Ski season heats up with upgrades at major US resorts
With winter here, downhill destinations are rolling out new facilities and improved amenities. This means visitors can expect an avalanche of new restaurants, lodges and lifts — as well as more convenient travel options for out-of-towners.
More to enjoy in Colorado
Visitors planning trips this winter to Colorado for skiing and snowboarding will find a host of improvements and new amenities at local resorts, along with expanded flight service into airports serving resort towns.
Colorado gets more skiers and snowboarders each winter than any other US state, with an estimated 12.7 million such visits last year.
Changes at ski areas for this season include new chairlifts, terrain improvements, improved dining choices and better technology built into apps and lift tickets.
For those flying to Colorado, there are new flight options from Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas along with expanded service on existing routes from Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St Paul, Newark, Phoenix, Seattle and Washington-Dulles. Nonstops to eight regional airports serving resort communities like Aspen, Crested Butte and Telluride have also been added from a number of cities around the country. And international travelers can fly direct to Denver from Australia, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Panama and the United Kingdom.
Several early storms have already dropped snow in Steamboat, Telluride and other ski areas, and forecasters are predicting a snowy season is likely thanks to the El Nino weather pattern.
Here’s a summary of some of the changes and upgrades at ski areas around the state:
Arapahoe Basin: New stage and music venue on the steps of a newly remodeled guest services center.
Aspen’s Snowmass Ski Resort: High alpine lift replaced and realigned; snowmaking equipment installed on two existing trails, along with other trail and glade improvements; new high-speed quad lift; Aspen Highlands’ Cloud Nine restaurant remodeled.
Ski Cooper: Expansion of Irish-themed pub, Katie O’Rourke’s.
Copper Mountain: Updated geo-targeted mobile application, Sherpa, which tracks user runs, speed and vertical feet, and now offers trail recommendations looking at previous user patterns; new Starbucks in Mountain Plaza building; new Mahi Fish Tacos restaurant in Center Village.
Crested Butte: New restaurant and bar at Ten Peaks area with deck and mountain views; new look and menu at WoodStone Grille.
Monarch Mountain: New yurt for guest briefings and lunch in base area for cat skiing; expanded lodge space used by large groups.
Powderhorn: New high-speed quad chairlift, the Flat Top Flyer, cuts ride time in half to six minutes.
Purgatory: New high-speed quad chairlift taking skiers and riders to the summit in 5 minutes; terrain added, including two advanced trails west of the new quad.
Silverton: Upgraded skis and boards in anticipation of deeper snow this winter.
Sunlight: Remodeled restaurant interiors and upgraded power supply to chairlifts.
Steamboat and Winter Park: Incorporating new RFID technology on lift tickets and passes so that they can be reused over multiple seasons and reloaded online or over the phone; ski passes may also now be linked to credit cards so guests can make purchases at resort restaurants, rental and retail sites without carrying cash or credit card.
New York builds reputation
Emilio’s Ski Shop in New York City runs buses every winter to resorts in Vermont and New York’s Catskills. The New York resorts are closer and the trips are a bit cheaper.
But Vermont is more popular with the skiers.
“People in New York really want to get that kind of Vermont experience,” explained Emilio’s owner Paul Pearlman.
So it goes in New York, which can sometimes be overshadowed by New England resorts. New York officials have been trying to tip the balance in recent years by promoting the state as a first-rate skiing and winter sports destination, part of a broader tourism campaign. The state has dozens of ski centers, with some of the gems tucked into the Adirondack and Catskill mountains.
Catskills resorts benefit from proximity to New York City. Hunter and Windham are both about two-and-a-half hours from Manhattan, as is the state-run Belleayre Mountain Ski Center.
Belleayre actually illustrates New York’s push to raise its profile with skiers since its 2012 transfer from New York’s environmental agency to the authority that runs its Adirondack Olympic facilities. The switchover put new marketing muscle behind the resort, and the Olympic Regional Development Authority has renovated Belleayre’s cafeteria, upgraded snowmaking and added a new glade, among other improvements.
Region ready for ‘winter deja vu’
It may be tough to top last winter’s record ski season in Vermont and colossal snowfall around New England, but Northeastern resorts hope to continue to draw in crowds with upgrades to snowmaking, lifts and lodgings this winter.
Other news this season ranges from a bus to bring skiers from New York to Vermont and a snow playground for little ones.
Farmers’ Almanac is predicting another rough winter for New England, with editors of the Maine-based publication calling it a “winter deja vu.”
Killington Resort in Vermont and Sunday River in Maine got an early jump on the season by opening for a time in late October.
Once the season is in full swing, city dwellers will have another way to get to the slopes at Stratton Mountain. Starting in January a bus service will deliver skiers and riders from Manhattan to the southern Vermont resort and back on weekends. The service is modeled on a jitney that carries New Yorkers to and from the beach at the Hamptons on New York’s Long Island. Stratton is also expanding its original base lodge, adding 4,000 square feet (372 square meters) and 350 seats.
Base lodge and snowmaking improvements were also part of the offseason work at New Hampshire’s Wildcat Mountain and Attitash Mountain. Attitash has added 150 snowmaking guns completing an upgrade started before last season.
Following a chairlift accident last season that injured seven people at Sugarloaf in Maine, that resort is installing a new load terminal at the base of the lift and upgrading the emergency braking and electronic systems on all other lifts, said spokeswoman Noelle Tuttle.
Back in Vermont, more than US$600,000 has been earmarked for the installation of new electronic lift drive systems on two gondolas at Killington, as well as communications lines, new haul ropes, component upgrades, and improvements at load and unload terminals for a number of lifts at both Killington and nearby Pico Mountain.
To cater to visitors when they’re off the slopes, Vermont’s Stowe Mountain Resort is adding new retail shops, restaurants, food markets and a children’s adventure center with a ski/ride school, daycare facilities, climbing gym and children’s activities at Spruce Peak.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.