Colorado Echo Mountain Saved!

[SkiNurse]

I don't know about you, but I wasn't buying ski resorts at age 27.....

http://unofficialnetworks.com/2016/...orado-ski-resort-out-of-bankruptcy-for-3-8m-a

 

[Tricia]

Saw this Denver Post article and, well.....
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/09/echo-mountain-sells-peter-burwell/

Sadly, this story is going to get buried by the VR- Whistler thing.

Snip from article.
Burwell, 27, is the son of Rod Burwell, the renowned Minnesota entrepreneur and philanthropist who died last year. Burwell Enterprises developed a reputation for reviving flagging businesses, investing in a hotel in Madison, Wis., a fishing resort in Ontario, a water park at the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis and, years ago, a satellite television venture that became DirecTV. The Burwell family was well-known in Aspen and once owned the Silvertree and Eldorado hotels in Snowmass Village.

 

[Jilly]

fishing resort in Ontario.....have to look that up, but I'm thinking about one waaaay up north....like fly in.

 

[Tricia]

Who has skied Echo Mountain?

 

[Don in Morrison]

I think all the re-purposing has kept everyone off balance. It's a terrain park. Now it's a family area, No, it's a private race training facility. Now it's a public area. People might go there if they knew that it was going to be a public, family oriented ski area and could count on it being the same year after year. I might try it if I knew it was going to be an ordinary ski area and not some specialty place with a narrowly focused market.

 

[Dave Petersen]

We stopped there on our way home from a ski trip to Breckenridge (March 2009). Distance is a little deceiving -- we could see it from the Interstate in Idaho Springs and it seemed like it would be a short drive, but once we exited in Evergreen it took a bit of a drive to get up there. At that time it had a terrain park vibe.

 

[Don in Morrison]

It is quite a twisty drive up there, but it's really pretty in the fall when the aspens turn.

 

[crgildart]

Ahh, Minnesotans! That explains the appreciation for a 600 foot ski hill in the shadow of behemoths,

 

[Don in Morrison]

And the elevation is so low that any real snow that falls is just a supplement to the man-made.

 

[Jack skis]

I skied then Squaw Pass when it opened in the '60's. Think it had a T-bar and a rope tow, 3 or 4 trails all running down from the parking lot and tiny building that had heat and some food. The Creighton family owned and ran the place. Tommy was the on hill guy and his wife ran the ticket sales and food (hot chocolate and hot dogs at least). I'd go up during the week and ski with Tommy, carrying my daughter on my back in a Gerry Pack. Worked in s ski shop so had demo skis for him to use, while I used his 215cm wooden brutes. Straight running as I couldn't turn'em. Night skiing was the rope tow and regular light bulbs in sockets hanging over the trail in maybe three places.

Long ago.

 

[James]

Bunch of eastern schools used to train there early season when it was recently a race hill. They had some webcams up also.

 

[Philpug]

Wasn't this the mountain bought a few years ago by some ski families to use for training?

 

[Philpug]

We stopped there on our way home from a ski trip to Breckenridge (March 2009). Distance is a little deceiving -- you can see it from the Interstate in Idaho Springs and it seemed like it would be a short drive, but once we exited in Evergreen it took a bit of a drive to get up there. At that time it had a terrain park vibe.

View attachment 12172

You would think they would have one of these...

 

[SBrown]

Wasn't this the mountain bought a few years ago by some ski families to use for training?

Yes