Hop on the Snowbus for one of the best ski deals around
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- Created on Wednesday, 02 February 2011 16:50
- Written by R. Scott Rappold
(Some riders on the 94.3 KILO Snowbus prepare for the group ski run at Monarch. Photos by Jerilee Bennett)
By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD, THE GAZETTE
We’re at the top of the Breezeway chairlift at Monarch Mountain for a long-standing tradition: a group run with the skiers and snowboarders who have ridden here together through the pre-dawn darkness on a bus from Colorado Springs.
Bruce Fanning started doing this in the 1980s. Other traditions associated with the bus rides have fallen by the wayside, most notably the drinking, smoking and rowdiness that, according to legend, once led the state patrol to send an undercover trooper on one of the trips.
“Back then the buses were out of control,” said Fanning with a laugh.
Check out a photo gallery from the trip!
But the group run down the mountain, like the bus trip itself, endures.
Great deal on wheels
Every other Sunday during the heart of ski season, the Snowbus rolls out of town at 6:30 a.m.
Radio station 94.3 KILO organizes the trips. In exchange for on-air promotion, Monarch provides the lift tickets, and Mom’s County Kitchen provides lunches.
The riders’ $45-a-head price pays for the bus, driver, gas and insurance, said KILO marketing director and DJ Zakk, who goes by his first name only.
Tickets go on sale about two weeks ahead of time and sell out quickly.
Also: Enter our ski tips contest and you could win four free lift tickets
Zakk said KILO could probably fill more buses.
“We’ve thought about selling two, but then we have to baby-sit another 50 people,” he said.
This isn’t the sort of baby-sitting that, say, a state trooper might have done in the old days. Alcohol is now officially banned from the bus trips. Unofficially? Well, the policy Sunday appeared to be: Out of sight, out of mind.
It’s no longer a party on wheels, but the 94.3 KILO Snowbus is still one of the best local deals in skiing. At a time when public transportation from the Front Range to the ski slopes is practically nonexistent — even the long-running ski train from Denver to Winter Park ceased operation last season — it’s a great chance to relax and let someone else worry about the traffic and icy roads.
And where else can you get a ride, lunch and lift ticket for $45? (A lift ticket alone costs $56 at Monarch’s walk-up window.)
“The convenience, the price, of course,” said skier Bob Spagnuolo, sharing why he takes the Snowbus. “You run into some interesting people. It’s just a good time.”
Let the driver worry
On most days, a crash closing U.S. Highway 24 while I’m racing for an early start on the slopes would be a serious annoyance.
Sunday, I barely noticed.
Why? Well, Dewey Cox and his band had just struck their first big rock hit.
While the ribald comedy “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” might seem an odd movie choice at 7 a.m., it was a welcome break from the same drive I have made a hundred times — the often-snowy, sometimes congested ribbon of asphalt winding through the hills from Colorado Springs to the ski areas. While I watched the movie, others caught up on much-needed sleep.
And Sunday’s road closure — which normally would have led to words I can’t print in The Gazette — was someone else’s headache: the Snowbus driver’s.
Fellow skier Chris Moore, a Snowbus regular, summed it up: “You don’t have to worry about driving, and you basically get a free lift ticket.”
Most painless trip around
Woodrow “Woody” Bagwell has driven the 50-seat Snowbus through treacherous winter conditions for years — though he has never skied, because of bad knees.
Even in foul weather, the trips are pretty uneventful.
“We have automatic chains. Our customers get out and put them on,” he chuckled.
Actually, aside from the physical work of skiing, taking the Snowbus is probably the most painless ski trip around.
After a full day of skiing, Sunday’s ride home was quiet. A few door prizes were handed out, another movie was popped in the DVD, and the miles melted away, Pikes Peak growing larger on the horizon.
When we rolled back into Colorado Springs, I barely noticed.
“Inglourious Basterds” was just getting good.
If you go
Tickets for the 94.3 KILO Snowbus can be bought at Blindside, 293 S. 21st St. For $45, you get a ride to Monarch Mountain and back, lunch and a lift ticket. Tickets go on sale two or three weeks in advance. Click here for details.
Upcoming trips: • Feb. 13. Some tickets left
• Feb. 27. Tickets go on sale Monday • March 13
• March 27
Rides for the military
Fort Carson offers regular trips to several ski areas for active-duty and retired military and their families. For Loveland and Monarch, the ride-and-lift-ticket price is $55. For Keystone and Copper Mountain, the ride costs $19, and skiers buy their own lift tickets. Click here for details.
Upcoming trips:
• Friday: Monarch
• Saturday: Copper • Sunday: Monarch
• Feb. 11: Keystone
• Feb. 12: Monarch
• Feb. 13: Loveland
• Feb. 18: Loveland
• Feb. 19-21: Wolf Creek Weekend, $199
• Feb. 25: Monarch
• Feb. 26: Monarch
• Mach 5: Monarch
• March 6: Copper
• March 11: Keystone
• March 12: Loveland
• March 19: Loveland
• March 20: Monarch
• March 23: Monarch
• March 26: Monarch
• March 27: Loveland
• April 2: Monarch
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