain Pride, which hosts two “queer ski weekends” each winter.
“Historically, rural resort and mountain towns haven’t had LGBTQ+ community centers, bars/clubs, or dedicated gathering spaces. For many queer people, it’s been incredibly isolating, especially in regions where the beauty of the mountains is everywhere, but queer visibility and connection are not,” she said by email.
Mountain Pride hosted its first ski event in Vail in 2023 and expanded to include a second in Keystone in 2024. “These weekends show just how hungry people are for connection and how transformative it can be when we make space for it,” Partridge said.
That’s especially true in today’s political climate, in which transgender rights, same-sex marriage and even rainbow crosswalks are increasingly under threat, said Jake Bomersback of SBG Productions, which produces Telluride Gay Ski Week.
“It’s important to gather with like-minded people and be your authentic, true self and to find that space where it’s a safe space to express yourself through skiing, through friendship, through love,” he said. “It’s important now more so than ever because spaces where people feel safe are going away.”
Telluride Gay Ski Week, which started in 2002, enlists help from the whole town and the neighboring Mountain Village to foster an inclusive vibe. Rainbow flags line downtown’s main thoroughfare, businesses decorate their windows as part of a pride contest, and daily après ski events rotate between local bars and restaurants. Additionally, hometown hero and skier Gus Kenworthy acts as host for the entire week, which features events like the blow-out White Party, a drag and burlesque show with both national and local talent, and the Glitter Ball where anything that sparkles is in fashion.
As Colorado’s gay ski weeks have grown, they’ve sought to find ways to be more diverse and inclusive. Aspen, for example, now hosts female-focused events as well as sober gatherings. Though Telluride organizers experimented with ladies’ events in the past, they didn’t take off as hoped, Bomersback said. Still, he remains optimistic that the community will grow, especially as the event’s newly established nonprofit gets off the ground and starts doing local advocacy and education year-round.
“A lot of gay events are very male-dominated. It’s something that just is,” Bomersback said. “We’ll continue to put forth the ideas that these events are for everyone. They’re not just for gays, they’re not just for lesbians, they’re for everyone.”
Ready to shred with pride? Here’s where you can join the gay ski week festivities throughout Colorado:
Aspen Gay Ski Week, happening Jan. 11-18, 2026, at Aspen, Snowmass and Buttermilk mountains, as well as additional venues. Find event details and tickets at gayskiweek.com.
Telluride Gay Ski Week, happening Feb. 28 to March 7, 2026, at Telluride Ski Resort and additional venues. Find details and tickets at telluridegayski.com.
Queer Ski Weekend, happening March 27-29, 2026, at Keystone Resort. Find details and tickets at mountainpride.org/queer-ski-weekend.
Gay Basin, happening May 30-31, 2026, at Arapahoe Basin ski area. Find details and tickets at arapahoebasin.com/event/gay-basin.