Snow Polo Kicks Off The Holiday Season in Aspen

The St. Regis Aspen Snow Polo World Championship—it’s a tradition that has carried on for 12 years as the kickoff to the mountain town’s winter season and this year proved to be the most action-packed yet, with the festivities kicking off with a pre-dinner disco at the Snow Lodge Jade Room.

The moody tented living room is a sort of hidden annex attached to the St. Regis where in-the-know guests gather for aprés ski and, on the eve of the snow polo championship, brought together a group of glitterati from the local Aspen community and beyond. In one corner, cloak-maker Lindsey Thornburg and jewelry designer Jennifer Younger, could be found sporting wares from their eponymous brands, and in the other, couples Billy Magnussen and Erica Firestone and Paul Wesley and Natalie Kuckenburg outfitting their new Stetson cowboy hats for the occasion. The polo players were out in full force, too, enjoying a night away from the stables, including Nacho Figueras, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, and Sarah Siegal Magness, who brought her sidekick, a teacup poodle named Rosie, along for the fun.

Revelers fawned over the over-the-top ice sculptures serving up Silent Pool gin martinis, and caviar bites thanks to Aureta, whose very own caviar tins come labeled with her name and likeness. “There a certain over-the-topness in Aspen, and I look forward to it all yea,r” quipped Jayma Cardoso, gesturing toward the room filled to the hilt with shearlings and cowboy hats and turquoise jewelry. “It’s such a unique place, and really, how could you not have fun?”

The next morning, on the snow-covered Rio Grande Park, founders of the Aspen Valley Polo Club, Melissa and Marc Ganzi, gathered their best players to put on a proper showing of polo for the newcomers in the crowd. “It’s always a great day for polo, but today is particularly good,” Melissa Ganzi told Vogue during a visit to the announcer’s tent. "We’ve got sun, just enough snow, and no shortage of champagne.”

Yes, in true Aspen fashion, the champagne played a co-starring role to the day. As the matches carried on, St. Regis brand lead George Fleck led a lesson in champagne sabrage, with Riley Keogh, Billie Lourd, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, and Jeremy Pope all trying their hand at the theatrical art of opening a bottle of bubbly with a saber. Some were more talented than others. Shaun White and Pom Klementieff, regular visitors to the festivities, needed no instruction.

By the day’s end, a talented trio of players—Grant Ganzi, Pierre Henri Ngoumou, and Jason Crowder—took home the coveted championship trophy, celebrating with a hoist of the day’s prize and another spray of champagne for good measure. Together, they led a merry band of partygoers to Hidalgo, a new basement boîte inside the W Hotel Aspen, where Rebel Wilson, Anna Kendrick, Fortune Feimster, and many, many more danced atop tables and sofas to mark the end of this rollicking kickoff to the holiday break.