Going Gonzo On Millionaire's Row

In summer, the high-class ski resort of Aspen bears its bohemian soul. It’s a side of the Colorado town that’s long drawn hippies, artists and intellectuals — not to mention the gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson, whose exploits here are still fondly remembered

- Aaron Millar

Hunter S Thompson was a total badass. No other description does him justice. Legendary gonzo journalist, notorious drunkard and author of cult psychedelic novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson took addled craziness to a stratospheric level.

He invented the sport of ‘shotgun golf’ — one player tees off as normal, the other tries to blast his opponent’s ball into oblivion; he accidently set fire to a yacht during the America’s Cup sailing event while hallucinating; and after travelling all the way to Zaire to cover Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s legendary ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ boxing match, sold his ticket and instead spent the time smoking grass in a hotel swimming pool. But of all the crazy things that Hunter did, one thing beats them all: in 1970, this fiend from Kentucky actually ran for the office of sheriffof Aspen, Colorado.

Thompson came within a whisker of representing the most glamorous resort on the planet — the playground of the rich and famous, where the average detached home costs $5.95m, a private plane lands every six minutes in peak season and the poshest lunch club costs $100,000 to join; and they still bill you for every plate.

Yet for those who know this little pocket of Colorado, this episode isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds. For when the snow melts, and the glitterati have all disappeared, the locals take back their town, and things start to feel very different. In summer, the real Aspen comes alive: boots in the dirt, old hippies on the street, music in the air. That’s why Hunter moved here. That’s what he fought for. And that’s what I’d come to see.