Former Aspen Times columnist Glenn Beaton has written a book about Aspen:  High Attitude:  How Woke Liberals Ruined Aspen.  Long after its boom and bust as a silver mining town, post-war Aspen was recreated by army veterans and a Chicago industrialist as an intellectual retreat, a world-class ski resort, and a natural paradise. But then, it was taken over by drugs, crime, class warriors, lowlifes in subsidized housing, and high-lives in $100 million mansions.

High Attitude outlines the history of Aspen through the story of Hunter S. Thompson; the ’70s shooting of Spider Sabich by his movie star wife; a casual pass-through murder by Ted Bundy; the 2000s frolicking of Charlie Sheen; and the drunken bawdiness of the Kennedys throughout. Aspen is a place where the DEA keeps impending drug raids secret from the pro-drug sheriff for fear that the dealers will be tipped off and where multimillion-dollar, slope side, subsidized housing goes to privileged insiders with seven-figure net worths and $300,000-a-year incomes.

High Attitude is ugly, riveting, and instructive on what other resorts—and the rest of America—should avoid. 

Glenn Beaton is an award-winning writer who has lived nearly all his life in Colorado. He has been a syndicated columnist for numerous newspapers.  Thousands of locals and visitors in Aspen voted him “Best Columnist” in 2020 and both “Best Columnist” and “Mr. Aspen” in 2021.  He is a frequent television and radio guest.
Glenn has been a roustabout in an oil field, an iceman, an adjunct law professor, a cabinet maker, an aerospace engineer, a male model, and a lawyer practicing before the United States Supreme Court.
Glenn is a former member of Mountain Rescue Aspen, an accomplished amateur mountaineer and adventure traveler who summited the Matterhorn and the Eiger.