Dozens of young athletes from Ski & Snowboard Club Vail honored her Saturday evening at Vail’s Ford Amphitheater, swarming the stage and carrying balloons — 82 of them white for her World Cup victories, eight red for her world championships medals, three gold for her Olympic medals. Vonn moved from the modest slalom hills of Minnesota to Vail when she was a girl, getting the big-mountain experience she needed to become America’s greatest female downhiller.
“I moved to Vail when I was 12 years old, along with my four siblings, and we enrolled at Ski Club Vail,” Vonn said. “It was honestly the best decision my family could have made. My journey of becoming a downhiller began (there). Without the help of Ski Club Vail, and all of those runs down Gold Peak, I don’t know if I would have won those World Cup races.”
After Vonn became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, taking home a bronze medal in super-G as well, Vail renamed its International run Lindsey’s. International was the venue for women’s World Cup races in Vail before it built new downhill race courses at Beaver Creek.
“Renaming International to Lindsey’s was honestly one of the most meaningful things that’s happened to me,” Vonn said. “I hope to ski down it with my kids someday.”
When Vonn retired in 2019, her 82 World Cup wins were the most by a woman and only four behind Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86. Mikaela Shiffrin, who grew up in Vail with Vonn as a role model, broke Stenmark’s record in 2023 and now stands at 97. Vonn saluted Shiffrin in her induction speech.
“Mikaela has won an insane number of World Cups, and she’s far from being done,” Vonn said. “It gives me great pride to know the next generation is reaching even higher than I was able to. I know she will inspire someone else, just like me. Congratulations to Mikaela on everything that you’ve done and will do in the future.”
Among the many locals she thanked was Dr. Tom Hackett, a prominent Vail orthopedic surgeon who helped her come back from numerous injuries.
“Even though I have my mother’s positivity, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses,” Vonn said. “I’m grateful for everything that’s happened to me, all of the highs and all of the lows. (The lows) all taught me something very special — grit.”
Others inducted included John “Johno” McBride, a former U.S. men’s downhill coach from Aspen who was instrumental in the careers of Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves; Bjorn Erik Borgen, who helped Vail land world alpine championships in 1989, 1999 and 2015; Sigurd Rockne, a native of Norway who was a founder of the Breckenridge ski area; Ross Anderson, a Native American who grew up in Durango to become a speed skiing racer.
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]]>The Post will update this list regularly as areas open.
Colorado 2024-2025 ski area open dates
Arapahoe Basin: As soon as conditions allow in October
Keystone: mid-October, pending early season conditions
Loveland: As soon as conditions allow in late October or early November
Winter Park: As soon as conditions allow in late October or early November
Breckenridge: Nov. 8
Copper Mountain: Nov. 8
Vail: Nov. 15
Eldora: Nov. 15
Purgatory: Nov. 16
Monarch: As soon as conditions allow in November
Steamboat: Nov. 23
Beaver Creek: Nov. 27
Crested Butte: Nov. 27
Aspen: Nov. 28
Snowmass: Nov. 28
Telluride: Nov. 28
Granby Ranch: Nov. 28
Powderhorn: Nov 29
Howelsen Hill: Nov. 30
Sunlight: As soon as conditions allow in early December
Echo Mountain: As soon as conditions allow in December
Ski Cooper: Dec. 11
Aspen Highlands: Dec. 14
Buttermilk: Dec. 14
TBD: Wolf Creek, Silverton
]]>Eldora’s owner, Powdr Corp. of Park City, Utah, announced last week that it had reached an agreement to sell Killington Resort in Vermont to an unspecified owner, and that it was putting Eldora up for sale along with Mount Bachelor in Oregon and SilverStar in British Columbia. Powdr’s announcement said the privately held company intended to retain Copper Mountain and Snowbird resort in Utah.
Tregaskis is seeking to reassure the Eldora community that there is “no cause for alarm,” that the ski area is profitable, and that it should be “a very attractive purchase” for potential buyers. Eldora will open a new lodge in the base area this winter that will house a children’s ski school, a home for Ignite Adaptive Sports, restrooms and food-and-beverage facilities.
Eldora has 680 acres of skiable terrain with four dozen trails, along with a Nordic center for cross-country skiing. It is the only Colorado ski area with regular RTD service from the Front Range.
“I want to assure you that Eldora will conduct business as usual this winter, with no changes to the upcoming season,” Tregaskis wrote. “Eldora will remain on the Ikon Pass and continue providing access through its own passes and day tickets.
