Narrative:

We arrived at dbl VOR. The visual approach was advertised and when denver center asked 'what approach would you like?' we responded with 'roaring fork visual.' denver center at this point did not clear us for the approach over dbl as expected. They proceeded to give us heading vectors. We were approximately 3 NM west of dbl and when denver center instructed us to contact ase tower. On initial contact; the tower told us to intercept the localizer. We responded by telling them we were expecting the roaring fork visual. They responded by clearing us for the roaring fork visual approach.only a few seconds later; they told us to fly directly towards the runway. We told them this was impossible due to our position on the roaring fork visual. At this point; we were proceeding down the valley and proceeding direct to the runway was impossible due to terrain. The problem for the tower was that they had cleared another aircraft to depart opposite direction before we were handed off to them. Their communications with denver center seemed lacking since they had planned for us to be on the localizer while the departing aircraft was flying up the valley. We received a TCAS RA and complied with a slight climb. It was difficult laterally because the sun was casting a shadow over the terrain and made it difficult to see the terrain on the left while we couldn't favor the right (visible) side due to traffic. Once we were clear of conflict; the entire valley was more visible and we continued visually without incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Turbojet Captain reported encountering an airborne conflict while conducting a VFR approach into Aspen airport.

Narrative: We arrived at DBL VOR. The visual approach was advertised and when Denver Center asked 'what approach would you like?' We responded with 'Roaring Fork Visual.' Denver Center at this point did not clear us for the approach over DBL as expected. They proceeded to give us heading vectors. We were approximately 3 NM west of DBL and when Denver Center instructed us to contact ASE Tower. On initial contact; the tower told us to intercept the localizer. We responded by telling them we were expecting the roaring fork visual. They responded by clearing us for the roaring fork visual approach.Only a few seconds later; they told us to fly directly towards the runway. We told them this was impossible due to our position on the roaring fork visual. At this point; we were proceeding down the valley and proceeding direct to the runway was impossible due to terrain. The problem for the tower was that they had cleared another aircraft to depart opposite direction before we were handed off to them. Their communications with Denver Center seemed lacking since they had planned for us to be on the localizer while the departing aircraft was flying up the valley. We received a TCAS RA and complied with a slight climb. It was difficult laterally because the sun was casting a shadow over the terrain and made it difficult to see the terrain on the left while we couldn't favor the right (visible) side due to traffic. Once we were clear of conflict; the entire valley was more visible and we continued visually without incident.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.