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Echo Mountain has a long and rich history. What you know as Echo Mountain today was once entirely different (even entirely dormant!).
Echo Mountain has grown from a 1960s public ski area, to a terrain park, to a private ski training center, to its current iteration: Denver’s closest, most affordable ski area.
We’re proud of our history, and we’re even more proud of the future we’re building at Echo Mountain.
Echo Mountain Timeline
1960-1975: Squaw Pass Ski Area
The ski area originally opened in 1960 as Squaw Pass Ski Area. For fifteen years, it was a Denver family favorite because it was much closer to the front range than other options further out. That changed in 1973, when the Eisenhower Tunnel opened and ski areas on the west side of the Continental divide began to expand.
1975-2005: Closed
After closing in 1975, the ski area changed ownership a couple of times. Eventually it laid dormant until 2005 when it was resurrected as Echo Mountain Park.
2005-2012: Echo Mountain Park
Echo Mountain Park opened with a sole focus on terrain parks. A few years into the concept, a Ski School was opened and Echo began targeting a broader customer base.
2012-2016: From Private Training Center To Public Ski Area
In 2012, it changed hands again and became a private ski race training facility. After solely focusing on ski racing for several years, the owners decided to open to the public in 2015. Despite a successful season and renewed interest in Echo as a general ski area, the owners decided not to continue in that direction and filed for bankruptcy in February of 2016.
2016-2017: Echo Mountain
Echo Mountain, as it’s known today, opened in October 2016. Under new ownership, Echo Mountain was reborn with a vision to be Denver’s closest, most affordable option for snow sports and outdoors enthusiasts in Colorado’s front range.
2018: BIG Slide In the Right Direction
After a complete renovation of our kitchen and lodge in 2017, and a total revamp of our food and beverage offerings, we knew the next step was making some BIG changes to the mountain itself. Echo Mountain now offers a brand new tubing hill, an expanded beginner area, a revitalized menu (including “life-changing fries”), and a fresh new look and logo.
2019-2020: Things Start Rolling
The 2019-2020 season saw some big changes in that for the first time, we opened 7 days a week and moved out opening time up an hour to extend our weekday operations even more. These big steps helped improve access to the mountain and create an overall better experience for guests. As a result, it was Echo's longest season to date despite our early close as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It put a bit of a damper on the season's end, but it couldn't undo all the great memories made that season!
2020-2021: COVID Can't Stop All The Fun
Heading into last season, we anticipated some big challenges, but we're committed to having as normal a season as possible and welcoming guests to an awesome ski, snowboard and tubing experience. We learned a lot and made some big improvements in technology and process, and while some things may go back to the way they were (yay indoor seating!), others we'll carry forward with us in seasons to come! We experienced historic snowfall in March and April causing yet more changes in operations, but it made for some pretty incredible days on the mountain. Last season was Echo's longest yet again, and tubing even saw a couple of days in May!
2021-2022: Warm Start, Strong Finish!
From the beginning we knew that the 2021-2022 would come with its own unique challenges, and it did not pull any punches. Facing historically warm seasonal patterns combined with the world slowly coming out of a pandemic, we knew this season would be anything but ordinary.
As the fall months started to come and go and slowly turn into winter months, the cold temperatures and snow did not follow suit. We opened tubing at the end of November thanks to our awesome snow making team, but Mother Nature was not doing us any favors. Most of December was warm and snowless, but through a lot of hard work we were able to open the mountain for skiing and snowboarding right before the Christmas holiday. From there it was "game on" with guests rolling through and excited to get back on the snow. The snowfall never quite came in the volume we hoped for, but that did not stop us from putting together another amazing season. Even though this season brought all kinds of unique challenges, we couldn't be happier with how our team handled each one and made this challenging season such a success!
2022-2023: Momentum!
The 2022-23 season brought it's own unique challenges, but through the hard work and dedication of everyone on the Echo Team we were able to keep the successes of the 2021-22 season rolling.
In 2022-23 we introduced new extension of our green circle trail Travelers' Traverse. Providing more beginner friendly terrain is a constant goal of ours and this new extension of Travelers' Traverse was a big step toward this.
Skiers, snowboarders and tubers showed up from almost every state and various countries all over the world. We love sharing our small slice of Colorado with all of you and are looking forward to the 2023-24 season!
Echo Mountain Today
The 2023-24 season is in full swing and we're stoked to have you all back on the mountain!
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