Story by Nicole Birkhold
Ski towns can often scare off people who are looking to check all the boxes: love, career, community, activity, etc. Not Christy Mahon. With her signature smile always gracing her face, she has beautifully woven a life that incorporates all the above while proving she doesn’t scare easily. This year she and her husband Ted finished their 15 Grand Traverse ski touring race and last season, she became the first woman to successfully climb and ski all of Colorado’s 100 highest mountains with her partners Ted and Chris Davenport. The first part of that accomplishment, skiing all of Colorado’s 14ers, had been one of Christy’s biggest goals and consequent milestones in her life.
“I think this community really pushes you to be better and reach for goals you didn’t necessarily think you could reach,” she says. “This project, it taught me something that has spread out into all parts of my life. You can do anything you set your mind to. It’s helped me in believing in myself just by knowing I can set these really high goals and achieve them.”
Not only is Christy one of the most accomplished ski mountaineers in the valley, she also has a passion for the environment and its conservation — spurred by her love of the mountains and the beauty of the outdoors that she has surrounded herself with in her 18 years living in Aspen.
“I really use my relationship with the mountains and ACES (Aspen Center for Environmental Studies) and skiing to feed my soul and keep me energized to fight for the environment,” Christy says with passion.
Christy is the Development Director at ACES and you will not find someone more passionate about her mission of raising funds for and bringing education and awareness to environmental conservation and protecting nature. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find someone more passionate about any of their endeavors than Christy. And with Christy, passion ALWAYS comes with a HUGE smile and unrivaled enthusiasm. Whether she is celebrating a friend’s birthday with her husband Ted at her side, knocking off a 3,200-foot skin up Aspen mountain before work or tirelessly working to keep the beauty of the Roaring Fork Valley unsullied, one can see that Christy’s grace and energy beat back anything that might scare her every single time.
