Sunlight Mountain

Terrain:

For only having three lifts, Sunlight has an immense amount of terrain to explore. For beginners, the runs directly off of Tercero Lift are groomed and at a low angle. Which makes this area safe and perfect for beginners. The intermediate areas are wide open melow runs that give everyone the ability to explore the entire mountain.

As for the advanced terrain at Sunlight, there are some amazingly fun glades and double black runs. In fact, Sunlight is home to one of the steepest inbounds runs in Colorado at 52°. This run is called The Heathen. If you would like to do this run, I would highly recommend hitting it on powder day. Otherwise it is just a steep slab of ice, which is never fun to ski on. This run can be a bit tricky to find off of Gnarly Knob, but you’ll know when you’re on it by how steep it is.

The other advanced terrain at Sunlight is the variety of great glades. The Zephyr Glades, Charlie’s Glades and Joselin’s Glades were some of my favorites to ride in. I love the wide variety of aspen and pine glades Sunlight has throughout the mountain. Glades are some of my favorite terrain to ski in, for which Sunlight has an abundant amount of. If I wanted to just ski glades all day, I would head to Sunlight.

A great advanced area to find fresh tracks on was the East Ridge. This area rarely has other riders in it. East ridge is entirely made up of blacks and double blacks. It is a fun area to explore, but be careful while skiing or boarding at the East Ridge. There is one cat track that will take you back to the base of the resort. If you miss this cat track and continue skiing, you will most likely have to hike out back to the parking lot. There is no lift access at the bottom of the East Ridge, for now. Hence if you choose to continue past the cat track or miss it, be prepared to do some hiking. This area was also hard to take multiple fast laps on. You have to go to the base and back to the top each time. This terrain was so enjoyable that I did not care how long it took to get back to the top, I knew I wanted to keep skiing the East Ridge.

Base Elevation – 7,885 ft

Peak Elevation – 9,895 ft

Number of Lifts – 3

Number of Trails – 72

Total Terrain – 780 acres

Easiest Terrain (Greens) – 17%

More Difficult Terrain (Blues) – 29%

Most Difficult Terrain (Blacks)  – 17%

Expert Terrain (Double Blacks) – 38%

Resort Hours – 9am-4pm Daily

Atmosphere and Locals:

Glenwood is a great place to visit with tons of hot spring options and a cute down time. Glenwood seems to have it all with skiing, hot springs and even an amusement park at the top of the surrounding mountains (Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park). This makes the area quite touristy. Although, most people who visit go skiing in Aspen. Sunlight, on the other hand, is the mountain locals go to to avoid the traffic and busy resorts.

On a weekend with good snow at Sunlight, you can find yourself on empty runs and have fresh tracks all day. The locals were even happy to tell you where the good runs were, where you absolutely had to ski at Sunlight and why they loved making Sunlight their home mountain. This made Sunlight almost entirely local driven, with minimal tourists.

Accessibility and Parking:

Sunlight has free parking at the base that rarely gets full, so there is almost always a place to park. Although once you park, you do have to walk up some stairs to get to the base lift area. There is no bus system that will get you right to the base, so prepare to walk with your gear. 

Sunlight is just 25 minutes away from Glenwood Springs. It is tucked away behind Glenwood, so there is minimal traffic getting from Glenwood to Sunlight. This makes the drive less stressful and simple.

Pricing: $

Lift Tickets – 

Adult (13-64): $68

Senior (65+): $45

Children(6-12): $45

Associated Season Pass – Power Pass

Lessons – 

Children Lessons (3, 4-6):

Group AM Half Day: $125  (10am-12pm)

Group PM Half Day: $125 (1pm-3pm)

Group Full Day: $180 

1-Hour Private: $120

2-Hour Private: $170

1-Hour Semi-Private: $180 (2 kids max)

2-Hour Semi-Private: $280 (2 kids max)

Adult Lessons (7+):

Group Lessons: $85 (2 Hours), $145 (4 Hours)

Rentals – 

Adult Skis/Snowboard: $35

Child Skis/Snowboard: $25

Performance Adult Skis/Snowboard: $45

Full Day Demo Skis/Snowboard: $60

Ski Boots Only: $45

Snowboard Boots Only: $20

For more information visit https://sunlightmtn.com/