The Colorado Sun Team Editor David Krause joined us Thursday to discuss a new ski hill in Windsor.
Water Valley Company started developing residential property in the Windsor area in 1995, then opened the Pelican Lakes golf course in 1999. Now, the company is adding Hoedown Hill, a ski area featuring a 130-foot vertical drop. It’s expected to have ski runs and tubing.
Krause told KUNC that while the ski area will rely on manufactured snow, Water Valley Company is working to prevent water waste.
“They’re going to have an automated weather station that's going to be able to feed some of the water at the bottom of the hill,” Krause said. “They're going to capture 95% of the water that they're pulling up out of the (RainDance) Reservoir.”
Krause said smaller slopes like Hoedown Hill could make skiing more accessible.
“They're kind of that entry point for a lot of families and beginners,” he said. “That whole ‘bigger is better’ mantra doesn't always appeal to families and beginners who don't want to spend hundreds of dollars, as well as not have to deal with driving in traffic on I-70.”
Ski slopes like Hoedown Hill have been tried before in the area.
“I would think a lot of your longtime listeners remember Shark Tooth, which was a small skiing and tubing hill in Greeley that operated from the early '70s through the mid '80s,” Krause said. “That hill was built on an old landfill.”
Similar hills were opened to skiers in Colorado Springs and Golden in the 1960s through the 1980s.
