Lost ski areaColoradoFront RangeRocky Mountains
Carter Park Hill
Ran 1939–1986. Breckenridge's town learning hill at Carter Park, served by rope tows on and off from 1939 until 1986.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Carter Park, on the east side of Breckenridge, held the Blue Valley Ski Course and its rope tow in 1939. In 1948 volunteers from the town fire department rebuilt the tow with a motor and parts from Montezuma mine-tram equipment and added lights, and for the winters of 1948 to 1950 the hill was open two nights a week.1
Read the whole historyTodayCarter Park, four blocks east of Main Street, has a free walk-up sledding hill with a shed of sleds to borrow. (2026)3
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Carter Park Hill, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Carter Park Hill
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1938–1949 · 7.5 mi away · ColoradoA small rope-tow ski area on Hoosier Pass outside Blue River, started by the South Park Lions Club in the late 1930s.
- 1936–1962 · 11.1 mi away · ColoradoA company ski hill on Chalk Mountain atop Fremont Pass, run mainly for workers at the Climax molybdenum mine from the mid-1930s into the early 1960s.
- Opened 1938 · 15.5 mi away · ColoradoA one-tow club ski spot on Loveland Pass, near today's Arapahoe Basin, that ran from 1938 into the 1940s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Carter Park, on the east side of Breckenridge, held the Blue Valley Ski Course and its rope tow in 1939. In 1948 volunteers from the town fire department rebuilt the tow with a motor and parts from Montezuma mine-tram equipment and added lights, and for the winters of 1948 to 1950 the hill was open two nights a week. Many local children learned to ski there; Edna Dercum was among their instructors.1
A new rope tow went in in 1976, 760 feet long with 202 feet of vertical on one run, and the hill again served as the town's place to learn. About ten years later the rope was stolen. The area asked for a variance from the rules on rope spiraling, was turned down, and did not open for the 1986–87 season.2
TodayCarter Park, four blocks east of Main Street, has a free walk-up sledding hill with a shed of sleds to borrow. (2026)3
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Summit Daily News · Breckenridge: Rope tow to heaven (April 3, 2009; an excerpt from Mary Ellen Gilliland's Breckenridge, 150 Years of Golden History)
- 2Colorado Ski History · Breckenridge Ballpark Tow/Carter Park Hill
- 3Breckenridge Tourism Office · Sledding in Breckenridge
Photos
No photographs of Carter Park Hill we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Carter Park Hill, in their own words.
Facts
Location
39.4775° N · 106.0395° W · Colorado · Front Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1939–1986
Closed after the 1986 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain