From: mwallace@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark Wallace)
Subject: Closed Ski Areas in Colorado - Post 3
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 14:42:04 GMT

Following is an article I'm posting which was written by a 
co-worker of mine who's hobby is ski area trivia.  The main
motivation for these postings is feedback, so if there is 
anything you can add please do.  I'll pass along any 
feedback you may have, but don't question this 
information without consideration, I've seen some of his 
resources.  We'll be posting for awhile so if there is an 
area you're interested in it should be covered soon.

Mark Wallace, Castle Rock, CO
mwallace@nyx.cs.du.edu

***********************************************************************


Subject:  Closed Ski Areas in Colorado  -  Post 3

Greetings from THE COLORADO SKIER

During early July there were several articles from several folks
concerning closed Colorado ski areas.  Researching lost Colorado
ski areas just happens to be the hobby of The Colorado Skier.  We
even wrote a book on the subject (Would you believe a pamphlet? 
How about a typewritten list?).

The Colorado Skier is prepared to clarify the history and status
of every dead or lost ski area in Colorado.  There are at least
75 of them.  But that's too many for one posting.  So we will
pick 5 from the 20 or so discussed in the recent series of
articles and provide info on them.  Then we will also add five
new areas to challenge your collective memories.

If we discuss 10 dead/lost ski areas every week or so, we should
have covered them all by the time the snow flies and then can
turn our attention to current ski area info. 

EDITOR'S REMARKS:  Thanks for the feedback on Edition #2.  Lots 
     of good input, which is discussed under follow-up news in
     Section 3.)



LOST COLORADO SKI AREAS  -  EDITION #3


1.  Five lost ski areas you have been discussing:


IDLEWILD   (Winter Park), [closed 1986], Located in the town of 
  Hideaway Park a few miles north of the Winter Park ski area. 
  There is still a highway sign pointing the way, probably to
  current cross-country operations.  Operated from 1960 to 1986. 
  Usually called SKI IDLEWILD.  [note that the town of "Hideaway
  Park" seems to have disappeared from most maps - apparently
  merged with or was renamed "Winter Park".] 

    Vertical drop:  400 ft      Top:  9100     Base:  8700 
    Lifts:  1 double chair, 1 poma 


PIKES PEAK   (on Pikes Peak), [closed 1984], Operated most years
  from 1939 to 1984 (did not operate in the 66/67 & 80/81
  seasons).  The area received expansion permission from the NFS
  and water rights (for snowmaking) in 1978.  A triple chair was
  added for the 1982/83 season and the vertical drop was
  increased from 270 feet to 900 feet.  Snowmaking was installed. 
  However, the area went bankrupt after the 1983/84 season.  The
  chairlift was repossessed by the manufacturer.  One sad aspect
  of this situation is that the new runs were only used for two
  seasons.  What a waste of trees!  It will take 100 years or
  more for them to grow back, at that altitude.  May be the same
  area called GLEN COVE in the forties.  

    Vertical drop:  900 ft      Top:  11,700  Base:  10,800
    Lifts:  1 triple chair, 1 rope tow


ST. MARY'S GLACIER   (Idaho Springs), [closed 1986], Located 7 
  miles north of I-70 on the Fall River Rd west of Idaho Springs. 
  Operated on and off from the late thirties to 1986.  The
  current equipment was installed in the fifties.  Also known as
  SILVER LAKE (mid 70's), SILVER MOUNTAIN (1979/80), SKI ST.
  MARY'S (early 70's), and once as SKI ST. MARY'S GLACIAL ICE
  (!).  This area was famous early on (circa 1938, 39) for an
  annual Fourth of July ski race, probably on the glacier itself,
  not at the current ski area location.  

    Vertical drop:  675 ft      Top:  10,955  Base:  10,280 
    Lifts:  1 t-bar, 2 Mitey Mites 
 
 
SHARKTOOTH   (Greeley), [temporarily closed], Located on a 
  sandstone bluff a few miles west and one mile north of Greeley
  (county road 25).  Operated from 1971 to 1986.  Sometimes open
  for sledding and tubing.  Lowest base altitude of any ski area
  in Colorado.  Owner Dick Perchlik once stated:  "30 feet of our
  hill is as good as anything in the Alps" !!!  

    Vertical drop:  150 ft      Top:  4750    Base:  4600 
    Lifts:  1 pony lift


SQUAW PASS   (Bergen Park), [closed 1975], Small area on Hiway 
  103 west of Bergen Park and 4 miles west of "Squaw Pass".  Top
  of the lift is at highway level, on the north side of the road. 
  Operated from 1962 to 1975.  At one time (1988) a religious
  group was thinking of buying and reopening it. 

