With No Name Expansion, Monarch Unveils First New Lift, Terrain In 25 Years
Monarch's new trail map signals that skiers and riders will get their first lift-accessed taste of the No Name Creek expansion next season.
Ten trails and two glades have been cut and named, plus a fixed-grip triple is going up this summer. The project will open up 377 acres off the top ridge Continental Divide -- the first lift access on the western slope of the divide.
All with mining-era names, the new trails include seven blue runs, with names like Mule Train, Riches, Prospector and Bonanza, and a black-rated plunger called Buckhorn underneath the new chairlift. A pair of black diamond glades bookend the new terrain. Vertical drop totals 960 feet, and there's a new warming hut at the bottom of the lift.
Access is right off the top of the Breezeway chairlift or via a short traverse along the 11,700-foot-high ridgeline off the top of the Panorama chair.
This area has been a popular backcountry area for snowcat tours off the top of Monarch. It's one of several 'cat routes that extend northward along the divide and hit up Milkwood Basin and the cirques around Bald Mountain.
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. The mountain attracts local from the town of Salida, day-trippers southern Colorado, and vacationers from Kansas and Texas.
It would be the 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.
Monarch's storied history goes back to the early 20th century, when hard-rock miners in the Monarch Mining District sought some thrills by schussing down a slash called Gunbarrel that is now just above the parking. A rope tow went up in 1939, then another rope tow, few more trails and a rustic base lodge.
Decades later, a T-bar went in to get skiers up the hill toward the Divide. In 1968, the Breezeway double went up, followed by the Garfield double a year later.
