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Monarch Mountain, CO – Monarch’s 2011 Master Development Plan includes plans to expand into “No Name Basin” – just on the other side of the Continental Divide. Ten years later, summer 2021 is looking to be promising to begin exploring the plan. Dan Bender, Monarch’s vice president of sales, said this might be the summer to start the plan.
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Expanding Monarch Mountain into “No Name Basin” would add approximately 350-acres of skiing, 1,000-vertical-feet, and a new chairlift. This expansion would be the first significant terrain upgrade to Monarch Mountain since the early 1980s.
According to Monarch Mountain,
“The 2011 Monarch Mountain Master Development Plan (MDP) detailed several future projects including the expansion onto the west side of the Continental Divide. The expansion would add approximately 350 acres of skiing/riding with about a thousand vertical foot drop. The terrain is primarily intermediate in nature with slopes of 25%-45% with the majority of this area having a west/northwest aspect.”
According to Bender, the 2020-2021 ski season has been “very successful.” With ski area visitation equal to other seasons, the ski area can focus on the old plan as one of the owner’s business strategies is zero debt.
The ski area hopes to make No Name Basin a reality in three years, although, Bender remarked, “but no guarantees.” To begin the process, the ski area will have to conduct “additional environmental studies and design work.”
