The New Ullrhof Was Built for Big Burn's Lunch Crunch

"It would be a workhorse dining experience," Snowmass Senior Planning Manager Dana Dalla Betta said of the Ullrhof rebuild when the Snowmass Planning Commission approved it, as The Aspen Times reported in October 2024. "It's our goal to feed as many people as efficiently as possible."

That goal explains the size, layout and timing of the $42 million building at the base of the Big Burn lift. Aspen One previewed it on Oct. 22, and Aspen Snowmass's own Ullrhof page lists the reopening as November 2026. The building was planned to fix the lunch seat shortage on the busiest part of Snowmass. Its real test comes when Big Burn is crowded at noon.

The Seat Count Behind the Rebuild

According to the 2024 Aspen Times coverage, SkiCo estimated that at then-current skier volume, Snowmass was short 460 to 650 restaurant seats across the mountain. Big Burn accounted for 380 to 460 of those. Dalla Betta named Big Burn as the area with the mountain's biggest dining gap, and Ullrhof was the building already standing there.

The old Ullrhof opened in 1969 and held about 325 seats, and it was slated for demolition, as the Aspen Daily News reported when the Town Council approved the project in December 2024. Dalla Betta had already cited concerns about the old building's structure, and the plan put the new one on the same site. Here is how the seat counts changed between the old building, the approved plan and the finished building:

Aspen One's Oct. 29 announcement says the new building more than doubles the old one's capacity. Compared with the old 325, the 600-plus figure adds at least 275 seats. SkiCo's own 2024 estimate put the Big Burn gap at 380 to 460 seats. In 2024, Dalla Betta called the redevelopment "a key element in a multi-step plan to increase seating at on-mountain restaurants." The new Ullrhof is a large part of that plan, and by SkiCo's own numbers it doesn't close the whole gap.

Four Counters on Two Floors

The approved design already split ordering into separate counters: a high-volume burger bar on the main floor, a bar and lounge upstairs, and brats, hot dogs and draft beer outside on the deck. The finished building follows that plan with four named concepts, according to Aspen One:

1. Ullrhof serves casual mountain food: gourmet burgers and sandwiches, salads, shareables and the restaurant's well-known milkshakes.
2. Ullrmarket is a full espresso bar and market with fresh pastries and grab-and-go snacks.
3. Ullrbar is on the top floor and opens onto an outdoor deck, with upscale shareables, table service and craft cocktails.
4. Ullrgrill is an outdoor bar and grill serving hot dogs, brats and doughnuts. It opens on sunny days only.

With four counters, a skier who only wants an espresso and a pastry doesn't have to wait in the burger line. Someone who wants to sit down with a cocktail can head upstairs. On a sunny day, the grill outside takes another share of the noon crowd. That's what "feed as many people as efficiently as possible" looks like as a floor plan.

How the Building Was Built

The 2024 plan roughly doubled the old building's footprint across three floors. To keep it from looming over the Big Burn base, the design set the building into the hillside and kept it under the 65-foot limit in the town's development plan. Aspen One calls the result the resort's first fully electric on-mountain restaurant. It's an early project under the company's goal of building all-electric wherever it can in new construction.

Some of the 1969 building is still on the mountain. In September 2025, The Aspen Times reported that lumber from the old Ullrhof deck went to Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club coaches, who used it to build a new platform for the club's airbag at Snowmass.

Big Burn Usually Opens After Thanksgiving

Snowmass opens Nov. 26 and runs through April 11, 2027. In the last two seasons, Big Burn wasn't part of the opening.

• November 2024: Snowmass opened five days early with 109 acres, including Max Park, Lunchline, Upper Scooper and a pocket park on Fanny Hill. The Village Express and the Elk Camp Gondola were running, according to The Aspen Times. Big Burn wasn't named among the open lifts or terrain.
• Nov. 27, 2025: The day before, the Aspen Daily News previewed a Snowmass opening limited to beginner runs at Elk Camp Meadows. Snowmass then opened on schedule with 16 acres and four of its 20 lifts, as the paper reported on opening day.
• Early December 2025: By Dec. 5, Powder reported that Snowmass had opened top-to-bottom terrain, with the Village Express connecting Sam's Knob to the village.

So the restaurant can open in November, but the Big Burn crowd it was sized for depends on snowmaking and snowfall. In each of the last two seasons, that crowd built up during December.

Where Lunch Is Before Big Burn Opens

Early-season skiing at Snowmass has centered on Elk Camp, and that's where much of this winter's other food news is. Aspen One's announcement lists grab-and-go breakfast burritos at Elk Camp, all-day Sunday buffets there, and an updated Sam's Breakfast with bar service, pastries and breakfast sandwiches. The Elk Camp chairlift now has a battery backup system. Aspen One calls it the world's first battery-backed chairlift, and it replaces a diesel generator that put out roughly 144 tons of carbon emissions a year.

Last winter, while Ullrhof was being rebuilt, the Spider Sabich Picnic and Race Area reopened with The Hot Dogger, a pop-up serving L.A.-based Sumo Dog. This season, Aspen One says Down4Pizza will run the Spider Sabich mid-mountain picnic area near Makaha Terrain Park on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The 80th-anniversary weekend comes right as the mountain has opened more terrain in past seasons. Aspen Snowmass is selling $80 lift tickets at all four mountains on Dec. 12 and 13. The $3.75 throwback tickets for Dec. 14 are already sold out, according to the resort's 80th anniversary page. In December 2025, Snowmass had top-to-bottom terrain open within about a week of opening day. If this season goes the same way, that weekend could be one of the first big lunch rushes at the base of the Big Burn lift, and the new building's first real test.

Reid spent years in construction before real estate, so a hillside mass of timber and glass at 600-plus seats gets our attention for how it was built as much as for the milkshakes. If you own in Snowmass Village and want to talk about what this winter's changes on the mountain mean for your rental calendar or a renovation you've been considering, Team Hansen is glad to meet, on Big Burn or in the village.