It wasn’t a lot of snow, but I saw it as the only chance to put skis on snow in October. We received around 6″ of snow although there was more in certain wind loaded areas. It was definitely more about the up than the down! I skinned around to take a look at the snow cover and evaluate if…

The State of Colorado will receive some much needed snow on Sunday and Monday. A sizable storm is moving in that will deliver anywhere from 5″ to 20″ (or more) of snow around the State. Hopefully this will help to slow the growth of the fires that have been raging in the west and northern portions of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.…

Monarch Park is located just east of the ski area below the highway. In the summertime, it is a beautiful wetlands with streams, ponds and lush green vegetation. This area is supplied with runoff moisture from the ski area along with the top of the pass, Old Monarch and Monarch Ridge. During the winter, it is busy with snowmobiling, dog…

Our prism cam is back. Here is a look at the sunrise this morning.

We have had plenty of both lately. This fall continues to deliver dry and windy conditions. A change to winter will be a welcome sight.

One of our shuttle buses is flexing its muscles! Kudos to Ben James from our Vehicle Maintenance crew for putting his auto body and painting skills to work on this bus. It’s now looking sharp and ready to rumble for the season.

Each fall we conduct a bit of mowing on some of our easier trails. This knocks down the taller vegetation and sets us up for early season track packing once the snow starts to fly. When trails are covered in tall grasses and underbrush, they require deeper snow accumulations to evenly cover the slopes. By trimming back these naturally tall…

The Slope Maintenance Crew recently reseeded areas that were disturbed with the construction of the tubing hill a few summers ago. We initially reseeded, mulched, installed blankets and wattles after construction. Re-vegetation and erosion control is a constant project up here due to our granitic soils and extreme runoff events. We added some amendments and used a targeted seed mix…

The Lift Maintenance Crew has finished getting all the chairs back on all five of our aerial lift lines. Each summer, 20% of all chairs and grips are removed from the haul line and undergo a detailed inspection. The guys are finishing up their projects in preparation for our annual licensing inspection with the CPTSB later this month.

I recently had an opportunity to check out the timber operations across the highway on Monarch Ridge. The work is coming along utilizing the winch assist machines. There were several decks stacked along the upper road and the machines have worked their way towards the mining claims located adjacent to the Madonna Mine. Once they reach this northern boundary, they…