Even as skier visits in Colorado were inching toward the magic 10-million mark over the past few years, smaller ski areas in the state were experiencing all manner of business calamities. Some were shut down, never to reopen; others were in Chapter 11, and some were on the brink of either disaster.
Berthoud Pass, Eldora Mountain Resort, Conquistador, Cuchara, Ski Broadmoor and Ski Estes Park (a.k.a. Hidden Valley or Estes Park) were closed — either permanently or temporarily. Berthoud Pass, the state’s oldest ski area, shut down intermittently; Eldora Mountain Resort closed in 1986-87, then reopened and closed again; and Powderhorn was in deep financial straits and rumored to be on the verge of closing.
Though at this writing, it appears that the final curtain has rung down on skiing at Ski Estes (it’s located in Rocky Mountain National Park, where the Park Service prefers not to have a commercial ski operation) and Berthoud Pass (federal bankruptcy court allowed the dismantling of lifts by creditors) and Ski Broadmoor (it could reopen as a municipal ski hill, but probably won’t), the picture elsewhere is brighter than anyone would have predicted a year ago.
Over the past year, Eldora, Cuchara and Conquistador have been purchased by apparently solvent investors and Powderhorn had a bid that fell through, but still expects to operate this winter. Cuchara and Conquistador, which were closed, did reopen this season, and Eldora and Powderhorn, which had been operating, are doing so with more confidence that this winter won’t be the last. Each of the renascent ski areas is aiming at marketing its distinctiveness rather than competing with the giants. Unique qualities include location, geology, value/price and four-season appeal.
Eldora, 21 miles west of Boulder and within an easy day trip of Denver and Fort Collins, was the first small area to be rescued. It had been closed in 1986-87 and reopened under a lease held first by Andy Daly, former president of Copper Mountain, and then by Vail Associates after Daly joined the corporation in 1990. Now, Eldora’s future appears assured. It was purchased in July 1991 by an investor group that included Chuck Lewis, developer of Copper Mountain, Colo.; Bill Killebrew, formerly of Heavenly Valley, Calif.; and Graham Anderson of Pettit-Morry Insurance.
While Vail Associates reportedly didn’t believe that the area could succeed without lodging at the base, Lewis’s game plan is to make Eldora a leading contender for day trippers. He, his partners and a management team headed by Tom Spangler, began a two-year, $2-million upgrade. Spangler’s resume includes stints at Kirkwood, Calif., and Sugarbush, Vt., under Fred Jones, who in turn had worked for Lewis at Copper, and his thinking is in the Lewis mold. In 1991, the area built a new 6,000-square-foot children’s and skier services facility ($500,000) and a 1,200-square-foot cross-country lodge, and skier visits increased by 30 percent over the previous season to 88,000. This number is still shy of the 140,000 tallied in the late 1970s, but the curve is going in the right direction.
The remainder of the $2 million infusion went into improved and expanded snowmaking this past summer ($1 million worth for a season opening on November 13, a week ahead of schedule) and improvements in Corona Bowl (to the tune of $350,000). Corona is Eldora’s most challenging sector, but it was skiable only 40 days in a seven-week period last winter. The lift, Colorado’s only natural-gas-powered lift, is slow, and more work is needed to counteract marginal snow conditions that often prevail on the backside. The sales price for Eldora was not officially announced, but it was recorded as $250,000 with the county.
Eldora’s $27 all-day adult ticket is the lowest for an area easily reached from major Front Range cities, and Keystone are currently the only Colorado areas with night skiing. With a metro Denver population topping 1.5 million and 25,000 budget-minded students at the University of Colorado down the road in Boulder (they get an even better deal with $20 lift tickets), Eldora appears to be well positioned as long as it offers a product that spoiled Colorado skiers will accept.
What Lewis and his crew went through in 1991, the new owners of Cuchara and Conquistador, both in the Sangre de Cristo Range of southern Colorado, have experienced this year.
Cuchara Valley Resort, Colorado’s southernmost area, opened this winter for the first time since 1988-89, thanks to a late-summer rescue by Dick Davis of Arlington, Tex., who specializes in turning around distressed corporations. Davis, owner of General Electrodynamics Corp., purchased the area from the Resolution Trust Corp. for over $1 million. RTC had taken the resort’s assets over after the collapse of Sunbelt Savings & Loan, which in turn had taken them over from Summit Savings.
In addition to Cuchara’s business appeal, Davis, who has had a family vacation home in the valley for 15 years, had sentimental ties to the region. Cuchara Valley has traditionally marketed itself to the drive market from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and is also a day trip from Walsenburg, Pueblo and even Colorado Springs, about 140 miles from home.
Jerry Arnold, previously with Ski Estes Park, is the area manager. His first task was to ready the 1,562-vertical-foot area for a December 10 reopening. The family-oriented resort, with 125 condominium units and approximately 240 beds at the base, has a relatively modest first-season goal of 20,000 skier days. The four chairlifts and 30 runs are being brought up to snuff and a new infant-care facility is in the works.
Conquistador, renamed Mountain Cliffe Ski Resort, faced a similar time crunch. Investors Mund Shaikly of Los Angeles and P. Ray McEnhil of Salisbury, U.K., took over the area, located in Westcliffe, in August and hired Craig Olsen as manager.
The new owners purchased the area, which had been closed for four years, from the Small Business Administration for $3 million — $600,000 down and $2.4 million due by August 1995. Unlike other ski areas that tried to be profitable but failed, many people believe that Conquistador sank because of financial hanky-panky.
According to published reports, the SBA received and rejected more than two dozen bids for Conquistador before approving the Shaikly/McEnhil offer. Shaikly is a southern California developer who has owned a ranch in the region for a year and a half, while McEnhil, a long-time friend with deep pockets, went into the deal without seeing the mountain, which has three lifts, 15 runs and a 1,200-foot vertical.
First, Olsen says the big thing is just to “get open” for a season starting in December, but then, bigger plans are afoot. He has been running Diamond Peak Heli-Ski, based in Ogden, Utah, for Vertex, now also the resort’s parent company, and discussed heli-skiing in the Sangre de Cristo with the Forest Service. “We’ve been talking with them about our experience in avalanche safety and dog rescue,” he said, “and they’re listening.”
A 36-room lodge, recently renamed the Mountain Cliffe Inn, at the base has reopened. Non-Alpine activities at the area would include cross-country skiing and in summer, golf, horseback riding and special events. “We have a horse packer picked out,” Olsen said. “We’re looking at doing special events like concerts and hot-air balloon events. And we have 3,000 acres of developable property.”
Colorado’s westernmost ski resort, Powderhorn, did not shut down, but it came close. The area, which is near Grand Junction, was in Chapter 11. Golf Development Group, a Nevada corporation, was to buy Powderhorn for $7 million, but the financing organization, Capital Funding Group of Burbank, Calif., pulled out of the deal in late September. Bill Hanisch, former Keystone president, who was hired to run the area, and Bob Jappe, who came from Summit County to be marketing director, both left before Thanksgiving. Don Bramer, who ran the resort last season, was again appointed by the trustee as general manager.
Although the area is in limbo this season, it is operating. Said Terry Mueller, marketing manager, “There are interested buyers, but we’ve heard that before.”
Powderhorn has three lifts, 240 skiable acres on a 1,650-foot vertical and two relatively new condo complexes, and immediate goals include increased snowmaking and up to a 50 percent expansion of the ski terrain.
The area is tucked into a flank of Grand Mesa, the world’s largest flat-top mountain, close to Walker Field, Colorado’s second-busiest airport, and 40 minutes from Grand Junction, which has an Amtrak station for non-flyers. In addition to skiing, there are snowmobiling possibilities and excursions to Colorado National Monument, a renowned geological wonder that is one notch under national park status.