“Eldora’s hardworking staff will continue to serve the community with the same dedication we always have, and Eldora will remain the same backyard winter playground for Nederland, greater Boulder, and Colorado’s northern Front Range,” he added.
Powdr acquired Copper Mountain in 2009 and Eldora in 2016. Little is known about Powdr’s finances because it is not publicly traded, but Patrick Scholes, a Wall Street analyst for Truist Securities who focuses on lodging and leisure companies, including ski resorts, said he hasn’t “heard anything that Powdr has had financial difficulties.
“Eldora is extremely unique, given its proximity to Denver. I have to imagine demand is strong, with University of Colorado students,” he continued.
Powdr said the reason for selling four of its nine ski areas is to “strategically manage Powdr’s portfolio in alignment with our founder’s and stakeholders’ goals,” adding that the company aims to “balance our ski business with new ventures in the national parks sector and Woodward.”
Woodward is an “adventure lifestyle” company with action-sports programming at Copper Mountain, Park City, Snowbird and six other resorts. Powdr already has concessionaire contracts with Death Valley and Zion national parks, and it plans to bid for more.
“The concessions we run at Death Valley are a motel called Stovepipe, a gas station, and convenience store,” said Stacey Hutchinson, communications vice president for Powdr. “Zion will be Zion Lodge. POWDR has grown a great hospitality business over the three decades since our inception, mostly on (forest service) land, so we’ll apply our expertise to national parks. And, it presents an opportunity for us to provide year-round employment to our seasonal workers — this would let us provide health insurance and other benefits.”
Eldora is not the only Colorado ski area for sale. In February, Denver-based Alterra Mountain Corp. announced an agreement to buy Arapahoe Basin. That transaction is still pending while the U.S. Justice Department considers whether the sale presents antitrust issues.
Powdr bought Eldora from a trio of investors — Bill Killebrew, whose family sold California’s Heavenly ski area to Japanese investors in 1990, Chuck Lewis, who founded Copper in 1972, and Graham Anderson, a former Sun Valley ski racer. The trio bought it in 1991 when it was on the brink of closure, investing heavily in snowmaking and other upgrades.
“I have been through three different sales in my long career in ski-resort management, the most recent being the purchase of Eldora by Powdr in 2016,” Tregaskis wrote. “In every case, the new owners brought positive change and financial investment.
“Eldora itself has had several different owners since it was founded in 1962, and every owner invested heavily in Eldora’s infrastructure and guest experience,” he added. “The bottom line? While a new owner has yet to be identified, I am very optimistic that the next stewards of this special place will inject excitement and a new wave of capital investment.”
]]>“To strategically manage POWDR’s portfolio in alignment with our founder’s and stakeholders’ goals, we aim to balance our ski business with new ventures in the National Parks sector and Woodward,” the company wrote in a statement. “Over the coming weeks, we will list three of our ski resorts — Eldora, Mt. Bachelor, and SilverStar — for sale.”
Mt. Bachelor is located in Bend, Ore., while SilverStar is in British Columbia, Canada. POWDR is also selling Killington, the famed ski mountain in Vermont.
“Until the sales of these four resorts (including Killington) are finalized, we will remain dedicated to our current operations at those ski resorts, plus Copper and Snowbird which we are retaining, Woodward camps and mountain centers, and our two National Park concessions contracts,” POWDR continued. “In addition, we are dedicated to a seamless transition at all four resorts.”
Founded in 1962, Eldora is known as a locals mountain that attracts people in Boulder County and skiers who don’t want to fight the traffic on Interstate 70. Located about 20 miles from Boulder, the ski area totals 680 acres of skiable terrain and some apres-ski areas.
]]>You might have a good feel for which two teams have the most talent, but what if one loses its star quarterback to a season-ending injury in November? You also might know that La Niña winters often result in above-average snowfall for Colorado’s high country, but sometimes La Niña winters result in well-below-average snow. That’s why meteorologists hedge when predicting conditions before Labor Day. Nevertheless, they try.
“I think the sports analogy is great,” says Alan Smith, a full-time meteorologist for the OpenSnow forecasting and reporting service. “You’re predicting future events, and you’re taking information that you have, but there’s so much information you don’t have, like injuries. You never know if a player on a team is going to suddenly explode that season – or regress.”
