Summit County Citizens Voice

The best 'snowmaking upgrades' come from Mother Nature!

New lifts, snowmaking and some glading here and there are among the highlighted improvements at Colorado ski areas for the coming season

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Every year about this time the Colorado ski industry rolls out its list of improvements at resorts in the state — at least for the areas that are members of Colorado Ski Country USA.

Vail Resorts left the trade group a few years ago and does its own thing with marketing, so look for some hullabaloo a little later this fall about the new lift in the Back Bowls.

Meanwhile, here are some of the highlights from a Colorado Ski Country USA press release on resort improvements.

For this winter, some of the biggest news is right here in Summit County, where the venerable Exhibition triple chair is gone, to be replaced by the Black Mountain Express, a high-speed four-seater. The new lift will cut the ride time to mid-mountain in half, to about three minutes. With a capacity of 2,000 passengers per hour, the new lift should reduce the early season bottlenecks at the base area.

Aspen/Snowmass
Snowmass is adding a 12-foot halfpipe in the Lowdown terrain park specifically designed for riders who are still learning to ride in the pipe. The area is also developing an iPad application that will bring the resort to life from anywhere in the world. The Aspen/Snowmass mobile application — which works on 97 percent of smart phones from the iPhone to BlackBerry — is now available for download and provides live grooming, snowfall and weather information, and offers guests the ability to book lunch or dinner reservations from the chairlift.

Copper Mountain
Copper’s plans include $6 million in capital improvements for 2010-11 winter season, with expanded snowmaking and, finally, the long-awaited parking expansion that should solve the problem of cars parking along Copper Road. The resort is increasing snowmaking capacity by 25 percent, with better coverage for early season camps and for the public when the resort first opens in early November.

Eldora
Eldora says its doing something both for beginners — with improvements to learning facilities — and for experts, with the addition of more glade skiing and snowboarding through thinning and tree removal on expert terrain. For the upcoming season, the resort is installing a new magic carpet to help get first-time skiers up the mountain before they are ready to try a traditional chairlift. The new lift will replace the existing Tenderfoot 1 and Tenderfoot 11 lifts. The new magic carpet will simply be called “Tenderfoot.”

Monarch Mountain
After a record-breaking season, Monarch is investing $1.2 million for upgrades like a new base terminal for the Garfield chair, the area’s most popular lift. Resort officials said the changes will enable the lift to run more efficiently with fewer stops for skiers and riders getting on and off the lift. The Pioneer quad chair lift will see a new unloading ramp at the top, helping ease the unloading process. Both Garfield and Pioneer lift mazes will see new lane dividers to facilitate the flow of maze traffic.

And since skiers and riders have to have their coffee, the “highest Starbuck’s in the free world” will get even higher. The coffee shop will be relocated to the top floor of the main lodge so customers can easily enjoy a snack or beverage with family and friends. A new deli will inhabit Starbuck’s former location at the mid-level corridor.

Purgatory
The San Juan resort near Durango will offer some gladed terrain on the front side of the mountain and add snowmaking to the popular Pandemonium trail. Purgatory will also build some of its terrain park features out of dirt. By building hits and carving pipes from earth instead of snow, less snow will be needed to open the parks, which then can be opened earlier in the season and maintained consistently throughout the season.

There’s also interesting news from Telluride and and Steamboat, which will cover in a separate upcoming story at Summit Voice.

Filed under: Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, ski industry, Ski Resorts, skiing and riding, Summit County Colorado Tagged: | 2010-20111 ski season ski area improvements. Copper Mountain, Aspen, Eldora, Purgatory, Summit County, Summit County News