On Thursday the Monarch team met with the Forest Service and engineers from SE Group and Mountain Engineering and Testing for a pre-costruction site visit to look at the Paradise Lot expansion project.  Not only are these visits a great chance to all get on the same page prior to construction starting but they are also a requirement for our…

We have formally received approval for a 2.2 acre expansion on the Paradise Lot and are prepared to start construction early next week.  The Forest Service analyzed this under a Categorical Exclusion Review (CE) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  This review was summarized under a Finding of Applicability and No Extraordinary Circumstance (FANEC) and approved by the Forest…

Today was our annual team trash cleanup day where our whole summer crew came together to clean up the base area, lift lines and some high traffic trails.  In the photo you can see Riley and Jenna searching for any lost treasures.  Some of the good finds were a lost ski, air tags, phones, a chess pawn, a frisbee, and…

Earlier this summer our crew worked in conjunction with the Forest Service to mark out and remove a few small tree islands in Shagnasty.  When Shag was a mostly ungroomed black run accessed only by hiking, these tree islands added a nice bit of character to the run.  With the increased traffic and grooming that the Tomichi Lift instillation brought…

If you have ever been around a ski area in the summer you will notice that everything looks a little strange.  All of our buildings and stairs are all designed to accomidate a couple of feet of snow depth which makes them all seem strangely tall when it’s dry out.  This week one of our mechanics, Rick, took the time…

Yesterday our new (to us) tour cat was delivered!  This is a 2009 Prinoth Bison with 6300 hours that has a very cool passenger cabin layout (more to come on that later).  This Bison is a huge upgrade from our 1996 Bombardier MP plus 275 and joins our 2009 Prinoth BR350S to give us 2 reliable tour cats to access…

This is a new Lif-Track vehicle lift that was installed in our Vehicle Maintenance shop yesterday.  Ok, so this might not be as exciting of a lift as last year’s addition but this is still a huge upgrade for our Vehicle Maintenance shop.  This replaces an older lift with one of higher capacity that will allow our mechanics to work…

On Saturday Chad Hixon, Executive Director of the Trails Preservation Alliance (and former Monarch Patroller and Snowcat Guide), teamed up with Central Colorado Mountain Riders and the US Forest Service Salida Ranger District to host a cleanup day on a section of the Rainbow Trail in Howard.  Monarch has always had close connections and is proud to support all of…

Yesterday the Monarch crew attended the 63rd annual meeting of Colorado Ski Country USA.  This is always a great opportunity to get together with our partners at other Colorado ski areas and discuss the seasons successes and challenges and look ahead to how we can all improve as an industry.  This conference is always followed by Double Diamond Awards Ceremony. …

One of our projects this summer is trail grading on a side hill section of Mule Train (stay tuned for more info later).  The first part of any dirt work at Monarch is the installation of Erosion Control measures which are a huge part of protecting the wetlands and creeks within the ski area.  We utilize certified weed free and…