After Two Quiet Decades, Cuchara Ski Area Reappears In Southern Colorado
After 24 winter seasons without operations, the Cuchara Ski Area has reopened on its original footprint on the eastern front of the Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado.
Thanks to a federal recreation grant, one lift and 47 of the original 230 acres are open for skiing and riding this season. The Lift 4 double chair has been renovated and will serve some 300 vertical feet on the lower mountain, Friday through Sunday and holidays.
Season tickets at Cuchara are on sale for $200, and day tickets run about $40. For the first season, base lodge facilities will be minimal. A small selection of condos sits around the base area, and a diverse choice of cabins and vacation rentals can be found in the village of Cuchara and nearby La Veta. Forty minutes away, Walsenburg has a variety of motels and supplies.
From the top of Lift 4, backcountry skiers and riders can head out on National Forest land to explore the existing trails and glades of the upper mountain below Mt. Baker (elevation 10,810 feet). Other activities including sled skiing (day pass required), snowshoeing, sledding and snowplay.
Originally named Pandero Ski Area, the mountain opened in 1981 with a couple of lifts and 1,500 of vertical feet. Located on both National Forest and private property, the ski mountain went through a half-dozen owners, several ill-fated expansion plans, bad snow years, and the savings-and-loan crash of the 1980s. With as many as five lifts, Pandero operated erratically (1981-89; 1992-94; 1995-96; 1997-2000) until closing down for good in 2000.
Then for more the next two decades, skiers and riders from western Kansas, southeastern Colorado and the Panhandles have had to make a full day's drive to reach the nearest alpine slopes. Often, the first mountains they encountered as they drove west were the Sangre de Cristos, and they may have wondered about a network of some two dozen trails visible just west of Walsenburg, Colo.
Now their drive has been significantly shortened -- in half, in some cases. It takes five hours from Amarillo, 3.5 hours from the Kansas border, 1.5 hours from Pueblo, Colo., and 2.0 hours from Colo Springs.
New or renovated ski areas in the West are rare in these days of shortening seasons, snowmaking requirements, mega-mountain passes and rising prices. Last season, Hoedown Hill opened up on a bump next to a golf course in Greeley, Colo. -- the only other downhill ski area in Colorado to open in the last several decades.
