In the wake of a memorable 2013-14 Colorado ski season that set a record for statewide skier visits, Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) member resorts are aiming to maintain that positive momentum by investing in guest-facing amenities and operations improvements that will further enhance every facet of the skier and snowboarder experience, on and off the slopes.
From
major investments in hotels, on mountain dining and learning centers for
young skiers and snowboarders, to new chairlifts, groomers, and
snowmaking systems; CSCUSA resorts
continue to hold guest satisfaction in the highest regard and make
concrete improvements that will maintain and enhance the premier skiing
and snowboarding experience at Colorado resorts.
After the jump is a summary of the many upgrades at CSCUSA resorts guests will enjoy during the 2014-15 ski season.
Guest Service & Experience
In time for the 2014/15 ski season, the
Limelight Hotel at
Aspen/Snowmass is lightening up the room décor to deliver even
more comfort and ease to guests. All 126 guest rooms will be outfitted
with new carpets, drapery, and furniture. Warm colors and textures
combined with patterns inspired by nature that will
sooth the spirit after an invigorating day of adventure. Lounge-style
seating with sumptuous chairs and work-height coffee tables will offer a
place to unwind, dine casually, or pull out the laptop and share the
day’s photos with friends online. This project
will deliver an even greater sense of freshness and warmth.
In addition, Aspen/Snowmass’s
Little Nell Hotel
has renovated all six of its Executive Suites with the
vision of the renowned interior designer Holly Hunt. The suites now
offer elegant and sophisticated “Aspen modern” ambience in addition to
their well-known breathtaking views of Aspen Mountain. Whites, grays,
blues and natural colors are reflected in custom
designed leathers, woods and fabrics. Guests will enjoy everything from
Fila D’Oro linens to custom art hand selected by Aspen Skiing Company
owner Paula Crown.
Copper Mountain
reengineered the resort smartphone app game with the introduction of
Sherpa last
winter. Providing on-mountain audio intelligence, Sherpa makes the
mountain experience better for all guests. New for the 2014/2015 winter
season, Copper hands over the controls of Sherpa to everyone, allowing
for an open-sourced mountain. Not only will guests
be able to create and share their own mountain tips and favorite
trails, but Copper will reward the best contributors with swag, tickets,
passes and even a prized treasured spot on 2015/2016 winter trail map.
Sherpa 2.0 will change how guests interact with
the mountain and create a community rewarding those who help to improve
the mountain experience.
Learn more about Sherpa at www.CopperColorado.com/Sherpa.
Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort’s
equipment rental operation is getting a facelift to give
guests a seamless rental experience from start to finish, complete with
a new boot fitting station, snowboard demos and an upgraded rental
fleet. The redesigned shop offers guests less time to be spent in lines
and more time to get out on the slopes. Purgatory
at Durango Mountain Resort is an official Rossignol Experience Center
and Burton Learn to Ride Center, combining the latest in ski and
snowboard technology with state-of-the-art teaching methodologies. For
more information, visit
http://durangomountainresort.com/.
Silverton Mountain
has purchased a
new helicopter ski cargo basket. A special ski cargo basket was made for
Silverton Mountain to accommodate the deep snow landings. The old
basket would get buried in
legendary Silverton powder snow upon landing, forcing the guides to
shovel snow just to get access to their skis. For more information,
visit
http://www.silvertonmountain.com.
Sunlight Mountain
is investing in base lodge improvements that support the ski area’s
commitment
to sustainable business and underscore their pledge to guest service.
The charming lodge that anchors the base area and boasts expansive views
of the majestic mountains will have upgraded windows. The resort is
replacing the old windows with more modern and
energy efficient ones while maintaining the nostalgic design integrity
of the structure. Also, new this season, guests will be able to take
advantage of the newly remodeled restrooms in the base lodge, a project
that will greatly enhance the guest experience
and convenience at this independent ski area. For more information,
visit
http://www.sunlightmtn.com.
Coming off its inaugural season of night skiing and snowboarding,
Steamboat will add two additional nights for skiers and riders to
enjoy the slopes under the lights. Night Operations will now be
available Thursday through Monday evenings from 5:30-8:30pm and from
6-9pm during spring. In addition, a new Patrol/Maintenance
Station at the top of Christie Peak Express will be constructed,
creating a home base for nighttime patrollers and their equipment. The
two-story facility will also serve lift maintenance, providing repair
and work space.
