The season will end with an eager eye to next winter.A Colorado ski area is closing its season in style — and on the cheap.Big snow toward the end of March inspired Monarch Mountain to extend its season by a week, through April 13. Then the small, independent mountain got to feeling generous.Lift tickets will be […]
The season will end with an eager eye to next winter.A Colorado ski area is closing its season in style — and on the cheap.Big snow toward the end of March inspired Monarch Mountain to extend its season by a week, through April 13. Then the small, independent mountain got to feeling generous.Lift tickets will be that last week, April 7-13. The ski area announced the discounted tickets would be available online and at the window.As for the part about going out in style, that’s a nod to what Monarch is calling its inaugural Ski Ballet. The demonstration sport might be gone from the Olympics — a run from 1988-1992 — but the ski area on April 5 is hosting a competition that appears like figure skating on skis.Despite the late March snow, Monarch’s total for the season has been well below average. The ski area measured close to 200 inches at the end of the month — below the 350 inches Monarch reports as its annual average.The season will close April 13 with Monarch’s time-honored Gunbarrel Challenge, in which skiers hike uphill and race down for the Golden Boot.Monarch expects to debut a long-awaited expansion for the 2025-26 season: No Name Basin will add 377 acres of lift-served terrain on the mountain’s backside. Trails have been cut on the opposite, western side of the Continental Divide, where visitors riding up front-side lifts will reach the ski area’s longest drop, close to 1,000 feet.
