Brief by Central Staff
Recreation – November 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
For years the mom-and-pop ski areas were closing. Now, stories are telling of small ski areas being opened. The latest such story comes from Custer County, where Terry Cook is erecting a single chairlift at the Aspen Country Mountain Park, a couple of miles from Bishop’s Castle. The chairlift and a Snocat groomer were purchased from Idaho’s Bogus Basin Ski Area.
Steady supplies of snow have been a general problem for prior ski areas in that region. But Cook claims the location of his new operation got 342 inches last year. He plans to charge $22 for lift tickets, and draw most of his customers from Pueblo.
A ski area featuring a single rope tow operated at the site for at least 20 years, but patrons lost interest when another ski area opened near Westcliffe. That ski area, known variously as Conquistador and Mountain Cliffe (and locally as Mudcliff) closed in 1993; now the site is under reclamation, sort of like an old mine,
