Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

Breckenridge's plan for Peak 6 expansion meets with opposition

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Created on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 14:40

Written by Nathan

File photo by Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Breckenridge ski area is one of the busiest in North America, drawing more than 1.6 million visits each season. Among the six Colorado ski areas that regularly log more than 1 million annual skier visits, Breckenridge's 2,358 acres of skiable terrain makes it the smallest.

That density - approaching 700 skiers per acre - leaves Breckenridge as the most crowded ski area in the state.

"There is a need to have some more space," said Joe Foreman, winter sports administrator for the Forest Service's Dillon District, which includes all of Summit County's four ski areas, which see more than 4 million annual skier visits.

A plan to ease congestion on Breckenridge's swarming slopes by adding some 550 acres of high-alpine and gladed terrain on Peak 6 is harvesting vehement opposition from vocal locals and environmentalists eager to protect not only one of the last pockets of old growth forest in the heavily trafficked region but also a town that swells with visitors every winter weekend.

Rocky Mountain Wild's Rocky Smith, who has been studying ski area expansion for nearly 25 years and is one of Colorado's most ardent protectors of untrammeled forests, says the proposed Breckenridge expansion, while inside the area's Forest Service-permitted boundary and zoned for alpine skiing, is the most egregious example of what he calls the "ski area arms race."

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