Bluebird’s founders are closing the lift-free ski area after four seasons at two remote locations
Bluebird Backcountry
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Backcountry with a side of bacon is a soulful alternative to the corporate ski experience
I was stepping out of my bindings at the base of Steamboat one sunny afternoon after a glorious day of spring skiing with my kids. It was the 1980s — a lifetime ago in the evolution of alpine skiing in Colorado. “We have to keep doing this before we get old,” I said to my […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors, Outsider
Bluebird Backcountry is expanding just as uphill skiing is expected to explode during coronavirus
Erik Lambert and Jeff Woodward are expanding their Bluebird Backcountry uphill-only ski area into a full season with 1,200 acres on Bear Mountain north of Kremmling. After a 14-day test season last spring drew more than 1,000 skier visits to Bluebird Backcountry’s innovative lift-free, backcountry-lite ski area, Woodward and Lambert will offer 62 days of […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
First-ever backcountry ski area opens next month outside Kremmling
The country’s first human-powered ski area opens next month near Kremmling. Erik Lambert and Jeff Woodward and their Bluebird Backcountry project are developing a lift-free backcountry ski area on 1,500 acres of private land flanking Whiteley Peak, the prominent volcanic plug on the southern end of the Rabbit Ears range. The pair of entrepreneurs have […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Hunger for uphill ski land has resorts, Forest Service looking at acres unused inside existing ski permits
As demand for uphill travel soars at ski areas across Colorado, business models like Bluebird Backcountry could find traction accessing the thousands of undeveloped acres inside Colorado ski area special-use permits issued by the Forest Service. It is way too early for resorts to begin talking about possibly allowing backcountry skiers to access trail-free terrain […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Bluebird Backcountry hopes to tap the uphill skiing movement for a new resort model
On a late-season Saturday in Winter Park, a group of 25 volunteers go over last-minute plans for the day. It’s 8 a.m, and snow that fell the night before is already beginning to melt. Rachel Vermeal, a 43-year-old ski instructor with 20 years of backcountry experience, is dressed in golden tights and a Wonder Woman […]