Destination ski demand remains inexplicably lumpy. The combination of cheap airfare and strong brand names means that Breck and its neighbors (kind of) near Denver are very crowded. But there is already more than enough lift-served destination skiing around western North America (most notably British Columbia and Idaho) that those crowds could easily be dispersed if people chose different destinations. Overall, the demand just isn't there... but there
is demand in Colorado's front range.
As others have mentioned, finding suitable terrain and high startup costs are real obstacles. The Environmental Impact Statement review process and general environmental/land use laws for anything sizable on US federally-managed land is also daunting, and the Feds control a big chunk of potential ski terrain. But there's also plenty of potential ski terrain on private, tribal, or local-government-owned land that isn't being developed. I think the root cause comes down to soft demand.
My question is- why aren't any 'lost' ski areas returning? Well, other than they became 'lost' for a reason.
The 'lost' Squaw Pass ski area reopened as Echo Mountain and has operated at least some recent seasons (not sure of current status).
The 'lost' Elk Meadows/Mt. Holly reopened in 2010 as Eagle Point.
The 'lost' Tamarack (also the newest destination ski resort in the US) reopened in 2010.
The 'lost' Antelope Butte has recently reopened after
15 years (though the main lift can't open until the government is un-shut-down).
The 'lost' Parleys Summit is on track to have lift-served skiing as Woodward Park City by next ski season.
Efforts to revive the 25-year-lost Stagecoach were attracting a bunch of coverage a couple years ago, but seems like things have since gone quiet.
So lost ski areas
are returning, slowly, but certainly not at a rate that is going to have any noticeable impact on crowding at Breck