Jack DePagter, previous owner of the Holland House, began Wintersköl in 1951. In 1949, Jack was bartending at the Hotel Jerome. Noticing a lull in business during the 3 weeks after Christmas when the ski lifts closed, Jack decided that there must be something he and his friends could do to bring people into Aspen. His idea: a winter carnival, like those at European ski resorts and Wintersköl, a “toast to winter,” was born.