Steamboat
Ski & Sport Sheraton is one of the resort’s most popular
retail/rental locations. To accommodate growing guest needs, the shop
will expand its square footage by
more than 35 percent to nearly 6,300 sq. ft. The newly remodeled and
designed space will provide expanded rental service, providing greater
space for skiers and riders to gather their equipment and prepare for
the day. Additionally, increased merchandise,
equipment and a variety of other products makes Ski & Sport
Sheraton the premier location at the base of the ski area for all snow
sport requirements. The resort’s rental fleet will continue its annual
upgrade of equipment, adding the latest ski and snowboard
technology available for guests, spread across the resort’s convenient
Ski & Sport locations.
Also
new for 2014/15 at Steamboat, all ticket office services will move into
the One Steamboat Place location to better serve guests, including all
options for lift tickets,
frequency passes and season passes as well as all SnowSports School
tickets. A new SnowSports Privates Lounge, in the former main ticket
office space in the Gondola Building, will provide convenient sales and a
comfortable meeting area for guests and instructors
participating in private lessons.
The
improvements continue across Mt. Werner Circle at the Steamboat Grand
with major projects including installation of new
window coverings and sofa sleepers in units, extensive renovation and
upgrades to the whirlpool hot tubs and pool, new ‘quiet’ refrigerators
in studios, refinished woodwork in penthouse units and new elevator
lobby carpet on all floors. For more information
about the enhanced guest experience at Steamboat in 2014-15, visit http://www.steamboat.com.
Further advances in efficiency and guest services in
Ski Cooper’s rental shop will be completed for the 2014/15 ski
season, improving on its complete remodel last season. Ski Cooper will
enhance the flow of guests renting skis and snowboards by re-positioning
electronic sign in stations, while adding more
printer stations and re-configuring the area for guests to fit boots.
For more information, visit
http://www.skicooper.com.
At Crested Butte,
the tubing hill is always a hit with the kids - even after a long
day of skiing. This winter, the resort plans to install a Magic Carpet®
lift just for the tubing hill, bringing back the excitement of tubing to
the base area’s Adventure Park. The installation
of the new lift will provide kids and the “kid at heart” easy, safe
access to the hill.
Free
ski storage has been a great perk for Crested Butte Mountain Resort
lodging guests, but this year it will be even better. New slopeside rack
systems are being installed
to streamline the service. Guests who aren’t lodging at one of the
resort’s properties or renting equipment from the Crested Butte Rental
and Demo Center can take advantage of the service for a nominal fee.
Snow
bikes have made a huge splash at Crested Butte’s annual Slush Huck Pond
Skim event, where participants try to skim across a pond on skis and
snowboards. This year, guests
can try out snow bikes themselves (minus the pond) by renting one of
ten new bikes in the resort’s rental fleet. For those new to the sport
at CBMR, a two hour instruction and guided tour around the mountain is
required to ensure safe use of the equipment
and knowledge of where snow biking approved routes are located. This is
an easy to learn, smile-producing sport and more information on snow
biking at Crested Butte can be found at
www.skicb.com/snowbike.
At Loveland
Ski Area, the new Ginny Lee Cabin, a day use on mountain
structure, will provide skiers and riders on the north side of Loveland
Ski Area a convenient place to meet friends and warm up without a trip
to the base area. The new warming hut is located off
Chair 8 and offers amazing views, restrooms and vending machines. For
more information, visit
http://www.skiloveland.com.
Food & Beverage
At
Loveland Ski Area’s Loveland Basin, a newly remodeled cafeteria
will be unveiled this season. The remodel will improve the guest dining
experience including making it easier and more convenient. The cafeteria
will be able to provide more food and beverage
options, comfortable seating and a cozy place for guests to take a
break and take in the views. For more information, visit
http://www.skiloveland.com.
For 2014/15 Ski Cooper
will offer an on mountain mobile food service with the new “Cat Trax”
snow-cat. In similar vein to a food truck, the Ski Cooper Cat Trax will
serve hot food at different locations on the mountain this season
offering the ski areas first on mountain dining service.
In the
base lodge at Ski Cooper, guests will experience the newly enhanced Pub.
With an even more laid back vibe and atmosphere in tune with the guest
experience at the mountain,
the Pub will feature an Irish theme, together with Irish music and
quality Irish beer. For more information, visit
http://www.skicooper.com.
Steamboat’s
Thunderhead Lodge at the top of the gondola received a dramatic
makeover this summer.
