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WOLF CREEK SKI AREA
“I think I’m going to drive for this stretch,” says Davey Pitcher, wedging in next to the operator in the one-man cab of a snowcat that shuttles skiers into the powdery glades of Horseshoe Bowl.
Both sides of the 1990s-era LMC 3700 cat’s tracks are hanging over cliffs as Pitcher, the 62-year-old boss and owner whose father took over the bankrupt Wolf Creek Ski Area in 1976, pilots the machine across a narrow spit of snow below Alberta Peak.
“Well that was fun,” he says minutes later, clicking into his telemark skis and slipping into the powdery forest of beetle-ravaged Engelmann spruce.
Fun is a fundamental priority at Wolf Creek, still family-owned and thriving in the shadow of pass-peddling giants. In an increasingly business-y ski resort industry — with headlines trumpeting labor strikes, share prices, pass sales, $3 billion funds, $105 million acquisitions, record-high traffic and all-time revenues — the Pitcher family has kept a nearly 50-year focus on keeping skiing fun.
“There’s something about the g-force, the sensation of movement through the forest or a trail, that is intrinsically pretty darn rewarding in itself. It doesn’t have to be where you’re at the top of the heap,” says Pitcher, swinging his Völkl skis from a high-speed chairlift he installed himself. “And there’s a reward from simply seeing people find that sensation. And we’ve really embraced that here. With all of the rules and all of the stress that our society has kind of propagated, when you come to recreate, you want to be left alone as much as you can be. That’s the essence of our long view on skiing.”
Davey Pitcher grins after driving the snowcat through a narrow section on Alberta Peak. (Anna Stonehouse, Special to The Colorado Sun)Good prices lead to good vibes
Wolf Creek has been hosting skiers for 85 years. Half of those years have been helmed by the Pitchers, who are not followers.
Wolf Creek sells season passes but not the kind that work anywhere else, rebuffing a trend that has reshaped the resort industry with season passes that allow access to dozens of ski areas. (One exception: Wolf Creek pass holders can ski at Discovery Ski Area in western Montana, which is owned by Pitcher’s older brother Peter.) Wolf Creek a few years ago left the Colorado Ski Country trade group, which Pitcher says “is not a trade group that deals with all walks of life.”
Wolf Creek pricing does not follow any of the resort industry’s top trends that swirl around the selling of season passes and lift tickets before the snow falls, savaging skiers who dare to walk up to the window and buy a day ticket.
The ticket window at Wolf Creek is a bustling scene.
A peak-season day ticket at Wolf Creek costs $103, up 2% from last year. There are no discounts for buying early. Skiers 80 and older ski free. Season passes are $1,300. A couple dozen days a year the ski area offers $68 tickets as a “local appreciation” promotion.
“I believe that’s a fair price,” Pitcher says. “One of the other mantras my father had was that it is public land and that it’s, you know, meant to be for the use and enjoyment of the public. And to create an exclusionist pricing pushes out people that may not have the financial ability of paying some of these big prices, that just doesn’t sit right. We still make money. We still can afford to do new upgrades and infrastructure and pay everyone.”
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