When Panadero Ski Area shuttered in 2000, much of the tourism in the nearby mountain town of Cuchara went with it. But persistent collaboration between the local community and state entities led to its partial reopening in 2022, followed by a full season last year. Now known as Cuchara Mountain Park, the ski area on the eastern edge of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, will open for the season on Saturday, December 14, joining Colorado's two dozen ski areas — thanks in part to a Colorado State Outdoor Recreation grant.
The grant program is overseen by the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office and funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration State Tourism Grant, which was established to help segments of the outdoor industry recover from COVID-related setbacks. According to CORI director Conor Hall, job creation and retention is the program's primary return-on-investment metric; since its launch in 2022, it has directly supported 413 jobs and indirectly benefited hundreds more by awarding more than $3.7 million to 49 projects across 27 counties.
Each project falls into one of four categories: general workforce; planning and technical assistance to grow outdoor recreation economies; marketing and promotion; and infrastructure updates and improvements. Cuchara Mountain Park is the largest infrastructure project to receive funding: $250,000 was provided to Panadero Ski Corporation, the nonprofit that operates the Huerfano County-owned ski area.
The Panadero Ski Area had been privately owned, then abandoned and sold off in parcels. In 2016, the property at the base of Baker Mountain ("panadero" is Spanish for "baker") became available. “The community, through the Cuchara Foundation, raised $150,000 to buy the fifty acres at the bottom and donated it to Huerfano County as a public park,” says Ken Clayton, a Panadero Ski Corporation boardmember.
Although Baker Mountain includes three defunct chair lifts, only one is located in the fifty-acre Cuchara Mountain Park. While Panadero Ski Corporation has gotten it up and running, it isn’t yet state-certified; Clayton believes that with a few more upgrades, guests will soon be able to ride the lift for the first time in nearly 25 years. For now, though, the ski area operates with snowcats. These “ski buses” make five-minute trips up the mountain, transporting up to 22 people at a time.
The grant program is overseen by the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office and funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration State Tourism Grant, which was established to help segments of the outdoor industry recover from COVID-related setbacks. According to CORI director Conor Hall, job creation and retention is the program's primary return-on-investment metric; since its launch in 2022, it has directly supported 413 jobs and indirectly benefited hundreds more by awarding more than $3.7 million to 49 projects across 27 counties.
Each project falls into one of four categories: general workforce; planning and technical assistance to grow outdoor recreation economies; marketing and promotion; and infrastructure updates and improvements. Cuchara Mountain Park is the largest infrastructure project to receive funding: $250,000 was provided to Panadero Ski Corporation, the nonprofit that operates the Huerfano County-owned ski area.
The Panadero Ski Area had been privately owned, then abandoned and sold off in parcels. In 2016, the property at the base of Baker Mountain ("panadero" is Spanish for "baker") became available. “The community, through the Cuchara Foundation, raised $150,000 to buy the fifty acres at the bottom and donated it to Huerfano County as a public park,” says Ken Clayton, a Panadero Ski Corporation boardmember.
Although Baker Mountain includes three defunct chair lifts, only one is located in the fifty-acre Cuchara Mountain Park. While Panadero Ski Corporation has gotten it up and running, it isn’t yet state-certified; Clayton believes that with a few more upgrades, guests will soon be able to ride the lift for the first time in nearly 25 years. For now, though, the ski area operates with snowcats. These “ski buses” make five-minute trips up the mountain, transporting up to 22 people at a time.
A portion of the $250,000 grant has been budgeted to purchase a third snowcat; more will go to ski-patrol equipment, as well as year-round improvements to the park. These may include a summer concert series and nighttime viewing decks, as Panadero Ski Corporation and Cuchara Foundation volunteers are working to certify Cuchara Mountain Park with DarkSky International.
“Many of our communities, especially in the central and western part of the state, benefit from pretty robust tourism economies,” notes Hall. But Huerfano County hasn’t always had that advantage. Hall describes it as “one of the poorest and historically underserved counties in the state,” with 19.4 percent of the community living in poverty according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Among its 7,055 residents, 30.1 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino.
In addition to the Outdoor Recreation grant, Cuchara Mountain Park has received funding from the Outdoor Equity Grant, a program managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife that aims to increase outdoor access and diversity, as well as Great Outdoors Colorado, an independent board funded by Colorado Lottery proceeds.
“I think there's a real awareness at the Capitol that skiing is unattainable for a lot of people in this state,” says Clayton. Panadero Ski Corporation is on a mission to bring affordable skiing back to southern Colorado, so a day pass to Cuchara Mountain Park is $40. A season pass, which provides access on weekends through closing day in March, is priced at $200. Clayton hopes that with these grants and future funding, a visit will become even more inexpensive.
Cuchara Mountain Park currently features a freestyle park, as well as four beginner and three intermediate trails with a vertical drop of 300 feet. Its thirty ski-patrolled acres are complemented by an additional 230 acres across Baker Mountain’s backcountry.
“When community-based recreation areas thrive, local economies do, too," says Eve Lieberman, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. "Nearby businesses can expand operating hours, seasonal jobs become year-round, and quality of life improves for residents. That’s an incredible win for our rural communities.”
