The Aspen Skiing Co. has hired a security guard to watch gondola plaza and ward off the paparazzi buzzing around celebrities who are in town for the holidays.
It’s the first time the company has hired security for the area, said SkiCo spokesman Jeff Hanle on Wednesday.
“We just have a lot of high-profile people in town right now who are being followed by lower-profile people,” he said.
The guard, whose first day was Monday, will be around through the holiday season but will not be in the plaza for the rest of the winter, Hanle said. He didn’t know which security company the SkiCo contracted with to hire the guard.
Previously, guest-services employees were handling guard-like duties, taking them away from their regular job.
The guard can prevent paparazzi from going onto the SkiCo-owned Gondola Plaza, which is private property, to snap photos of celebrities, Hanle said.
Last Thursday Paris Hilton was seen coming off the Little Nell run on Ajax with a group of paparazzi waiting at the bottom to photograph her.
Meanwhile, the SkiCo raised its walk-up, single-day lift ticket price to $117 on Wednesday, after raising it to $114 on Friday.