    Vertical drop:  700 ft      Top:  9000    Base:  8300
    Lifts:  1 t-bar, 1 rope tow



2.  And here are the Ski Area Descriptions from our last post:


CLOUD CITY SKI CLUB   (Leadville), [obscure], Visible in south 
  Leadville (Stringtown) along U.S. 24 near Colorado Mtn College
  for the last several years.  About 150 feet of vertical, one
  rope tow.  We used to call the area LEADVILLE in our data base,
  but in Dec 1991 there was a sign saying "Cloud City Ski Club".

    Vertical drop:  150 ft      Top:          Base: 9,900  (est.)
    Lifts:  1 rope tow


INDIAN MOUNTAIN   (Como), [obscure], Associated with the Indian 
  Mountain recreational housing development located 5 miles
  southeast of Hiway 285.  Two surface lifts, several trails,
  circa 1979.  We saw the trails from the air in 1979.  Appeared
  on the 1980 State of Colorado map.  It is not known if this
  area ever actually operated.  The Colorado Skier has a brochure
  which shows one poma, one pony lift, and 5 trails.  


KENDALL MOUNTAIN   (Silverton), [closed],  Appears on many maps,
  frequently misspelled as "Kendal".  Operated during the mid-
  sixties to mid-seventies.  The slope is visible about one mile
  southeast of the town of Silverton on the flanks of "Kendall
  Mtn".  

    Vertical drop:  200 ft      Top:  9300    Base:  9100  (est.)
    Lifts:  1 t-bar             (night skiing)


LITTLE ANNIE (BASIN)  (Aspen), [planned], Adjacent to and south 
  of "Aspen Mtn".  Appears as "Annie Basin" on NFS maps.  A new
  ski area was in the serious planning stages in 1979 by an
  independent developer but was never built due to lack of
  financing.  Aspen Skiing Co. sometimes talks of expanding Aspen
  Mountain into it and has run snowcat tours into the Little
  Annie terrain.  A 1965 Ski Magazine ski area guide lists LITTLE
  ANNIE as a snowcat area.  No recent development news.


MARBLE   (Marble), [closed 1974], Located about two miles north 
  of Marble.  Operated with snowcats in the 1971-72 season. 
  Opened with a chairlift in 1972 for two seasons.  The area
  planned to add two more chairlifts for the 1974/75 season but
  failed to open.  Never popular with the Forest Service, the
  town of Marble, or the public.  Was built on a geologically
  unsound area subject to landslides.  (Another faithful reader
  reported that air pollution in the narrow canyon was also a
  problem.)

    Vertical drop:  1050 ft     Top:  9800    Base:  8750
    Lifts:  1 double chair 


3.  Follow up to Edition #2 

a.  One of our faithful readers reports having seen the rope tow
    at CHAUTAUQUA PARK in Boulder during the winter of 1956/57. 
    Says it was run by the Jr Chamber of Commerce and was also
    used by tubers and toboggans.  Neato!  This is a record to
    shoot at.  The Colorado Skier's earliest visual on a dead ski
    area is SKI BROADMOOR in 1962.

b.  Thanks to a faithful California reader (how's it shaking?)
    for pointing out another ski area which is located in a
    national park.  LASSEN NATIONAL PARK SKI AREA is located in
    Lassen Volcanic National Park.  (how do you wax for cinders?)
    For the record:

    LASSEN
    Vertical drop:  600 ft      Top:  7200     Base:  6600
    Lifts:  1 triple chair, 2 rope tows

    BADGER PASS   (in Yosemite National Park)
    Vertical drop:  800 ft      Top:  8000     Base:  7200
    Lifts:  4 chairs (1 trpl), 2 surface lifts

c.  Yes, there was a typo in the BERTHOUD PASS phantom elevations
    write-up.  In paragraph 5, after "Heard enuff", it should
    read ".... was reporting a base altitude of 11,022 feet which
    is 300 feet below the base lodge ...."  We told you their
    numbers were crazy - so weird that even our highly paid crack
    team of historians, analysts, statisticians, and one English
    major can't keep track of the data.  Actually, after further
    study and reflection, a staff member concluded that 11,022
    feet is the altitude of the UPPER shuttle bus stop.  How
    would you like to ski 300 feet of vertical in 30 seconds and
    then wait 30 minutes for the bus?  (We hope we have added
    enuff fluff to the correction to cover up the fact that The
    Colorado Skier actually made a mistake.)

