iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

Every time I sat on the lift with someone new, I had to go on and on about the quality of the snow there at Wolf Creek. Finally, one of the locals grinned and said, “Don’t tell your friends!” I laughed; it wasn’t the first time I’d heard a remark like that.

Wolf Creek boasts the ‘Most Snow in Colorado’. They make zero inches of snow. The ski area is in just the right geographical location. Go a few miles down the road, and epic snow conditions might just turn into open dry land. The only thing more remarkable than the quality of the the snow conditions, is the total and utter lack of significant development.

You have two towns relatively close to the ski area. We stayed in South Fork. It was the cheapest option, and we were on a budget. The town boasts very little; but you can find a warm room for the night at a good rate. About equal distance in the opposite direction is the town of Pagosa Springs. There’s a small resort on top of the suflur hot springs in the middle of town. Pagosa is just big enough to offer a commuter airport. Mostly, I remember seeing lots of hotels.

Meanwhile, the ski area itself is small and usually under-crowded. This is about to change. Everyone dreams of finding that last little ski town. A fellow named ‘Red’ McCombs apparently dreams of building it from scratch. He’s calling it the Village at Wolf Creek. Ironically, while trying to research the venture (for potential personal investment), I found the most valuable information on the opposition’s website:

Texas billionaire developer “Red” McCombs seeks to construct a city of up to 10,000 people just below the Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Ski Area, one of the snowiest spots in Colorado. - Friends of Wolf Creek

There’s also a large amount of surprisingly up-to-date information in the Wikipedia entry:

Wolf Creek’s future as a local’s resort has become less certain recently with Billionare developer Red McCombs’ proposed development of a village of 10,000 people within the boundaries of the ski resort.

And a bit on this fellows blog: The Glory of Southwest Colorado

I’m excited about the whole thing. I’d like to buy one of these new condos and live at Wolf Creek for a season. I imagine myself working from home and snowboarding until I can’t snowboard any more. Here’s hoping…

Del.icio.us digg reddit Furl Spurl

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 1:10 am and is filed under Village at Wolf Creek. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.