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Chair 4 at the Cuchara Mountain Park in Huerfano County carries skiers and snowboarders to the top of the El Tajano trail Jan.17, 2025. The Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board recently signed off on the ski area's lift operation, a significant milestone for the resort that last hosted lift-riding skiers in 2000. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

HUERFANO COUNTY — Cuchara Mountain Park is open for lift-served skiing. 

Almost 25 years after idling its chairlifts, a volunteer-led nonprofit has revived Cuchara Mountain Park south of La Veta, opening the first new chairlift-served ski area since Echo Mountain opened in 2005. 

“It’s been a labor of love through all these years and there’s been a dedicated crew that just stuck with it and persevered,” said Roger Therber, a Tennesseean who has a nearby cabin and came up with his wife to ski the grand opening of the 50-acre Cuchara Mountain Park on Saturday. 

Skiers make the inaugural ride up Chair 4 to the top of El Tejano trail at the Cuchara Mountain Park in Huerfano County on Saturday. It’s the first time in over 20 years the ski resort has had certified lift operations, a significant milestone for the Mountain Park that’s often times struggled to gain a foothold in the region. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Skiers and snowboarders ride Chair 4 at the Cuchara Mountain Park. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

More than 100 skiers flocked to Cuchara to ride Chair 4. Volunteers with the Panadero Ski Corp. nonprofit have spent several years upgrading and rebuilding the chairlift at the ski area, which is owned by Huerfano County. The ski rental shop was built by volunteers, and a chain store in Colorado Springs wanted to get out of the ski rental business and they sold Panadero Corp. an entire store’s worth of rental inventory for cheap. 

Cuchara ski area first opened in 1981, and a parade of Texas owners struggled to keep the ski area open. For 19 years the ski area would sporadically open and close as seven different owners worked to develop new lifts and condos. The last time Chair 4 carried skiers was 2000 and the Forest Service in 2002 canceled the ski area’s permit to access about 345 public acres. The hope is that if Cuchara Mountain Park can thrive on 50 county-owned acres and one lift, the nonprofit operator may be able to persuade the Forest Service to consider a new permit to access more terrain.  

Since 2017, the nonprofit Cuchara Foundation has worked to raise funds to support the ski area. The group raised $150,000 for Huerfano County to purchase the mountain park from a local couple who acquired the base area acreage at a property tax sale. 

“We didn’t even know it was the old ski area,” said JoVonne Fitzgerald, whose husband, Jerry, bought the roughly 50 acres in 2015 as part of his “hobby” of buying tax liens. 

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Jerry as he and JoVonne attended Saturday’s grand opening.

Skiers ride Chair 4 near the top of El Tejano trail at the Cuchara Mountain Park. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

“We’ve been coming up for years. We definitely were not missing this,” said Casey Hays of Burlington, who came over to Cuchara with his wife and son to ski. “Twenty five years and finally going again. It’s so cool. Best thing they could have done for this place.”

The plan is to offer low-cost lift-served skiing — tickets are $45 and season passes run $250 — for local residents. Panadero Ski Corp. plans to hire about five full-time workers to run the ski area on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of the season. Most of the snow so far this season has come from snow guns, with volunteers collecting snowmaking equipment from an assortment of dormant ski areas from across the country. 

Skiers ride Chair 4 at Cuchara Mountain Park. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Jerry and JaVonne Fitzgerald join the festivities Saturday. The couple acquired the property in 2015 and worked with the nonprofit Cuchara Foundation two years later to transfer the ski area to Huerfano County. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Ken Clayton of the Panadero Ski Corp. makes remarks Saturday just prior to Chair 4 spinning up to take skiers up the mountain at the Cuchara Mountain Park. The ski area will operate Fridays through Sundays this season at the 50-acre ski area. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
A lift ticket dangles from the pants of a skier Saturday at the Cuchara Mountain Park. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
A snowboarder checks out Cuchara Mountain Park. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Gerard Henzler, who has lived in the nearby Forbes Park community for 13 years, has spent years hiking the old lift lines with his dogs. On Saturday, he rode a chairlift at Cuchara for the first time. 

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Henzler said as he loaded the chair with his 5-year-old son.

Jason Blevins lives in Crested Butte with his wife and a dog named Gravy. Job title: Outdoors reporter Topic expertise: Western Slope, public lands, outdoors, ski industry, mountain business, housing, interesting things Location:...

Mike’s an ardent believer in photojournalism’s capacity to educate, foster change and entertain. Over the span of 25 years, he’s worked as a visual journalist in Oregon, California, and Colorado. During that time, he’s received over...