d.  RIST CANYON - Some questions, but no new data yet, stand by.

e.  In Edition #2 we mentioned that SKI BROADMOOR also had an
    elevation fiasco and after zero, none, nada, zippo, no 
    requests to explain that story, we will do it anyway.  For
    many years, Ski Broadmoor reported its data as Top: 6800 ft,
    Base: 6200 ft, and Vertical drop: 600 ft.  One day we were
    looking at a topo map and observed that the 6200 ft contour
    was almost at Hiway 115, about a mile east and considerably
    downhill from the Broadmoor base.  Also 6800 ft was just
    above the Cheyenne Mtn Zoo parking lot, which one drives thru
    on the way (slightly downhill) to the base of the ski area. 
    Something was amiss.  So we dropped a postcard to the
    Broadmoor Hotel, outlining our findings.  The following
    season, the elevation data had miraculously changed, as
    follows.  Top: 7084 ft, Base: 6569 ft, and Vertical drop: 515
    ft.   Ever vigilant.

f.  We were paging thru the original Closed Colorado Ski Areas
    posts from early July and noticed questions about the current
    status of CONQUISTADOR, CUCHARA VALLEY, and POWDERHORN.  In
    case you have missed (why?) our companion posts called
    "What's New for 92 at Colorado Ski Areas", Good News - all
    three areas WILL be open for the upcoming season. 


4.  Who remembers these Lost Colorado Ski Areas?
      (from the marvelous and magnificent "M" collection)

      MANCOS

      MEADOW MOUNTAIN

      MERCURY

      MESA CREEK

      MONTEZUMA BASIN


  And the list goes on and on and on ...


5.  Answer to the Edition #2 Bonus Question -  The question was: 
    "Name four (4) former Colorado ski area GONDOLAs which have
    been removed or replaced".

  VAIL:  The very first gondola (4-place) in Colorado AND the 
    U.S. was installed at Vail, in Dec, 1962.  It was removed and
    replaced by a double chair to the bottom of chair 2 in 1976
    and eventually by a high-speed quad chair (the Vista Bahn)
    back up to mid-Vail in 1985.  The lower gondola terminal now
    has skier services and shops on the lower level and the most
    expensive condominium in Vail on the upper level (once owned
    by Australian Alan Bond of America's Cup yachting fame). 
    Note that this is NOT the gondola that dropped a few cars and
    killed several skiers back in the mid-seventies.  That
    gondola, at Lions Head, is STILL operating.  Good luck!  (Try
    not to ride with Claudine Longet) 

  CRESTED BUTTE:  Their gondola just missed the honor of being 
    first in the country by opening a few days after Vail's, in
    Jan, 1963.  This was an old three passenger gondola wisely
    discarded by an Italian ski area.  The brightly colored egg
    shaped gondola cars were very pretty but were also very
    cramped, even for three people.  The cars had no bumpers and
    after a few years sported patches on the round parts where
    the cars collided (we hope they collided only in the
    stations!).  The entire lift was replaced by the "Silver
    Queen" bubble-top double chair in 1973.  The old gondola cars
    are collector's items.

  STEAMBOAT:  Opened their first six-passenger gondola in 1970. 
    It was built tram style with only two intermediate towers and
    great long traverses 100 feet above the ground.  Europeans,
    who are used to trams, were reputed to be afraid to ride it. 
    It was replaced by the eight-passenger "Silver Bullet"
    gondola (lower, more towers) in 1986.

  KEYSTONE:  Opened their spiffy new "River Run" six-passenger 
    gondola ("the continent's longest and largest capacity") at
    the new "River Run" base area in 1984.  However, Keystone was
    unhappy with the performance and safety and tore it down in
    1986 after only two years of operation.  (We wonder if it is
    still operating at some unsuspecting area in the midwest!) 
    The new "Skyway" six-passenger gondola opened in the same
    place in 1986 and is still operating.  We note that altho the
    ski area brochures clearly showed a different looking gondola
    in 1986, Keystone made no mention (other than the name
    change) of the fact that the gondola had been replaced.  (We
    just happened to wander by and discover all the old gondola
    cars in the parking lot in the summer of 86, and subsequently
    sniffed out the story.)


6.  New Bonus Question:  Which ski area had the first quad chair
      in Colorado?  Which ski area had the first detachable (hi-
      speed) quad chair in Colorado?  Which area had the first
      "six-pack" (6 passengers) chairlift in Colorado?


  "Skiing is not a way of life, it's much more important than
  that!"     (The Summit Sentinel, 1986)


Cheers from THE COLORADO SKIER
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry