Top Upgrades to 18 Colorado Ski Areas This Season

Last winter proved to be a record-setting year for Colorado mountain resort visitors, and the ski areas are throwing back the love with lots of improvements and upgrades. Here’s our breakdown of the top improvements that skiers will find at Colorado ski areas and resorts that we can all look forward to this year.

A-BASIN will debut a new $2.3M Kids Center this spring that will serve as the primary hub for children’s ski school, equipment rentals, and meals. The green building will also house the employee locker room, first-aid room, and expanded office space for the ski patrol.

ASPEN SNOWMASS will debut its $10M children’s center at the base of Buttermilk called The Hideout. The 7,500-square-foot treehouse style facility will feature a lookout tower and is scheduled to open in December. The ski area is also adding a snow-tubing area at Snowmass, and it’s in the process of improving glade skiing at Aspen Highlands.

BEAVER CREEK is a replacing its Centennial Express Lift with a new high-speed combo lift,  which will increase uphill capacity by alternating the use of gondola cabins with six-person chairs.

BRECKENRIDGE’s Colorado Super Chair will be upgraded from a quad express lift will to a six-passenger express, increasing capacity on Peak 8. It’ll also provide faster access from Peaks 6 & 7 to Peak 9, where skiers there will enjoy the newly remodeled restaurant.

COPPER MOUNTAIN has rolled out its 2nd generation of open-source tech that allows guests to share their trail tips with skiers and riders, hands-free and in real time. The Sherpa App 2.0 enables guests to leave GPS-based audible tips for others on the hill, with a chance for top contributors to earn their own place on next year’s winter trail map.

CRESTED BUTTE is installing a Magic Carpet lift for its tubing hill. A new fleet of snow bikes will be available for guests to rent, and new slope-side rack systems are being installed. The gladed terrain off of the Teocalli Lift and the East River area will be even smoother this season.

ELDORA added two new Kassbohrer grooming machines to their existing fleet, ensuring 100% snow-making capacity.

KEYSTONE is vamping up its family-friendliness factor this year. The kids’ ski and ride facility has added a new slide that deposits kids on the mountain from inside the building. Keystone’s mascot, Riperoo, will be skiing and riding along with the kids on the Family Ski Trail called The School Yard, along with the resort’s dogs and patrol teams. A mine attraction will augment the family adventure zone adjacent to the School Yard. Parents that want to can dine alone with new family brunch service that entertains the kids at The Bighorn Bistro at the base area.

LOVELAND has invested in the ski experience with snow-making upgrades, along with a second Magic Carpet surface lift at Loveland Valley. Chair 8 will feature a new warming hut called the Ginny Lee Cabin with restrooms and snacks at Loveland Valley, and Loveland is remodeling its cafeteria to offer more food and beverage choices, and greater seating capacity.

PURGATORY at DURANGO MOUNTAIN RESORT is adding 11 new energy-efficient tower guns, and a fan gun to its snowmaking arsenal. The new Burton Riglet Park is developing a terrain-based learning facility in the base area, and the ski rental operations will get a boost with upgraded rental fleet, a new boot fitting station, and snowboard demos.

SKI COOPER will offer an on mountain mobile food snow cat service called “Cat Trax.” The  snow cat will perfectly compliment the newly enhanced Pub featuring Irish music and quality Irish beer.

SKI GRANBY RANCH is adding advanced terrain with two new runs on West Mountain and a new gladed area on East Mountain. This season, it will  reopen the Poma Lift to provides access to its Lone Pine bowl.

SILVERTON MOUNTAIN has acquired a new helicopter ski cargo basket to facilitate better deep snow landings.

STEAMBOAT is busy with the acquisition of a new Bison Sherpa winch to groom its terrain parks and steep slopes, along with a planned 2-mile expansion of the snow-making system. The resort has expanded night skiing to five nights a week; and heating and lighting will be added to the Bear River BBQ bar and the Thunderhead Red’s Bar enlarged to accommodate night diners. All ticket services will be centralized into the One Steamboat Place location, and the old office space will be converted into a private lounge for the SnowSports School. The Ski & Sport Sheraton is expanding to enhance the ski rental service; and to top it all off, six more on-mountain cameras will be added to the resort.

TELLURIDE has invested in 38 new high efficiency Snowlogic snow guns for greater snow-making capacity in the central beginner and intermediate areas near Lifts 4 and 5.

Vail is renovating The Lodge at Vail with new finishing, furnishings and air conditioning in the lobby area and rooms. The Lodge will remain open during renovation and construction should be complete in time for the 2015 World Alpine Championship.

WINTER PARK is undergoing an expansion and complete remodel of the Lunch Rock Restaurant atop the Mary Jane Territory. The new modern structure will be five times its original size with a 250-seat interior, 150-seat heated outdoor deck and hydration station with bar. The restaurant will debut in time for Winter Park’s 75th anniversary celebration.

WOLF CREEK is adding the Elma Lift, a refurbished fixed-grip triple chairlift to provide skiers more access to the base area. It will also add beginner and intermediate terrain to the network, just in time for Wolf Creek’s 75 year anniversary celebration.

Which Colorado ski areas are you going to go to this season? Are you going to try somewhere new or stick to your usual shredding grounds?