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Monarch Mountain, Colorado skiers were elated when the resort announced that ground had finally been broken on the highly-anticipated No Name Basin expansion in July of 2024.
The resort took to social media on September 10, 2024 to share the first glimpse of the freshly-cut trails. See below.
Like many ski resorts across the country, Monarch Mountain is located in National Forest land. Specifically, the Pike San Isabel National Forest. The resort had been campaigning for a special use permit in No Name Basin for over a decade, and based on the photo above, clearly wasted very little time in acting upon the decision once it was made.
According to Monarch's regularly updated 'Scott's Blog', the trails seen in the photo above have a vertical drop of roughly 1,000 feet. They allegedly have a "consistent fall line" with a few steep pitches sprinkled in from top to bottom. The expansion will reportedly add 377 acres of new terrain.
Monarch plans to rate these trails as Intermediate (Blue Square) and Expert (Black Diamond). It's hard to gauge the slope angles from a lone photo, but it doesn't seem like Monarch is sugar-coating their description of the new terrain. These trails look steep, quick, and fun.
The resort will construct a three-person fixed grip chairlift to service the No Name Basin terrain next summer. This confirms that the expansion won't open this season, but Monarch isn't ruling out a potential sneak peak for guests.
Monarch has been operating a snow cat skiing operation in No Name Basin prior to the special use permit approval for a chairlift and cut runs. They plan to continue that business this season, but teased in an Instagram comment that uphill skinning access could be considered this season. Here's the exchange between a Monarch Mountain skier and the resort in the comments section:
Skier: "Looks great!! Will the basin be open to skinning this winter, or closed until the lifts are installed?"
Monarch: "This is a topic we are still discussing. We know you are all eager to get out there, but until we officially open the terrain, it remains part of our cat skiing operation. Once we see exactly how much is completed and how it will interact with the operating snow cats, we will asses the uphill policy and make a decision that is best for everyone's safety. Stay tuned."
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