Eldora Mountain Resort owner Powdr announced plans to sell the Boulder County ski area on Thursday.
Powdr also announced that it has signed a contract to sell the Killington and Pico ski resorts in Vermont to local investors and, in addition to Eldora, is also offering SilverStar Mountain Resort in British Columbia and Mt. Bachelor in Oregon for sale.
The company has appointed financial firm JP Morgan to assist with the potential sale and a spokesman said further details would be announced as the process progresses.
The resort operator said its agreements with Alterra Mountain Co., which provide Ikon Pass access to Eldora, would not change for the 2024-25 ski season. Park City, Utah-based Powdr was founded in 1994 by entrepreneur John Cumming with the Alpine Meadows and Park City ski resorts.
He acquired the Copper Mountain ski area in 2009 and purchased Eldora in 2016 from his friend Bill Killebrew, who had owned the resort with two partners for more than 25 years.
Powdr has evolved over the past 30 years into what it calls an adventure lifestyle company. In 2007, it sold Alpine Meadows on Lake Tahoe, now part of Alterra Mountain’s Palisades Tahoe ski area. When Powdr missed a deadline to renew a historic and favorable lease on key private land at its Park City Mountain Resort, Vail Resorts, which owned the adjacent Canyons ski area, made the private landowner a new offer in 2014 and acquired the resort in a $182.5 million deal that created the largest ski area in the country.
Last year, Powdr sold Lee Canyon ski resort in Nevada to Durango’s Mountain Capital Partners.
Stacey Hutchinson, vice president of communications at Powdr, said the plan to sell ski resorts is part of an effort to “strategically manage Powdr’s portfolio in line with the goals of our founder and shareholders.”
Powdr’s Woodward Experiences offers year-round training facilities and programs for BMX, skateboarding, snowboarding and skiing at 10 locations across the country. In May, the National Park Service named Powdr’s newly formed Destination Zion Lodge as the concessionaire for visitor services at Zion National Park, replacing Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which has served visitors at the Utah park since 1972. In January, the company took over concessions at Death Valley National Park.
“We want to balance our ski business with new ventures in the national park sector and at Woodward,” Hutchinson said in an email.
The 680-acre Eldora celebrated its 60th season of operations in 2023 after a $10 million investment by Powdr. In October, Eldora will open its new 12,000-square-foot Caribou Lodge, which will house the resort’s nonprofit Ignite Adaptive Sports and ski school. Ski patrollers at Eldora recently voted to unionize, citing patrol turnover and the need for higher wages to cover the cost of living in Boulder County.
Eldora plans to open the 2024-2025 season on Nov. 15. In a statement, the company said the ski resort will “continue to conduct business as usual” while it courts potential buyers.
“Until the sale of these four resorts (including Killington) is completed, we will continue to focus on our current operations at these ski areas, as well as Copper and Snowbird, which we are retaining, Woodward Camps and Mountain Centers, and our two National Park concession agreements,” Hutchinson said. “In addition, we are committed to ensuring a seamless transition at all four resorts.”
The U.S. resort industry has seen intense consolidation in recent years, with Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Co. distributing season passes to multiple resorts. Vail Resorts owns 37 North American ski resorts and Alterra owns 19. Mountain Capital Partners has grown to own nine North American ski resorts and Boyne Resorts owns 11. Powdr has partnered with Alterra Mountain Co. since launching the Ikon Pass in 2018, offering unlimited access to Eldora and Copper Mountain ski resorts.
Alterra Mountain Co., which owns the Winter Park and Steamboat ski resorts, announced plans in February to acquire its Ikon Pass partner Arapahoe Basin. The U.S. Justice Department said in June that it was taking a closer look at the acquisition and requesting national skier surveys and visitor statistics for Arapahoe Basin as it investigates a possible antitrust lawsuit related to Alterra’s growth in Colorado.
