Brief by Central Staff
Outdoor recreation – December 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
Small ski areas come and go, almost like mining camps. That analogy certainly holds for Conquistador near Westcliffe, whose site is now undergoing reclamation, just like an old mine.
But sometimes there are revivals, like the one proposed for Cuchara Mountain Resort on the west side of the Spanish Peaks south of La Veta.
The resort has been through many hands in recent years. Texas car dealers Phillip and Don Huffines ran out of money in 1996 and closed the resort. John Lau, a Dallas businessman, bought it in 1997 and re-opened it — but he ended up closing it on July 4, 2000. Lau, who also owned the Ski Rio resort in New Mexico, said he was too far away to manage Cuchara properly.
Now Curtis Bruner, a 71-year-old entrepreneur with roots in Texas and 30 years in the Cuchara valley, has announced plans to buy Cuchara Resort and get it running again.
He said he’d like to open soon, but there are some regulatory delays. The ski lifts will need to be inspected and approved by the state tramway board, and the U.S. Forest Service — which manages the ground under the lifts — wants to be sure that Bruner has the resources to make Cuchara a going operation.
So it probably won’t open this year — and even if all the certificates materialized overnight, there’s still the matter of assembling a crew, and getting some snow to ski on. This has been a dry fall in Colorado, so dry that forest fires, rather than snowdrifts and avalanches, have been the major hazard. Many resorts have postponed their openings.
Bruner has big plans for Cuchara. The economics of the modern ski industry are such that the profit comes from meals, lodging, and real-estate sales — not lift tickets. He plans a hotel and condominium at the base, and marketing Cuchara as a destination resort.
“I think this Cuchara Valley is probably the greatest place I’ve ever seen,” he told the Denver Post. “I love this valley more than any place on earth.”