While Big Resorts Struggle, Echo Mountain Booms

CHEAP & CLOSE

In a downturn, small resorts are seeing the biggest numbers.

By David Frey, 11-22-09

Echo Mountain owner Gerald Petitt. David Frey photo.

What does Gerald Petitt know about the ski industry that other ski resort owners should learn?

In a year when resorts across the country watched their visitor numbers tumble, the Aspen resident who owns tiny Echo Mountain near Idaho Springs saw its numbers rise 30 percent, one of just three ski areas in the state to post gains.

What’s his secret? Partly it’s timing. Opened in March 2006, Echo Mountain is Colorado’s newest resort and it’s on the upswing. Partly it’s snow. At 10,500 feet, it gets plenty. Partly, it’s formula. Echo Mountain boasts being Denver’s “closest, cheapest and freshest ski and snowboard area,” a winning combination in a struggling economy.

“What we want to be is Denver’s backdoor ski area,” Petitt says as he stands by his stand at the annual Denver Ski & Snowboard Expo, where resorts across the state try to lure visitors in hopes of winning just a fraction of Petitt’s growth for the upcoming season. “You live in Aspen, you’ve got a ski area right there. Denver hasn’t had that.”

For about 15 years, Petitt, a Denver native, was president and chairman of the board of Choice Hotels, whose lineup of hotel chains include Comfort Inn, Quality and Sleep Inn. He left the corporate offices to become a franchisee, building hotels in New England, Florida and Colorado. Petitt also owns a summer collegiate baseball league in the Carolinas.

He got into the ski business four years ago when the defunct Squaw Pass ski area came up for sale. Petitt had just read about a California resort focusing on snowboarders, a turnaround from the days ski areas discouraged boarders.

“I went to the auction. I called my wife that night and says, ‘I just bought a ski area,’” he says.

Since it opened, Echo Mountain has been far from traditional. Other resorts were ski areas with a little terrain park. Echo Mountain marketed itself as a terrain park with a little ski area. Over the years, freestyle skiers joined the boarders. Then came the families.

“When we opened we were just going to be a terrain park,” says spokeswoman Molly Mueller. “We found that because of the proximity to Denver and our pricing, we got a lot of families and a lot of beginners. Parents told us, ‘I don’t need 37 high-speed quads and I don’t need 5,000 skiable acres. I need a magic carpet and a cup of hot chocolate.’ We know we’re not going to compete with Aspen and the big areas.”

Maybe it shouldn’t try. Last season, Aspen saw its skier visits fall 7.6 percent. Vail fell 5.3 percent. Both statewide and nationwide, resorts dropped 5.5 percent. Rocky Mountain Resorts tumbled 7.2 percent.

Echo Mountain rose 30 percent, and Petitt expects to do at least as well this winter. In recent years, some of the strongest-performing ski areas across the country have been just like it – small resorts close to urban areas. Last winter, the only other Colorado areas to post gains in visitor numbers were Loveland and Eldora, both low-frills resorts close to Denver.

Echo Mountain boasts being 45 minutes from downtown Denver, with adult day tickets for $45, kids’ tickets for $29 and night skiing five nights a week. Those statistics don’t score you rave reviews in Travel + Leisure, but they bring in families, even in a down economy.

“I’m not a snowboarder. I’m a skier,” says Petitt, who came to the ski business after a career in hotels. “But my kind is dying out. A bigger percent of young people want to board.”

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