Mega makeover

Resorts spend millions to update lodges, overhaul slopes and expand offerings

By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 16, 2007 at 4:46 p.m.

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Photo by Dennis Schroeder

Crews from Leitner Poma work with a Sikorsky S-64 sky crane to lift and set 18 towers for the new Zuma Lift, a fixed quad, in the new Montezuma Bowl at A Basin Wednesday Sept. 19, 2007. The Montezuma expansion is the largest in the U.S. this year and will increase the size of A Basin by 80%. They hope to have the new lift fully running and ready to go by the end of October this season.

Photo by Ken Papaleo

Work continues on the two new condominiums, Thursday morning, October 4, 2007, at Winter Park ski area. This work is all part of Phase I of The Village at Winter Park, which has a parking lot that has 273 spaces.

Call it the year of the ski area makeover.

Even the most active skiers will see big changes when they head for the slopes this season. Some resorts - like Crested Butte, Snowmass, Vail and Winter Park - have made headway on major overhauls of their base areas, while Steamboat's new owner poured a heap of money into the mountain itself. Even some of the state's smallest ski areas have something new to offer.

"People pay a lot of money to ski, and they like to see noticeable improvements when they come back the next year," said Dave Belin, who follows the industry for RRC Associates, a Boulder-based research and consulting firm. "It keeps it fresh."

Growing numbers of visitors in recent years have allowed many of the state's 26 ski areas to keep pumping capital into everything from more contemporary lodges to faster chairlifts.

"We're coming off a second consecutive record year for skier visits," said Rob Perlman, president of Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade group for the state's ski resorts. "You've got to continually raise the bar."

This summer proved to be an especially frenetic one for mega-investments. And Crested Butte Mountain Resort has come up with perhaps the biggest enticement to come check out what's new this season. Anyone who shows up to ski from Nov. 25 through Dec. 15 will get free lift tickets.

The southwestern resort's new owners invested $200 million into updating facilities and lodges. Visitors will find a new lodge at Mountaineer Square and a complete overhaul of the Elevation Hotel, a building that once housed a slope-side Club Med.

At Snowmass, kids attracted much of the resort's attention during a busy summer of construction.

The popular Aspen-area resort spent $17 million on the Treehouse Kids' Adventure Center, a two-story, 25,000-square-foot facility that houses ski school and rentals, as well as entertainment and activities for the younger set.

Also new this season at Snowmass is Elk Camp Meadows, an area dedicated to those who have never been skiing.

Seasoned veterans will find that it takes even less time to get up the mountain this season. New lifts account for some of the $100 million that Vail Resorts pumped into its ski areas.

A new Highline chairlift at Vail Mountain will speed the trip to China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin and shorten the travel time to seven minutes. A new Sourdough lift cuts in half the time it takes to get to easy runs at the top of the mountain. Another lift in the Eagle's Nest beginner area also has been replaced.

The ski town itself continues to be transformed, to the tune of more than $1 billion. The ski area operator's posh, new Arrabelle at Vail Square development is set to open in January.

Here's a sampling of some of the other upgrades at base areas and on the ski hills:

* Steamboat embarked on a big push to revamp the ski area, regrading to fix the flawed design of the beginner slopes and moving and installing new high-speed chairlifts. When Intrawest bought the ski area this year and promised to revitalize it, investors took notice. The aging real estate at its base - and much of the downtown area - has been getting a face-lift.

* Visitors staying in Avon can board the new Riverfront Express gondola to gain quick access to Beaver Creek's chairlifts.

* Telluride opens its Black Iron Bowl to those willing to hike to the 350 acres of extreme ridgeline skiing.

* Winter Park gets a new six-passenger Panoramic Express chairlift. A parking structure for almost 300 cars will open in December.

While Colorado's smaller ski areas lack the nightlife and amenities of their larger counterparts, many have expanded or made changes for the coming season.

* In December, Arapahoe Basin will open 400 acres of new trails on the backside of its summit near Loveland Pass. In addition to intermediate and advanced trails, the expansion will offer more of the expert runs the area has become known for among Front Range residents.

"It's more of the same A-Basin stuff," said Alan Henceroth, chief operating officer of the 61-year-old ski area.

* Echo Mountain, another nearby ski area, will introduce more tree skiing, an expanded beginner area and a new junior program for kids ages 3-12.

* Wolf Creek has spent some of this year's $1 million capital budget to finish a key project: water-free restrooms at the top of its Raven and Treasure lifts.

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