Still, anyone with an Epic or Ikon pass can’t help but wonder what kind of winter we will have. Labor Day is less than two weeks away, and the first Colorado ski area openings are apt to come in mid-October, most likely on man-made snow. So Smith provided his tentative 2024-2025 United States Winter Forecast Preview on the OpenSnow website.
Usually forecasts this time of year focus on the fluctuation of El Niño and La Niña in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator. Last ski season played out during a weak El Niño. Currently we’re in a transitional “neutral” status, but not for long.
“La Niña is favored to emerge during September-November (66% chance) and persist through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (74% chance during November-January),” according to the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service, which has issued a La Niña watch.
What does that mean for skiers and snowboarders in Colorado? Like betting on the Super Bowl this time of year, it’s all about the odds.
“El Niño and La Niña tend to get rated from weak to moderate to strong,” Smith said. “We never know for sure, but the trends seem to be pointing toward a weaker episode this year.”
Smith researched the six most recent weak La Niñas to see how Colorado resorts fared.
“Four of the six years were snowier than average, so that’s pretty decent odds,” Smith said. “However, one of those was well-below average. “That was in 2017-18, a very dry winter. If you expand it out to look at all La Niña years, Colorado does seem to have a boom-or-bust potential with La Niña.
“It tips the odds slightly in favor of being an above-average winter in the ski regions of Colorado,” he continued. “But sometimes the winters that end up below average that are La Niñas can be well below average.”
The winter of 2021-22 was a moderate La Niña and snowfall was decent, featuring a slow start but strong spring snows. The winter of 2022-23 was a weak La Niña that capped off a rare three-year “triple dip” La Niña. That was a fantastic season for Colorado resorts.
“November was cold and snowy,” Smith said of the 2022-23 winter. “It really jump-started the season, and it was consistent all season long — one of the most consistent winters I remember seeing.”
Last winter, under a strong El Niño, was slightly above average for snowfall. Now we get to guess the odds for this winter.
“There’s just so many factors you don’t know,” Smith said. “If you’re just looking at history, the odds tell us it’s slightly better than a 50-50 chance of being an above-average winter. But there’s always going to be that chance it could be a well-below-average winter.”
Colorado’s first ski area opening dates over the past five seasons
2019: Arapahoe Basin, Oct. 11
2020: Wolf Creek, Oct. 28
2021: Wolf Creek, Oct. 16
2022: Arapahoe Basin, Oct. 23
2023: Arapahoe Basin, Oct. 29
]]>For the past 13 years, Powder Daze lured Front Range skiers and snowboarders during the summer heat to its Littleton store, which would be crammed with last year’s skis, boards and boots at clearance prices. Powder Daze continued a Colorado skier ritual that began in the 1950s when Gart Bros. invented the Labor Day ski sale. Just last year, Christy’s director of brand marketing, Randy England, was touting an expanded Powder Daze at the Littleton store that was a combination winter gear kickoff sale and snow sports expo.
Not this year, though. The Littleton store and other Front Range Christy locations will have summer inventory on their floors — primarily, patio furniture — when Powder Daze begins Friday as an online ski and snowboard sale. Summer goods in Christy stores will be on sale for up to 50% off, while ski and snowboard gear online will be on sale for up to 60% off. A limited amount of last season’s ski gear will be available in Littleton and some Colorado mountain stores.
England is calling it an “End of Summer Event,” while hinting that in-store ski and snowboard sales are coming in October.
“We want to meet the guests where they are now, in season, and not try to anticipate what they may want on a promotional level in the off-season,” England said. “If we think back to the old days of the (Gart Bros.) Sports Castle downtown in Denver, and people standing around in 98-degree parking lots, it’s hard to get excited about putting on a ski jacket when you’re about to pass out.”
Rival Epic Mountain Gear will begin its Epic Drop sale on Friday, which marks a shift for the company. The past two years, Epic didn’t begin its ski and snowboard discount extravaganza until Labor Day weekend.
“We know what our friends next door are doing,” England said of Epic. “It’s great for them. I hope they’re wildly successful on that shift.”
Christy Sports, meanwhile, is focused on moving summer goods now and pushing ski sales closer to ski season.
“We loved our times in the legacy of what Gart started,” England said. “But we want to operate our business in-season and give our guests things they can use now. We’re happy to sell skis, we have them available year-round, but I’d rather get you excited about something you can walk out the door and use right away.”
England said the decision also is related to trends and marketing pressures in the outdoor industry as a whole following COVID.
