After 27 years, today is Scott Pressly’s last day at Monarch. This week Scott gave a great farewell and rundown of some of his accomplishments on his final blog post and unsurprisingly, he spent the post describing what “we” accomplished. He is correct (as always) that it takes a village to run a ski area and complete these projects, however,…
After twenty-seven years at Monarch Mountain, it’s time for my final sweep. I have decided that this is my last season working at Monarch and I’ll be stepping down as the Director of Mountain Operations. This will also be my final blog post with “Scott’s Blog”. Don’t worry, the blog will continue! BL Holdinghaus, will be heading up Mountain Operations…
Perched high atop Monarch Pass, the Monarch Crest Scenic Tramway has become one of the most recognizable roadside attractions on the 3,000+ mile transcontinental U.S. Route 50. For six decades, the Scenic Tram has carried visitors above the Continental Divide for panoramic alpine views. Its history involves generations of locally based entrepreneurs, human ingenuity and resolve, along with the evolution…
It’s time to recognize those that have carried the torch for Monarch. We recently created a wall on the upper level of the Lodge near the Administrative offices that highlights the General Managers that have guided Monarch over the decades. Here’s a little backstory. In the early years after Monarch’s inception in 1939, the mountain was a ski club, then…
The Mountain Ops team has been clearing our access roads and evaluating the runoff. The western side got a head start during the unusually warm month of March. So, our access opened up fairly quickly on this side – although we did still have some drifts and consolidated snow on portions of our roadway. Each spring, we look to ensure…
I’m working through some spring cleaning of the office. While doing so, I found this aerial photograph of Monarch and Mirkwood Basin taken in 2005. The spruce beetles moved into the area around 2010 and decimated the mature stands of spruce trees over the next few years. The Monarch Pass Vegetation Management project was implemented in 2018 and thinning work…
Our new Subarus from Hueberger Subaru are here! We have partnered with Heuberger for about a decade and renew our lease every couple of years. This gives us a few sharp looking vehicles to travel to events or conferences around the country. It seems like Subies are the official car of Colorado. There sure are a lot of them out…
It’s a tale of two aspects. The north and east slopes are still holding some snow. However, the south and west facing slopes have melted out. We have already been able to get up some of our access roads on these drier slopes and the crew is getting a jump on some of our summer projects…and it’s still only April!
I took a little journey up the Egress Road to grab a look at Mirkwood Basin. The bowl is still holding some snow and showing winter like conditions. The hike-to skiing and riding in Mirkwood Basin is truly one of the best experiences at Monarch Mountain. Hope you got a few laps out there this season. If not, we’ll be…
