Ski Broadmoor
A 600-foot city hill on Cheyenne Mountain built and run by the Broadmoor Hotel, passed to Colorado Springs and then to Vail Resorts, which closed it in 1991 and sold much of the ground for housing.
- Region
- Colorado
- Country
- USA
- Status
- closed
- Year opened
- 1959
- Year closed
- 1991
- Reason for closure
- It never made money. The Broadmoor Hotel sold the area to the City of Colorado Springs in 1986 and it passed to Vail Resorts in 1988; Vail turned no profit on it either, and with no buyer willing to take it on the area was closed in 1991.
History
Ski Broadmoor was built in 1959 on the slopes of Cheyenne Mountain by the Broadmoor Hotel, the grand Colorado Springs resort, as an amenity for its guests and a ski hill for the city - 600 ft of vertical from a 7,084 ft summit to a 6,569 ft base, served by a Riblet double chair and a surface tow with a combined capacity of 600 people an hour. It was small, close to town and floodlit for night skiing, the kind of hill where a city learns to ski rather than a destination. The hotel sold it to the City of Colorado Springs in 1986, and it passed to Vail Resorts in 1988. Vail could not make it pay either, and with nobody prepared to buy it the area closed in 1991. The lift came out and much of the ground was sold off for house building; what is left of the pistes on the mountainside is overgrown. At least one of the original Riblet chairlifts survived and was re-erected at another resort. Trail names are not recorded in accessible sources, and the coordinates given here mark the Broadmoor Hotel at the foot of the mountain rather than the ski ground itself.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | Riblet | The area had one Riblet double chair and one surface tow, together rated at 600 people an hour. The chair was removed at closure and at least one original Riblet lift was preserved and re-erected at another ski resort |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | A single surface tow alongside the chairlift |
Sources and further reading
More in USA
Location
38.7910, -104.8514