Lost ski areaColoradoSan Juan MountainsRocky Mountains
Cerro Summit
A short-lived rope-tow ski hill at Cerro Summit on U.S. 50 east of Montrose, used in the 1930s or 1940s and now part of a city recreation area.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Skiers once rode a rope tow on the slopes south of U.S. 50 at Cerro Summit, the pass about 15 miles east of Montrose.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe site lies in the Cerro Summit Recreation Area, open space managed by the City of Montrose with a network of trails. (2026)2,3
Timeline
3 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Cerro Summit, 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 Cerro Summit
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1962–1976 · 28.9 mi away · ColoradoA one-T-bar ski area beside Highway 62 west of Dallas Divide, near Ridgway, that ran from about 1962 into the mid-1970s.
- 1936–1938 · 37.6 mi away · ColoradoA club rope tow on a sagebrush slope about two miles west of downtown Gunnison, built with WPA help and used for two winters, 1936 to 1938.
- Years not yet collected · 41 mi away · ColoradoA small club rope-tow hill on Highway 65 at the south side of Grand Mesa above Cedaredge, also called Rimrock, used from the 1940s into the 1970s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Skiers once rode a rope tow on the slopes south of U.S. 50 at Cerro Summit, the pass about 15 miles east of Montrose. Colorado Ski History dates the tow to about 1946 and describes a single 700-foot rope serving two runs for a short while. A 2014 Montrose Daily Press column places its use in the 1930s and possibly the 1940s.1,2
Before new trails were built on the city-owned land, volunteers from the Chipeta Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society and Alpine Archaeological Consultants surveyed it, reporting in December 2013. Near the present sledding hill they found what is left of a tow: two wheels, probably from a 1928 or 1929 Model A Ford, set on buried axles 300 feet apart and 80 feet apart in height. Rotted boards and the remains of a utility pole nearby suggest a small electric motor, though an engine may have driven it instead.2
TodayThe site lies in the Cerro Summit Recreation Area, open space managed by the City of Montrose with a network of trails. (2026)2,3
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Cerro Summit Tow
- 2Montrose Daily Press · Cerro Summit: An early local ski area (Laurie Brandt, January 3, 2014)
- 3Wikipedia · Cerro Summit
Photos
No photographs of Cerro Summit 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 Cerro Summit, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.4418° N · 107.6408° W · Colorado · San Juan Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
not yet collected
Closed for good; the year it closed is not yet collected. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain