{"id":2452075,"date":"2019-12-10T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317442"},"modified":"2019-12-10T22:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T05:45:00","slug":"ahead-of-the-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/ahead-of-the-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of the curve"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Sunlight Mountain Resort isn\u2019t alone among Colorado ski areas to charge for uphill access during the ski season, but it\u2019s definitely ahead of the curve in that regard.<\/p>\n

According to an online listing compiled by the trade association Colorado Ski Country USA, five out of 22 member ski areas, including Sunlight, have adopted pay-to-play policies when it comes to skinning, snowshoeing or hiking up the mountain.<\/p>\n

For those that don\u2019t charge, some restrict uphill access to non-operating hours only, and most direct uphill traffic to certain routes so as to limit conflicts with downhill skiers and snowboarders.<\/p>\n

Sunlight announced in late November that it would begin charging for uphill access on Compass Mountain this season. The upper portion of the ski area is operated under a lease with the U.S. Forest Service, while the base area and parking lot is private property.<\/p>\n

Day or night, uphill skiers at Sunlight are now required to visibly display a special pass. Season passholders and those buying day tickets will not be charged extra for uphill access, but non-passholders are now asked to pay $10 a day or buy a $50 season uphill pass.<\/p>\n

The majority of resorts, including Aspen Ski Co.\u2019s four mountains \u2014 Snowmass, Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands and Aspen Mountain \u2014 allow free uphill access. However, that access is restricted to specific routes with certain time restrictions in most cases. Uphill access is not allowed on Aspen Mountain during operating hours when lifts are running.<\/p>\n

Vail Resorts, including Vail, Beaver Creek and the Summit County ski areas of Breckenridge and Keystone, have varied policies as well, but allow uphill access for free.<\/p>\n

For the Ski Country areas that charge for uphill access, Sunlight is not the most expensive. Eldora ski area near Nederland charges $149 for a season uphill pass, or $25 for a day pass.<\/p>\n

Arapahoe Basin, Cooper and Monarch charge less than Sunlight, at $30, $25 and $20, respectively, for a season uphill ticket.<\/p>\n

Reaction to Sunlight\u2019s decision to being charging for uphill access has been mixed, based on comments posted to the Post Independent\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call bs \u2026\u201d wrote Joe Mollica. \u201cThat mountain belongs to us as taxpayers \u2026 if you don\u2019t use the lift, they cannot charge you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Countered Sean de Moraes, \u201cI\u2019m all for it (the fee). You\u2019re crossing private property to get to leased land \u2026 parking in their private lot, skiing their groomed trails down and using their warming hut up top.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, added Derrick Wyle, \u201cI think it\u2019s a fair idea. Just because you\u2019re not sitting on a lift, you still are using the amenities Sunlight provides and maintains.\u201d<\/p>\n

jstroud@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunlight Mountain Resort isn\u2019t alone among Colorado ski areas to charge for uphill access during the ski season, but it\u2019s definitely ahead of the curve in that regard. According to an online listing compiled by the trade association Colorado Ski Country USA, five out of 22 member ski areas, including Sunlight, have adopted pay-to-play policies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 03:01:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}