"No deal too big, and no people too small." That's how Bjorn Erik Borgen captured George Gillett Jr. on Sunday, November 1, when Dobson Arena filled with ski pioneers, business leaders, athletes, and lifelong locals for a celebration of his life.

There were bagpipes, a proclamation from Governor Polis naming November 1 as George Gillett Jr. Day, and a Rocky Mountain High that hit close to home.

Speaker after speaker told stories of a bolder, more optimistic Vail, and JC admits that he left laughing about his long-held theory that George would have connected Vail and Beaver Creek by gondola if anyone could have.

Read on for the moments and memories from an afternoon that felt more like a reunion than a memorial.

Eighteen months, $55.4 million, and one very patient hockey town later, Dobson Arena is back. The 1979 original has been rebuilt with a wraparound concourse, eight new locker rooms, and enough steel to hang a touring band's rigging. Through all of it, the beloved timber roof survived. The first puck dropped this past weekend, and Trampled By Turtles and Old Crow Medicine Show take the stage Nov. 28. Here's what changed, what stayed, and how to see it for yourself. Read More

Thanksgiving dinner is one of the best American traditions - but for at least one person in your house it can be an exhausting event. And if you are away from home, trying to get your bearings in an unfamiliar kitchen can leave you scrambling to pull together a memorable meal. Charter Steakhouse has got you covered though with their traditional Thanksgiving Buffet.

Get all the details here!

There’s a lot still available for that prime week of the holidays

I checked availability at six of the Valley’s best management companies for December 26 to January 2. Nearly 300 homes and condos are still open for the most coveted week of the ski season. That almost never happens.

So what’s going on? And if you’ve been on the fence about the holidays, is this your moment, or should you wait for snow? Here’s what the numbers say and how we’d play it.

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In the next issue we will take a look at hotel availability for the holidays.

There are 162 residences at Fallridge, tucked alongside the Vail Golf Club, and lately we at DDG & Co have gotten to know quite a few of them. Recent sales of residences 120, 312, and 412 have kept us busy, and now we are bringing residence 410 to market.

Coincidence? Probably not.

In Vail, real estate is a relationship business. Buildings become communities, owners talk, and word travels when people have a good experience. We’ve seen it over nearly two decades at the Four Seasons Private Residences Vail, where knowing the property’s history, understanding what matters to each owner, and staying in touch long after closing have built something especially valuable in a small market: trust.

Back to Fallridge

Growing up in Vail, hating Aspen was practically a birthright. We took it to the football field, the hardwood, the baseball diamond, and any other competition we could think of. Back then, both towns were loaded with shops selling t-shirts that denigrated the other, often in very colorful terms!

So when I hit the road with a saxophone to drop off in Glenwood, I decided to take the temperature of the feud the way any serious researcher would: by visiting every T-shirt shop I could find in both towns.

I came home with zero "Aspen Sucks" shirts, zero "Vail Sucks" shirts, and one Aspen shopkeeper who heard where I grew up and said, "I'm sorry to hear that." (Finally, a pulse!) What I found along the way says a lot about what's happened to both towns, and it isn't the story I expected. Read on for the High Country T-Shirt Index.