In an era when corporate season passes dominate the ski market, some selling for $1,000 or more, one Colorado ski resort is thriving by slashing prices.
Since reducing ticket costs six years ago in an initiative called “Mission Affordability,” Powderhorn Mountain Resort has seen a big jump in revenue from pass sales, according to its owners, while becoming a magnet for Western Slope skiers who don’t want to pay premium prices in Telluride or Crested Butte.
“The value you get there, for the cost, you can’t beat it,” said Briana Taylor, a mother of two boys who lives in Montrose, midway between Powderhorn and Telluride. “It’s super fun. It’s very affordable. All of their employees are so kind and so helpful. It just feels very small, very local. It’s not only family-friendly; if I were in college, that’s where I would be going.”
Powderhorn is located at the northern rim of the Grand Mesa, 35 miles east of Grand Junction. Its management announced a change in ownership structure last week while stressing that nothing on the mountain will change. Previously the majority owner was a group involving Denver’s Gart family, while Pacific Group Resorts leased the area and managed it for the Gart group. Now Pacific Group Resorts is the majority partner, while the Gart group retains a minority interest.
Based in Park City, Utah, Pacific Group Resorts owns four other ski areas in Vermont, Virginia, Maryland and British Columbia. It also manages an area in New Hampshire. The company launched the Powderhorn Mission Affordability program — which had been successful at its other areas — when it took over management in 2018.
“They lowered the price for season passes and got a huge increase in skiers to come out and prove that model is viable,” said Ken Gart, whose family dominated the Denver outdoor retail market for eight decades under various names including Gart Sports. “We’re really excited. I get up there as often as I can. The community loves the management team and loves what we’ve done at Powderhorn.”
Mark Fischer, president of Pacific Group Resorts, vowed nothing will change at Powderhorn because the same management team will be in charge and its strategy is working.
“We’re trying to make it so it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, so that families can go skiing,” Fischer said. “We have a free learn-to-ski program where you get three free lessons, free lift ticket, free rentals. If you graduate from that, we’ll sell you a season pass for the rest of the year for less than $100 and a season pass for the next year for less than $200. We also will sell you your first set of skis, boots and bindings or snowboard, boots and bindings at manufacturer’s cost.”
The previous ownership group bought Powderhorn in 2011 for just $1.4 million. Five years later they invested $5 million in improvements that included a high-speed quad chairlift and upgraded snowmaking. They also targeted mountain bikers to attract summer business, using the lift to transport bikes uphill.
“We like having the Garts as partners, so we didn’t buy the whole thing, we just bought the majority of it,” Fischer said. “Operationally, nothing is going to change.”
Taylor loves Telluride — she used to teach snowboarding there — but says it has evolved into “a rich man’s playground.” She estimates that a ski day there with her family would be hundreds of dollars more expensive than Powderhorn.
“It’s insane,” she said. “I can rent daily gear for my boys (at Powderhorn) for under $100 for both of them — skis, helmet and boots. Their season pass was $200 a kid. At Telluride, the gear (rental) is closer to $350. My season pass at Telluride was like a couple thousand dollars. My Powderhorn pass was $450.”
Powderhorn markets itself not just for skiing, mountain biking and proximity to the Grand Mesa, the largest flat-top mountain in the world. There are many other attractions in the Grand Valley, including the Colorado National Monument, the Book Cliffs, the Colorado River, wineries and fruit stands. There are more than 50 mountain biking trails within an hour’s drive of Palisade, which is 28 miles from the ski area.
“Grand Junction is growing,” Fischer said. “Palisade is a cool little town, the last undiscovered ski town in Colorado, with all the wineries and everything.”
Gart sees the 60-year-old ski area as a community asset.
“It’s hard to make money in the ski business,” Gart said. “It’s very capital-intensive, and obviously very weather-dependent. Honesty, we were lucky to get this partner (Pacific Group Resorts) and they have proven that lowering prices — which we were thrilled to do, but afraid whether it would be economically viable – can be economically viable. They’re a great community partner, and that’s why we bought the resort, to be an asset to the community.”
