Facts and Stats:
Base Elevation: 9,248 feet Summit Elevation: 10,810 feet Vertical Drop: 1,562 feet Skiable Area: 230 acres Annual Snowfall: 254 inches Snowmaking: 85% Number of Lifts: 6 Uphill Lift Capacity: 5,000 per hour Type of Lifts: 2 Surface Lift, 3 Double Chairs 1 Triple Chair Number of Trails: 28 Longest Run: 14,550 feet What's new: During the summer, Cuchara installed a new handle tow so that beginners can use terrain adjoining lower lift 3. The mountain has also opened the new Center for the Disabled, focused on adaptive skiing.
Four chairs and two surface lifts rising 1,562 feet provide access to 270 acres of terrain (40 percent beginner, 40 percent intermediate and 20 percent advanced).
The new owners present Cuchara as a winter-sports park. In addition to lift-served alpine skiing, you'll find cross-country ski trails, snowshoeing trails, tubing, ice skating, dog sledding and backcountry skiing. The base area harbors the Baker Creek Restaurant and the new home of Legends Park Cooking School, an attraction for non-skiers.
Lodging consists of a new 66-room hotel, a few slopeside condos, plus motels, hotels and B&Bs in the nearby villages of Cuchara and La Veta.
Getting there: Cuchara is 30 miles from the I-25 Walsenburg exit, via US-160 and Colorado 12; there are no mountain passes to cross. It's a gorgeous drive through the spoon-shaped Cuchara Valley. —Lois Friedland
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