Powderhorn Mountain Resort has most successful season on record
Powderhorn set records this season for both longest season and number of skiers.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Powderhorn Mountain Resort is closing for the season this Sunday, April 3. But as Powderhorn Marketing and Sales Director Ryan Robinson says, this is Powderhorn’s longest recorded season at 121 days.
“We opened a little early and we’re closing the first weekend in April,” said Robinson.
He says this is largely due to the resort’s early season manmade snowmaking efforts.
“That contributes to the base depth which is really important this time of year,” said Robinson. “It was supplemented with a good amount of snowfall through the holidays and in March we had close to four feet of snow. So we had a lot of help from mother nature, but those early season snowmaking efforts are tremendously important for these longer seasons.”
He explains the snowmaking machine Powderhorn uses is very unique to North America. It is a gravity fed system, which was just introduced last year.
“We draw water off the top of the Grand Mesa which primes the system and we make snow using gravity. So it’s very energy efficient and very unique for the ski industry. Which typically pumps water up from a base area, and it consumes a lot of energy to do that.”
He went on to say along with setting the longest recorded season, they also saw a record breaking number of visitors.
“We saw record breaking skier numbers here this season. We welcomed back events, events had been gone due to Covid. So bringing important events back to the resort like the kids winter games and the ‘you 12′ ski race championships were really exciting moments for us.”
The resort’s new goal is to beat the record next season.
“We feel that it is an important benefit for our passholders to have a nice long season when they invest in buying a pass. We want to make sure that we can give them as much skiing and riding time as possible. So our objective is to stretch that season even longer next season.”
To close out the season this weekend, Powderhorn is hosting a pond skimming event Sunday afternoon from 1-3p.m. In which people can glide over a frozen pond. It is an end of season tradition and capacity is limited so staff with Powderhorn encourages anyone interested to come early to sign up.
Powderhorn is also selling season passes for the 2022-2023 season from now through Sunday at their lowest rate.
For more information, visit https://www.powderhorn.com
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