The public is only permitted at Victor Constant on weekdays. Only military members and their families are allowed in on weekends. This is because the facility is a part of West Point.
So West Point has its own ski area in the hills of New York when the Air Force Academy in the tall mountains of Colorado with a whole lot of land available doesn’t have a ski area? I understand why Annapolis doesn’t have one but the Air Force Academy is about a mile higher than the other academies. Even some air bases have ski hills (Elmendorf near Anchorage comes to mind).
I grew up 5 miles south of the Air Force Academy air strip and so I can tell you AFA doesn’t get near enough snow to put a resort in there. The air rolls off the high rockies to the west and as it settles into the planes around Colorado Springs it compresses and heats up, giving the whole area a really mild climate.
For a couple decades the Broadmoor, then the city of Colorado Springs, then Vail tried to run a ski resort in Colorado Springs but it heavily relied on snowmaking making it too expensive to be profitable and the warm climate made snow conditions perpetually terrible. Nowadays there’s a guy who tries to run a nordic area (on a golf course with carpets in low snow patches so it requires much less snow than a downhill area) up in monument (which gets more snow than the AFA) and he struggles to have it open more than 9 or 10 days a season. A downhill resort on the AFA is simply not possible.
Also, I will add that the Air Force’s property boundary does not extend up to the top of any of the mountains on its western border. Rather, Pike National Forest begins at about ~7600 feet. This severely limits the potential snowfall and ability to retain snow for any potential Air Force Academy ski area.
Yeah, Colorado @ 5000′ is way less amicable to a ski resort than New York’s Hudson Valley @ sea level. I was skiing Aspen on one of the coldest days of the year this year … at 11,500′ the temperature was near-zero Fahrenheit. Despite that, the freezing level (altitude at which it would be 32F) was still above sea level.
The northeast and great lakes region are *unusually* cold. They also have a lot of water. This means they can reliably make snow, even if they’re subject to constant freeze/thaw. Somewhat related, the NY Times did an analysis of which former Winter Olympic sites would remain the most reliable in the face of climate change … Surprise: Lake Placid was ranked “reliable” (along with SLC and Calgary), whereas Squaw Valley was “higher risk” and Vancouver was “not reliable”. In the west, you need high altitude … at least 8000′, ideally more.
According to my Lost Colorado Ski Area map poster that Colorado Ski Country put out in 1999, there’s a listing for Farish Memorial. Farish is operated by the USAFA and it claims there was a rope tow on a 100 high slope since 1989. Cant seem to find any info on it still operating, It’s also listed on the Colorado ski history site but with no info. https://www.usafasupport.com/farish.html
I pulled up some maps and they only claim to have a sledding hill, no skiing, so I’d guess it was put in for that. I looked on google maps and don’t see a rope tow and I can’t find any mention of it so I suspect it’s no longer there.
At any rate, Farish is almost in Woodland Park, well outside of Colorado Springs and AFA land. I lived in WP until 3rd grade and snow is pretty unreliable there too; an alpine ski resort would be slightly more feasible than in COS or on the AFA but still wouldn’t be a great investment, especially considering how climate change may affect precipitation in the next couple decades :/
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The public is only permitted at Victor Constant on weekdays. Only military members and their families are allowed in on weekends. This is because the facility is a part of West Point.
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So West Point has its own ski area in the hills of New York when the Air Force Academy in the tall mountains of Colorado with a whole lot of land available doesn’t have a ski area? I understand why Annapolis doesn’t have one but the Air Force Academy is about a mile higher than the other academies. Even some air bases have ski hills (Elmendorf near Anchorage comes to mind).
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I grew up 5 miles south of the Air Force Academy air strip and so I can tell you AFA doesn’t get near enough snow to put a resort in there. The air rolls off the high rockies to the west and as it settles into the planes around Colorado Springs it compresses and heats up, giving the whole area a really mild climate.
For a couple decades the Broadmoor, then the city of Colorado Springs, then Vail tried to run a ski resort in Colorado Springs but it heavily relied on snowmaking making it too expensive to be profitable and the warm climate made snow conditions perpetually terrible. Nowadays there’s a guy who tries to run a nordic area (on a golf course with carpets in low snow patches so it requires much less snow than a downhill area) up in monument (which gets more snow than the AFA) and he struggles to have it open more than 9 or 10 days a season. A downhill resort on the AFA is simply not possible.
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Also, I will add that the Air Force’s property boundary does not extend up to the top of any of the mountains on its western border. Rather, Pike National Forest begins at about ~7600 feet. This severely limits the potential snowfall and ability to retain snow for any potential Air Force Academy ski area.
LikeLike
Yeah, Colorado @ 5000′ is way less amicable to a ski resort than New York’s Hudson Valley @ sea level. I was skiing Aspen on one of the coldest days of the year this year … at 11,500′ the temperature was near-zero Fahrenheit. Despite that, the freezing level (altitude at which it would be 32F) was still above sea level.
The northeast and great lakes region are *unusually* cold. They also have a lot of water. This means they can reliably make snow, even if they’re subject to constant freeze/thaw. Somewhat related, the NY Times did an analysis of which former Winter Olympic sites would remain the most reliable in the face of climate change … Surprise: Lake Placid was ranked “reliable” (along with SLC and Calgary), whereas Squaw Valley was “higher risk” and Vancouver was “not reliable”. In the west, you need high altitude … at least 8000′, ideally more.
LikeLike
According to my Lost Colorado Ski Area map poster that Colorado Ski Country put out in 1999, there’s a listing for Farish Memorial. Farish is operated by the USAFA and it claims there was a rope tow on a 100 high slope since 1989. Cant seem to find any info on it still operating, It’s also listed on the Colorado ski history site but with no info. https://www.usafasupport.com/farish.html
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I pulled up some maps and they only claim to have a sledding hill, no skiing, so I’d guess it was put in for that. I looked on google maps and don’t see a rope tow and I can’t find any mention of it so I suspect it’s no longer there.
At any rate, Farish is almost in Woodland Park, well outside of Colorado Springs and AFA land. I lived in WP until 3rd grade and snow is pretty unreliable there too; an alpine ski resort would be slightly more feasible than in COS or on the AFA but still wouldn’t be a great investment, especially considering how climate change may affect precipitation in the next couple decades :/
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