Devil's Thumb Ranch

I've been skiing at Devil's Thumb for the last 6 year. The two years previous to this one, I had a season pass, and I skied there almost exclusively. The place has amazing trails and tons of them. It's hard to get bored there due to extensive trail system, and a lot of those trails are extremely challenging.

Begin Rant:

I've been having an internal debate of whether or not I should post my recent feelings of this place on my blog. I couldn't decide if I was just being a whiny little bitch or if I had a legitimate complaint. Honestly, it's a little bit of both.

This year (and some of last year) the grooming there has been sub-par. Even when you hit the freshly groomed trails, they are extremely soft and you sink quite a bit in the snow. If you know anything about skate skiing, fresh and soft snow isn't necessarily your friend like it is with alpine skiing.

From my six years of skiing there, I can tell you that this is not the norm. When I first started skiing at Devil's Thumb, the lodge was a little shack, and they also had a small building with some lodging. It was really quaint. Two or so years ago, someone bought the place, and now this person or persons is turning it into a high end destination resort. I don't have a problem with what they are now trying to accomplish. In fact, it has made some of the facilities much nicer. I guess a good way to describe it is that they are going for the Vail for cross country ski areas. I'm not sure it's the best business model, but they probably know something I don't.

So back to my complaint. Their attention to the trail system has seriously degraded over the last two years. I often go skate skiing in a multitude of places and the conditions are great. If you do any kind of skiing (or even cycling), you have those days were everything clicks. The conditions and the way you feel just get magically intertwined and the endorphins rush through your body. This is not and should not be a rare event. It hasn't happened once in my six trips this year to Devil's Thumb. This is exclusively the results of poor grooming.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that I don't know jack about grooming, however due to my growing frustration with Devil's Thumb, I've been skiing at Snow Mountain Ranch more. Snow Mountain Ranch is 10 minutes down the road, and the three times I've been there this year, their trails have been pristine. They were freshly groomed and nicely packed. I do understand that you can over-groom trails. I also understand that Devil's Thumb has a large amount of trail to cover, but I would be happy if a third of their system got the treatment that Snow Mountain Ranch gives their trails If Devil's Thumb is trying to achieve the status of THE premiere nordic destination and if their prices are starting to reflect that, I would think that their trail conditions should also measure up to that status. Quite simply they don't. The conditions where better when they were a tiny operation.

I'm really not sure what these people are trying to accomplish. If they are shifting their focus away from the skiing and toward their other amenities, I can't really fault them for that. I'm sure they have a vision of what they are trying to create, but it is starting show in more than just the trail conditions. Their customer service is on the decline too. I went to the Frisco Nordic Center last weekend, and I almost thought I was some top ranked Euro skiing superstar. The folks there were bending over backwards for me.

These aren't my only complaints. I have had a number of issues with them this year. I won't get into all of that. I'll just say yesterday's conditions where the straw that broke the camel's back. I can get a multi-day punch card for Snow Mountain Ranch at a much lower per day price than what Devil's Thumb currently offers. Next year, that's where I'll be spending most of my days.

Here are the sites of the nordic centers I mentioned:
www.devilsthumbranch.com
http://www.ymcarockies.org/page.php?code=74
http://www.breckenridgenordic.com/frisco_center.html

PS Snow Mountain Ranch updates their conditions on their site daily. Devil's Thumb does it sporadically.

Weekend In Pictures

The Thumb


The top of a big hill. Appropriate name?


Results of the infamous pine beetle.



Views from Sunday's ride.