Lost ski areaColoradoRocky Mountains
Sharktooth
Ran 1971–1986. A one-slope ski hill on a bluff above the Poudre River just outside Greeley, the lowest ski area Colorado ever had, open from 1971 to 1986.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Sharktooth began with a flight home. In 1970 Dick Perchlik, a University of Northern Colorado professor and one-time mayor of Greeley, and realtor Clyde Davis set out to ski at Steamboat Springs, and flying back into Greeley they saw snow holding on the north-facing bluffs near County Road 25.1,4
Read the whole historyTodayThe hill is a private residence, and only a metal gate hints at its past. (2014)1
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Sharktooth, 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 Sharktooth
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1948–1963 · 38.7 mi away · ColoradoA city ski hill and jumping site on Chautauqua Mesa in Boulder, run on and off from 1948 to 1963 with a single rope tow.
- Years not yet collected · 40.4 mi away · ColoradoSki jumping hills and a rope-tow slope outside Allenspark, laid out by Lars Haugen from about 1918 and skied into the 1950s.
- 1947–1952 · 41.7 mi away · ColoradoA rope-tow ski area on Highway 7 near Allenspark, about 19 miles from Lyons, that opened in 1947 and ran into the early 1950s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Sharktooth began with a flight home. In 1970 Dick Perchlik, a University of Northern Colorado professor and one-time mayor of Greeley, and realtor Clyde Davis set out to ski at Steamboat Springs, and flying back into Greeley they saw snow holding on the north-facing bluffs near County Road 25. Fossil shark teeth turned up during construction and gave the hill its name.1,4
It opened on December 17, 1971, with one wide slope about 1,000 feet long, roughly 150 feet of vertical and a 600-foot rope tow. It added tubing runs and an ice rink, and offered lessons and night skiing. Wind blew farm topsoil onto the snow, darkening it so it melted faster, and snow fences and about 1,000 trees went in against it.1,2,3
Its best snow year, 1985, made a profit of $800. Thin snow, rising insurance costs and Perchlik's failing health ended skiing in 1986.1
TodayThe hill is a private residence, and only a metal gate hints at its past. (2014)1
Sources for this history (4)
- 1KUNC · 'World's Smallest Ski Resort' Once Lived Outside Of Greeley (December 17, 2014)
- 2Colorado Ski History · Sharktooth Ski Area
- 3Colorado Ski History · Lost Areas #3 (The Colorado Skier newsletter, August 17, 1992)
- 4Poudre River Trail Corridor · Sharkstooth
Photos
No photographs of Sharktooth 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 Sharktooth, in their own words.
Facts
Location
40.4375° N · 104.8340° W · Colorado
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1971–1986
Closed after the 1986 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 5all 5, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain