Lost ski areaColoradoPark RangeRocky Mountains
Steamboat Lake
Ran 1973–1973. A two-chairlift ski area built near Pearl Lake, north of Steamboat Springs, for a planned resort community; its lifts ran for one season at most, in 1973.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Lifetime Communities of Florida planned a town of 10,000 people near Steamboat Lake, with a golf course and a ski area on 318 acres of private land near Pearl Lake. The Steamboat Olympian Gordon Wren managed the ski area.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayPart of the old ski hill is a private home site, where concrete lift footings still sit. (2021)2
Timeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Steamboat Lake, 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 Steamboat Lake
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1950–1953 · 32.6 mi away · ColoradoA family-built rope-tow ski area on Baker Mountain at Muddy Pass, on the east side of Rabbit Ears Pass, that ran from 1950 to 1953.
- Closed 1985 · 35 mi away · ColoradoA free rope-tow hill on a ranch just north of Oak Creek, run for the town from the mid-1960s until March 1985.
- Years not yet collected · 35.8 mi away · ColoradoA free town ski hill in Oak Creek with a self-service rope tow, used from about 1960 to 1966.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Lifetime Communities of Florida planned a town of 10,000 people near Steamboat Lake, with a golf course and a ski area on 318 acres of private land near Pearl Lake. The Steamboat Olympian Gordon Wren managed the ski area. The developer paid Heron-Poma $500,000 for two double chairlifts, one for beginners and one for intermediate and expert terrain, serving 500 or 600 feet of vertical by different accounts.1,2,3
Whether it ever truly opened is unclear. Colorado Ski History gives January to April 1973 as its one season. The Colorado Skier called it built but never operated, though readers told the newsletter it was open to the public for a few days, and the Steamboat Pilot says it closed in 1973 before an official opening. The base lodge was moved to Mount Werner in 1979 and became the Norwegian Log Condos. Both lifts came down in 1989, and one went to Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs.1,2,3
In 2021 the owners of part of the old ski hill bought a chair from the retiring Howelsen lift to bring it back to the site.2
TodayPart of the old ski hill is a private home site, where concrete lift footings still sit. (2021)2
Timeline
- 1973Lifts run January to April, by Colorado Ski History's account1
- 1973Closes before an official opening, by the Steamboat Pilot's account2
- 1979Base lodge moved to Mount Werner, becoming the Norwegian Log Condos1
- 1989Both lifts removed; one goes to Howelsen Hill1
- 2021A chair from the Howelsen lift returns to the old ski hill2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Steamboat Lake Ski Area
- 2Steamboat Pilot & Today · Clark couple buys chair off Howelsen lift, returning it to its original home near Steamboat Lake (March 20, 2021)
- 3Colorado Ski History · Lost Areas #6 (The Colorado Skier newsletter, November 12, 1992)
Photos
No photographs of Steamboat Lake 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 Steamboat Lake, in their own words.
Facts
Location
40.7874° N · 106.9046° W · Colorado · Park Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1973–1973
Closed after the 1973 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain