Monarch Mountain is one of the last ski areas in Colorado to rely entirely upon all natural snowfall.  We have always taken great pride in our unspoiled mountain conditions.  The good news for all of you, is that we will continue to do so for the 2018-19 winter season.

Monarch Mountain operates under a Special Use Permit with the USFS.  As part of our annual summer operating plan with the USFS (who then reviews and authorizes our on mountain projects), we had included a small snowmaking project.  This proposal involved utilizing an existing water right that the ski areas has for snowmaking.

We considered a small project consisting of two or three mobile fan guns for making snow primarily in and around the base area.  These snowmaking ops would occur during the early part of winter to assist with building up the snow base around the bottom lift terminals, near the base lodge, and over at the new tubing park.  There was not any portion of this proposal that involved machine made snow on the designated ski trails further up the mountain

After further research into our water right and looking at various system and storage options, we have decided not to implement any snowmaking operations at this time.  In the future we may pursue a snowmaking system once again, however, our main focus would most likely be machine made snow at the tubing park.  Our goal is to keep our ski and ride slopes just like we like them…all natural.

While this decision doesn’t mean that we will never make snow on the trails, rest assured that your turns on the mountain this season will continue to be as unspoiled as Mother Nature intended.  Enjoy!