New at Colorado Ski Areas for 2009-10 Season

Colorado, skiing | dlacord | Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 8:03 am

What’s new at Colorado’s ski resorts this season? Here’s the news from Colorado Ski Country, the trade association for 22 of the state’s resorts:

Aspen Skiing Company is introducing a 100-percent hands-free radio-frequency gate access program across its four mountains. Lift tickets are plastic cards with a chip inside detecting guests as they move seamlessly through lift lines.
Crested Butte has added a new base area, Adventure Park, with a synthetic “ice” skating rink, bungee trampolines and a climbing wall.
Echo Mountain is launching new Ski & Ride school programs this year, with several multi-week programs for kids ages 4-14 and their parents. Night series programs are also planned for specific skier types.
At Loveland, the Love Park terrain park will get more new features.
Monarch has added high-end skis and boards to its demo fleet, and has brought in some beginner-specific boots. On the mountain, tree islands have been removed on Mirage, Turbo, Snowburn and Short & Sweet runs.
Silverton Mountain has purchased an Astar B3 helicopter for mountain operations.
Ski Cooper has enhanced its rental fleet and added another Snow cat to its Chicago Ridge program, allowing the resort to offer sightseeing excursions for non-skiers and riders.
Steamboat has opened a new Ski & Snowboard School ticket office and patrol first-aid base facility.
Telluride has added more terrain for expert skiers with the opening of Chutes 2-5, offering wide-open above-tree line couloirs and chutes dropping 1,600 vertical feet.
Wolf Creek is opening the new Raven’s Nest day lodge, mid-mountain on top of the Raven chairlift.