Lost ski areaColoradoFront RangeRocky Mountains
Frosty Basin
Granby's first ski area, a volunteer-built hill on Mount Chauncey west of town that the Middle Park Ski Club opened in 1952 and ran for only a few seasons.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Frosty Basin was a volunteer project to give Granby's children a place to ski. The Middle Park Ski Club, founded that year, built it in 1952 on John Murphy's ranch, on the slopes of Mount Chauncey west of town.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe land is Antler Basin Ranch, a private lodge and retreat where some of the old tow equipment still stands. (2024)3,4
Timeline
1 event · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Frosty Basin, 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 Frosty Basin
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 3.1 mi away · ColoradoA steep ski slope at a guest ranch west of Granby, offered to winter guests for a few seasons in the 1940s.
- 1947–1952 · 4.6 mi away · ColoradoA rope-tow ski hill about two miles southeast of Hot Sulphur Springs that ran from 1947 to 1952.
- Years not yet collected · 6 mi away · ColoradoA rope-tow ski hill on the southwest edge of Hot Sulphur Springs, used from the late 1940s into the 1950s or 1960s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Frosty Basin was a volunteer project to give Granby's children a place to ski. The Middle Park Ski Club, founded that year, built it in 1952 on John Murphy's ranch, on the slopes of Mount Chauncey west of town. It had two rope tows, secondhand from Snow King Valley at Hot Sulphur Springs and the Leland Jackson Ranch north of Granby, along with a jumping hill, a warming hut and lights for night skiing. The Boddies count three runs.1,2,3
It did not last. Colorado Ski History says it folded after two seasons and the Boddies after about three years; both say it could not compete with Winter Park. The land is now Antler Basin Ranch, a private lodge and retreat where some of the old tow equipment remains.1,3,4
TodayThe land is Antler Basin Ranch, a private lodge and retreat where some of the old tow equipment still stands. (2024)3,4
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Frosty Basin (Bill Fetcher)
- 2Sky-Hi News · LEFT BEHIND: Exploring Grand County's skiing past through abandoned hills (December 4, 2018)
- 3Lost Ski Areas of Colorado (Caryn and Peter Boddie) · Grand County's Frosty Basin (Caryn and Peter Boddie, February 4, 2024)
- 4Antler Basin Ranch · The Lodge
Photos
No photographs of Frosty Basin 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 Frosty Basin, in their own words.
Facts
Location
40.0926° N · 105.9948° W · Colorado · Front Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1952 · the year it closed is 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