In “Powder Days,” a key Aspen resort official tackles sustainability

As the climate changes, how do we ensure the future of the sport? In Aspen, and really in all of skiing, the person who has been asking these questions and prodding change is Auden Schendler, the resort’s vice president of sustainability. He’s in charge of Aspen’s clean energy plans and political activism, and he’s trying to unpack the existential threat of climate change while still running a business. I admire him a lot, because he seems to be able to balance realism with action.

Before I head out of Aspen I catch Auden at the sundeck on top of Ajax, where he is taking a conference call in the corner. A perk of his job is ski time, so after he hangs up, we head out. “Do you mind hiking a little?” he asks me, and when I say no he takes me around the edges of the…