A new color scheme with rock treatments highlights the exterior
enhancements. Inside the building, guests will notice new carpeting,
custom wood accents and a redesigned Thunderhead Red’s Bar. Similar to
the layout of the popular Four Points bar, Thunderhead
Red’s will double in size and expand to include the eastern side of the
building taking advantage of the dramatic east facing window views of
Mt. Werner and Storm Peak. In addition, equipment upgrades throughout a
number of kitchens will improve the facility’s
culinary offerings.
The
Bear River Terrace has long been the prime gathering spot in Steamboat’s
Gondola Square. For the 2014/15 winter season, the Terrace will make
enjoying a drink and bite
to eat even easier. For daytime operations, the Bear River BBQ will
become a permanent fixture on the Terrace, offering burgers, hot dogs
and other grilled specialties to guests wishing to dine outside. The
Umbrella Bar, located on the first tier of the Terrace,
will add lights and a heating system to accommodate guests during
special evening hours, making it the main location for friends and
family to watch the night skiing and riding action on the slopes.
Date
night, birthday dinner, business lunch, brunch with friends or that
special family gathering is as simple as a touch
of the screen when Steamboat launches OpenTable, a real-time online
reservation service throughout its family of restaurants this winter.
With OpenTable, resort restaurants will be able to manage reservations
more efficiently, streamline operations and enhance
service levels. For guests, it means finding the restaurants that best
fit their dining occasions, available tables, real-time reservations,
restaurant reviews, menus and other helpful information to enjoy the
best overall mountain culinary experience. For
more information about Steamboat’s upgraded food and beverage options,
visit
http://www.steamboat.com.
Winter Park Resort’s
largest on-mountain building construction
in over 25 years, Lunch Rock Restaurant will be a state-of-the-art
facility utilized year-round, with 150-seat heated deck, 250-seat indoor
restaurant, bar, and hydration station all focusing on Colorado
themes. At 16,000 square-feet, the new restaurant will
be over five times larger than the previous structure at Lunch Rock,
which was built in 1985. While adding another exciting experience for
visitors to the Mary Jane Territory, Lunch Rock Restaurant will also
service guests skiing and riding Winter Park Territory,
Parsenn Bowl Territory, Eagle Wind Territory, and the Cirque Territory,
making the restaurant a convenient hub for the many people who pass
through the area each day.
In
addition to convenience and comfort, at 11,200 feet in elevation Lunch
Rock Restaurant will boast amazing views of Parry Peak, James
Peak, Parsenn Bowl, the Fraser Valley, and the Continental Divide,
which Winter Park Resort lovers have enjoyed from Lunch Rock for
generations. Most importantly, the new facility will stay true to the
tradition of Mary Jane, one of Colorado’s most iconic
destinations. For more information, visit http://lunchrock.co/.
Terrain & Snow Conditions
New at
Aspen/Snowmass beginning Dec. 19, 2014, Snowmass will feature
four lanes of lift-served snow tubing perfect for an afternoon of
sliding down snow with the family. Built for ages 4-14, the new tubing
facilities at Elk Camp will provide non-stop laughter
and fun. For more information, visit www.aspensnowmass.com.
Last summer,
Crested Butte thinned 10 acres of trees, dramatically improving
access to forested skiing. This summer, the improvements continue as
resort crews partner with the local US Forest Service District to
identify new areas for glading. Intermediate skiers
looking for more gentle gladed terrain should get ready to weave
through the trees in the East River area and off the Teocalli Lift. For
more information, visit
http://www.skicb.com.
For 2014-2015,
Eldora Mountain Resort has added two new Kassbohrer grooming
machines to the existing fleet of five groomers. Combined with 100
percent snowmaking coverage on all groomed territory, the new grooming
machines improvement will ensure a consistently high-quality
snow surface for all ability levels. For more information, visit www.eldora.com.
Loveland Ski Area
has invested in snowmaking upgrades at Loveland Basin and Loveland
Valley to
improve efficiencies and productivity. Loveland’s location on the
Continental Divide provides cooler temperatures that allow the ski area
to make snow early in the season and help it keep snow in good condition
all season long and well into spring. For more
information, visit http://www.skiloveland.com.
Powderhorn’s
mountain
operations crew is widening the Equalizer trail for the 2014-15 season.
The crew is also tackling the meticulous job of brush cutting
Cannonball, Bear Claw, Wonderbump, Racer’s
Edge, Lower Showdown, Powderkeg, Kiddy Keg, Misery and Whistle Pig
trails and more to come. For more information, visit
www.powderhorn.com.
Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort
is adding more snowmaking equipment to the front and backside
of the mountain. The resort is adding 11 new energy-efficient
snowmaking tower guns, and a state-of-the-art, high-output fan gun,
making the mountain operations team more efficient during the early
season to establish a solid base that lasts throughout the
entire ski season. For more information, visit www.durangomountainresort.com.
Ski Granby Ranch
visitors will
experience terrain improvements and expansions in 2014/15. The ski area
is adding two new runs on West Mountain, improving access to Dean’s
Glade on West Mountain, reopening
the Poma Lift which gives access to Lone Pine Bowl, and adding a new
gladed area off Bronc Rider on East Mountain. For more information,
visit
http://www.granbyranch.com.
Joining
Steamboat’s grooming machine fleet this season is a new Bison
Sherpa winch is the first of its kind in Colorado, and is the new
generation of winches from Prinoth with 5.3 tons of pulling force and an
automatic pulling force control system. The cutting-edge
Bison Sherpa augments the Beast which started grooming the slope’s
mid-winter last season and will be used to tackle some of Steamboat’s
steepest terrain and portions of its terrain parks. The resort’s fleet,
operated in two shifts, re-surfaces approximately
600 acres nightly to a premium corduroy finish and encompasses 21
machines, including nearly half of the fleet utilizing Bison or Beast
groomers.
In
addition, Steamboat’s state-of-the-art snowmaking system is being
upgraded this winter with more than two miles of pipe, more than 11,000
feet, across See Me, Upper See
Ya, Sitz, top of Vogue to Jess’ Cut-Off and Sitz to Boulevard. In
addition, two new 12 ft. by 16 ft. blockhouses at Jess’ Cut-Off and the
Christie Peak Mid-Station will provide new valve stations for
intersecting pipe lines in those critical areas. The new
lines will significantly accelerate the resort’s ability to produce
snow as tower guns can be spaced 75 feet apart to more efficiently cover
the trails. Over the past six seasons, the resort has installed nearly
18 miles/46.5km of water and air pipe for snowmaking.
These improvements are all designed to further efforts to use less
electrical energy and water in production while being more efficient
when producing the early season snow base. For more information, visit
www.steamboat.com.
Telluride
has invested in new snowmaking equipment for 2014/15, which will allow
for greater snowmaking
capacity in high traffic areas off of Lifts 4 and 5, accessing the
beginner and intermediate areas in the heart of Telluride’s trail
system. Telluride’s new snowmaking system includes 38 new high
efficiency Snowlogic snow guns. These snowmaking snow guns require
90 percent less energy to operate than other models. For more
information, visit
http://www.tellurideskiresort.com.
Wolf Creek
Ski Area is adding a new refurbished Elma Lift, a fixed-grip
triple chairlift, for the 2014-15 season. The Elma lift will provide
skiers a way to get back to the base area from the bottom of the Alberta
lift and eliminate the long traverse across the
mountain from Park Avenue to the base area. It will also incorporate
great beginner terrain along with some excellent intermediate terrain in
an area that is currently underutilized. During times of avalanche
hazard reduction when the Alberta Lift opens later
than the other lifts, the Elma Lift will allow the public to return to
the Treasure Stoke Quad and the lower Waterfall Area while waiting for
the Alberta Lift to open.
Wolf
Creek Ski Area hosts a number of "Fun Races" throughout the ski season.
These races are free and open to skiers and boarders of all ages and
abilities with a dual race format. The course is set up in a modified
giant slalom, which begins at the top of the Charisma trail and ends at
the Race Hutch. The existing Race Hutch, located near the bottom of the
Charisma trail, will be replaced. The new
building will be approximately 18 feet by 20 feet and located below the
current Race Hutch location. It will store all the timing equipment,
fencing, poles and all associated racing tools. For more information,
visit
http://www.wolfcreekski.com.
Anniversaries & Milestones
Several
resorts in Colorado are recognizing significant anniversaries and
milestones during the 2014/15 season. Winter Park will celebrate its
75th anniversary on January 28,
2015 with a weeklong series of events that kicks off with a celebration
at Winter Park resort and finishes with Mary Jane’s 40th birthday
party.
Wolf
Creek is also celebrating 75 years this season. Along with a 75th
anniversary logo, Wolf Creek will host a Retro Day to commemorate the
occasion.
Additionally
this winter, Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs will recognize the
100th anniversary of ski jumping at the nostalgic ski area.