Mr. Sperling was struck by Ms. Schoenfeld’s kindness and the energy she brought to their conversations.
Ms. Schoenfeld, who is originally from Stamford, Conn., but spent time in Manhattan growing up, works as a travel and lifestyle manager at Roman & Erica Inc., a luxury travel and lifestyle management firm based in New York. Mr. Sperling, who grew up on the Upper East Side, is the executive director of East West Basics, a manufacturing and procurement firm based in China that he runs alongside his sister and father, Robert Sperling.
By the summer of 2019, the couple moved in together on the Upper East Side. In December of that year, they visited Beaver Creek, Colo., on a ski trip and a seed was planted. Ms. Schoenfeld, who had not been skiing in over a decade, began taking lessons. They also talked about a life outside the city. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, they left the city for Long Island to live with Mr. Sperling’s family.
“Zach was really set on the mountains, and I was just ready for a new adventure,” she said. “I was willing to take that plunge.”
They moved to Aspen, Colo., in August 2020, somewhere neither of them knew well. Mr. Sperling had visited Utah and Telluride, Colo., but Aspen seemed to meet their criteria. They wanted to live near the mountains, preferably in a ski town, where they could also enjoy the trappings of city life with restaurants and art galleries.
Initially, Mr. Sperling thought Aspen might be too “ostentatious,” he said, but they were pleasantly surprised by the community’s welcome.