“The outdoor industry saw a huge boom,” England said. “That boom did not continue, as booms generally do not, because consumers had gear and the industry was trying to catch up with supply-chain challenges to the point where there was a glut of inventory. In the last year or two, as you can see from all the big players, from REI to everybody else, everyone is making an adjustment to get back to a level baseline.”
For Christy, with 35 stores in four states, each store is focused on moving summer inventory, which varies in type depending on the region. In resort locations that can mean bikes or mountain apparel. In the Pacific Northwest, it’s gear related to water sports. In Denver it means patio furniture.
Epic Mountain Gear is offering discounts of up to 60% on skis, snowboards, bikes, accessories and apparel. The Epic Drop sale will run from Friday through Sept. 22. The purchase of any new bicycle from participating Epic Mountain Gear shops — excluding the Frisco store — entitles the buyer to free annual tune-ups with 25-point safety checks and standard adjustments.
Through Epic Mountain Gear’s Junior Trade program, parents can buy new or used gear for their kids during the Epic Drop sale at discounted prices. When their kids outgrow that set of gear, parents can trade it in for new gear and get a credit worth 50% of the original purchase price. Junior Trade prices will increase in October. Appointments are highly recommended.
]]>The first step in the transformation process comes Labor Day weekend with a “renovation sale” intended to liquidate inventory and make space for Black Diamond to move in. The store will be closed in November and December for renovation, with the goal of reopening the first week of January. It will be Black Diamond’s first “partner-run” mountain gear shop in North America.
When the renovation is completed, Black Diamond will occupy the main floor. The store’s traditional sales of used gear, factory closeouts, brand discounts and consignment sales will be housed on the lower floor with expanded inventory. Wilderness Exchange will manage and staff the Black Diamond operation.
“We’re going to be a store within a store,” said Don Bushey, who founded Wilderness Exchange in 2000. “They (Black Diamond) are trying to tap into our expertise at running a local mountain gear shop in Denver because we’ve been doing it for so long, but they also want to make themselves more relevant to the Rockies, the Colorado customer. We’re transforming the climbing/backcountry ski shop into an extension of the Black Diamond brand. We’re building it out like a branded mountain gear shop.”
Bushey noted that many brand shops sell branded gear focused on apparel, but they aren’t full-service mountain gear shops. Black Diamond and Bushey want the new venture at Wilderness Exchange to be that sort of shop, carrying skis, climbing gear and other equipment necessary for backcountry adventure.
“When you think about a brand store on Pearl Street in Boulder, there’s Patagonia, Arc’teryx, prAna, La Sportiva, Black Diamond, and they’re all using their brand store to tell that brand’s story,” Bushey said in an interview. “None of these are what I think of as a mountain shop. They attract brand super fans. They shop there, but if you were going to do an overnight trip and climb a peak, you’re not going to be able to complete your kit. That’s why you go to mountain shops, where a climber or skier can get outfitted.”
The Black Diamond store at Wilderness Exchange will sell ski mountaineering gear, trekking poles, climbing gear and other mountaineering equipment.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Don Bushey to bring together the best of Wilderness Exchange and Black Diamond in a modern format that is true to the rich heritage of both brands,” said Neil Fiske, brand president for Black Diamond Equipment, in a news release. “Don has long been a pioneer in the industry, and we believe this next evolution of retail will prove as innovative and groundbreaking as his original concept.”
Bushey said the vision is to make the Black Diamond space into a complete, full-service mountain shop.
“There will be a Black Diamond climbing shoe next to a La Sportiva climbing shoe,” Bushey said. “There will be some complementary brands, sleeping bags for instance. Black Diamond doesn’t manufacture sleeping bags, but you need a sleeping bag if you’re going into the mountains on a climbing trip.”
During the two-month renovation closure, Wilderness Exchange will remain open for online sales and next-day pickup.
Wilderness Exchange is located half a block from the REI Flagship store in the Platte Street shopping district.
“The more outdoor businesses on Platte Street, the better we all do,” Bushey said. “We’re hoping this ushers in even more brand stores and interest in our street. This has been an outdoor shopping mecca for Denver, and I think this is going to strengthen that for everybody.”
]]>Breckenridge is scheduled to open Nov. 8 and Vail on Nov. 15. Beaver Creek and Crested Butte are slated to open on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving.
Keystone will be the first to open. The announcement says it will open in mid-October “pending early season conditions,” which are mostly dependent on the progress of snowmaking. Usually that means sustained temperatures in the 20s, although snow can be made in the 30s when humidity is low.
