Monarch's Expansion, Sunlight's New Chairlifts Grab Spotlight In Colorado
As the snow finally starts to pile up in Colorado, skiers and riders get to try out new terrain at Monarch and a couple of replacement lifts at Sunlight.
New terrain is getting rarer and rarer in Colorado, as most mountain resorts have expanded right up to the boundaries of their permitted areas. So the debut of nearly 400 acres at Monarch -- increasing the day-trip mountain's terrain by one-third -- rightfully deserve this winter's top headlines.
The new terrain called No Name Basin has 10 trails and two glades with 914 feet of vertical drop, and its own fixed-grip triple named Tomichi that went up this summer. Access is right off the top of the Breezeway chairlift or via gentle traverse along the 11,700-foot-high ridge line off the top of the Panorama chair.
Mountain officials said the new terrain is a response to skiers and riders seeking more advanced trails beyond the ones on the 670 acres and 1,162-vertical drop of the front side.
Long a popular backcountry snowcat area, No Name Basin is first enlargement of Monarch's lift-accessed acres since the fixed-grip quad Pioneer opened up Curecanti Bowl on the southern boundary of the Monarch to non-hikers in 1999.
In the mountains above Glenwood Springs, it's out with the old and in with the new at Sunlight Mountain. A pair of replacement lifts went up this summer to take over for two of Colorado's oldest lifts. The Segundo double -- originally started in 1966 and upgraded in 1973 -- becomes a fixed-grip triple to serve the blues and blacks on Sunlight's west shoulder.
And, the mid-mountain Primo double (1966) becomes a fixed-grip quad to speed up action in Sunlight's middle section. It's the only lift to reach Sunlight's 9,895-foot summit and to provide access to the mountain's array of double-blacks to skier's right.
As a palliative for long lift waits, capacities will increase from 730 to 1,800 riders per hour on the new Primo lift, and on the replacement Segundo, hourly ridership will jump from 970 to 1400.
These new lifts are the first ones on the mountain since 1987, when Lift 3 (later named Tercedo) was installed out of the base area. Around that same time, Sunlight moved bottom terminal of the Primo chairlift out of the base area to its present loading location a quarter of the way up the hill.
