Historically warm winter ends ski season early at Durango’s local ski area
DURANGO, Colo. — Chapman Hill Ski Area is closed for the season after a historically warm and dry winter.
The ski area officially ended its season on March 11, almost two weeks earlier than last year, after snow on the slope became too wet to maintain. In most years, Chapman Hill stays open until mid to late March, depending on local school spring break.
“It was just totally wet. The kids were going through like six inches of water,” said Matt Nimetz, manager of Chapman Hill Ski Area. “We decided to call it because it just wasn’t that skiable.”
Located in Durango, Chapman Hill is one of the few in-town ski hills in Colorado. The small hill offers an affordable alternative to larger resorts nearby, with day passes costing $14 for children and $16 for adults. Season passes cost $128. Most single-day lift tickets at major Colorado resorts cost at least $100 for adults.
The city of Durango owns and operates the ski hill as part of the Chapman Hill recreation complex, which also includes an ice rink.
The ski area is designed around local schedules. It opens from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends so residents can ski after school or work.
Rei Rasmussen, an 18-year-old student at Durango High School said he visited Chapman Hill several times a week this winter after school.
“I like that it is close to home. I don’t need to skip school and go to Purgatory [Resort] or go only two days a week,” said Rasmussen.
The hill receives about 700 visitors a week during winter and serves a wide range of users, including beginners learning to ski, freestyle skiers using the terrain park and local race teams training on the hill. With a 500-foot vertical drop, the slope offers both steep upper terrain and a gentle beginner area near the base.
For many locals, Chapman Hill is as much a social gathering place as a ski hill.
“It’s a local camaraderie, honestly. It’s the atmosphere,” said Cory Gillespie, a Durango local who first skied there at 7 years old. “If I go to Chapman Hill and there’s 20 people there, I’m probably going to know at least 15 of them.”
One of Gillespie’s most memorable moments at the hill happened when he was a teenager. He once snuck out of his parents’ house at night to meet friends at the top of Chapman Hill.
The visit did not last long. His parents called soon after and told him to come home or they would call the police.
“I had to go right back down Chapman Hill, and I just ate it because I couldn’t see anything,” he said. “I was only up there for 15 minutes, but I loved every minute of it.”
He was later grounded.
Despite the warm winter, Nimetz said the ski area was able to operate largely because of snowmaking. Chapman Hill installed snowmaking equipment in 2010 after realizing it could not rely solely on natural snowfall.
Still, this winter required extra effort from staff. Warmer overnight temperatures meant fewer opportunities to make snow, so crews had to work more nights than usual.
This winter is the warmest on record across Colorado, with several cities reporting temperatures 6 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the season. The warmth contributed to a statewide snow drought, leaving mountain snowpack at about 60% of normal by midwinter.
“In a typical year we can be done making snow in about 10 nights,” Nimetz said. “This year we were out there for about 20 nights.”
Nimetz said the ski area plans to acquire more snow guns and expand its snowmaking capacity to adapt to warmer winters.
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