The deadline to lock in Epic Passes prices before they increase comes on Sept. 2. Currently the Epic Pass is priced at $1,004 and the Epic Local Pass at $746. Epic Day passes make it possible to ski for $73-$95 per day, depending on the mountain and number of days selected. When passes went on sale at early-bird prices in March, the Epic Pass was priced at $982 and the Epic Local Pass was $731.
Vail Resorts also is launching a gear-rental membership program called My Epic Gear, which will allow guests to select gear they want to rent through an app and have it delivered to them if they are staying at lodging within a resort area. If not, they will be able to pick it up and drop it off with a slopeside valet service, eliminating the need to stand in line at ski shops. It debuted as a pilot program last year at Keystone, Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek for a limited number of Epic Pass holders, but this year it will be available at those four resorts plus Crested Butte, Park City, Whistler Blackcomb, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo and Mount Snow. Memberships will cost $50. The daily use fee will be $55 for adults and $45 for children.
Beaver Creek will expand its slate of World Cup ski racing at Beaver Creek in December to include women for the first time since the 2015 world championships. Vail native Mikaela Shiffrin and the other U.S. women downhill and super-G racers will be there Dec. 14-15. The men will race downhill, super-G and giant slalom as usual, Dec. 6-8.
]]>But do those stereotypes bear out? Does everyone in the Mile High City jam out at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, hit up the local brewery with their dog, and smoke the reefer?
In June, a nonpartisan polling agency decided to find out. The nonprofit Colorado Polling Institute surveyed 409 registered voters in the city by phone or online and asked whether they had enjoyed beer or cannabis in the past year, whether they’d been to Red Rocks, ridden a bike, recreated in the great outdoors or owned a dog.
So, how did we do?
Well, it turns out that a whopping 72% of the respondents had hiked, biked, skied or otherwise recreated outdoors, according to CPI. So that depiction of Denver certainly lived up to its billing.
The craft beer industry seems to be hanging in there, too. More than half, 54%, of the surveyed individuals had indeed put one back in the previous 12 months, although it was the under-35 crowd who did the heavy lifting: 71% had a craft beer as opposed to 37% of those 55 and older.
On the other hand, only about one-third of the respondents had purchased marijuana, but it was once again people under 35 who led the pack as just 16% of 55-and-overs had done so, CPI said.
Unsurprisingly, “50% of Denverites said they had a dog in their household, 27% said they had a cat, while only 32% said they had a pet-free abode,” according to the polling group.
As for Red Rocks, 40% had gone to a concert or other event there, which is pretty good considering the time and expense of attending a show.
And finally, 30% had biked to work or school or for errands around town.
Okay, next up: Subaru drivers.
]]>This week, Monarch Mountain near Salida announced it received approval from the U.S. Forest Service to expand the ski area. According to the announcement, the expansion will extend into No Name Basin, adding 377 skiable acres. That equates to about 50% more terrain than is currently available to skiers at the 800-acre ski area.
Going forward, No Name Basin, which is currently used for Monarch’s backcountry-style cat skiing operations, will offer cleared trails and gladed terrain for intermediate and advanced skiers and snowboarders. Construction is expected to begin later this month to build an access road to the area, extend a powerline and start cutting runs through the forest.
Next summer, Monarch plans to install a 3-person lift that’s 2,700 feet long, as well as a restroom and warming hut.
Monarch has been planning this expansion for a decade, the announcement said, and comes after officials with both the San Isabel and Gunnison national forests spent three years reviewing potential impacts to the natural area.
“This has truly been a labor of love,” Randy Stroud, Monarch’s chief operating officer and general manager, said in a statement.
According to its website, Monarch became a ski area in 1939 with “a 500-foot rope tow powered by a gearbox from an old oil derrick and a Chevy engine.” In 1955, the town of Salida sold the area to its manager Ray Berry for $100. In 2002, it was purchased by a group of ski enthusiasts who invested millions to create a destination “ski experience.”
With an average of 350 inches of snowfall per year, Monarch Mountain remains an off-the-beaten-path alternative to mega-resorts like Vail.
“Monarch is sort of the artisanal, indie experience that people seem to be hungry for today,” co-owner Liz Mumm Meier told The Denver Post in 2018.
UPDATED July 12 at 12:28 p.m. to clarify where Monarch Mountain is. It is located in central Colorado and spans the Continental Divide, with skiing on both the west and east sides.
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