Colorado real estate broker Tom Chapman (AKA Tom “What a Douchebag” Chapman) and his business partner Ron Curry are planning on opening a new ski area near Telluride, CO. The two are expected to announce today their intentions to develop a 1,300-acre ski area in Bear Creek.
The Denver Post reports Chapman and Curry aren’t planning any big developments for the ski area, although they want to get zoning approval to build a 1,000-square-foot single-family home. A warming yurt will be available for skiers. The terrain won’t be groomed, and the ski area won’t have lift towers.
The terrain would be accessible through the Telluride ski area. So basically it sounds like they want to charge you to ski Bear Creek but provide on amenities.
Are they going to bomb it?
That might be one good thing, still it’s stupid.
‘ski area’ with no lift. what a joke.
charge you for to pay for his home “What a douchebag!”
I don’t get it! The want to charge us for using the side country? This is public land and they are not providing lifts, so they can suck it!
Land isnt public once they buy it hahaha. But yes they do sound like douches
they should charge $90 a day
yeah so you end up dropping 200 bucks a day to ski it.
They can only charge you if it’s private land. If it’s forest service, then its our land and we can ski it when ever we want. For those who dont know you can climb, skin, crawl up any forest service ski area and ski free, you pay for the services.
Unfortunately, that’s not true. When the ski area engages in a lease with the public land agency, the ski area creates the rules. They possess the right to manage it however they want while the lease is in effect.
You can, at some areas these days, get permission to travel uphill, but generally not during operating hours on downhill runs.
they should still charge all you tightwads $90
man’s gotta point, this same theory could be the reason i got hassled whilst snowmobiling in a thong up and down open ski runs.
It definitely depends on the ski area and which national forest the land is on. Some Nat. Forests won’t let ski areas restrict uphill access, and some provide permits that cease all uphill access. Most kind of leave it up to the ski area, but actually listen to public advise and won’t let a ski area get too tyrannical. The worst option is the sale of public land and public-private land swaps. Then the public has no say in how the land is treated and accessed. If you hear about a possible natl forest sale or land swap in your area, CALL YOUR CONGRESSMEN, START A PETITION AND DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO MAKE IT STOP!!! /rant
not true…come to jackson and try to skin up….you wont make it very far
Shut up, H. They shouldn’t charge anything, especially if you have to pay for a $109 lift ticket from Telluride just so you can ride the chair lift to access the gate.
don’t be such a lazt f*&^%%$ and hike the whole way, you wont have to pay the $109.
Wonder who you stole that nice pic of Ophir from? California face, Gemini, Plumb Drop, Himalaya face Mmmmmmm but it’s not Bear Creek
Chapman is a public land hostage, he buys forgotten about tracts of land and mining claims within national parks and national forests, and then he threatens the state that he will build subdivisions on the land until the forest service is forced to pay exponentially more for the land. Sometimes the forest service cant foot the bill, then he makes good on his threats, like in this instance. I was also susprised to learn that he made good on one of his threats and built a 5,000 square foot mansion inside Black Canyon National Park. Someone needs to monkey wrench this guy, buy which I mean take a monkey wrench to his face.
We really have a douchbag here. It’s true he scammed the Black Cyn Park and
bought a dead mining claim next to the ski area just to see how much $$$ he can extort from Telluride ski area.
Not to mention he’s blocked Bear Creek sidecountry site of my all time
best ski run ever.
I didn’t even know it snows in CO. Must be pretty “rocky”
what ever, we still have alta lakes and lower bear creek.
Can you access Alta through any gates (from Bald Mt?)? Was in Telluride last year for the first time, wanna try those runs (Alta, Bear Creek) this year – are there any good websites with alternative runs or even backcountry ascent (with skins) from the Telluride area? And will ski patrol take your cards if you go down to Alta (iirc there’s a rope going round…)
He is full of $h!t.
He has no interest in actually developing and operating a lift-less “ski area.” Just last year he claimed that he purchased the land to start a gold mining operation!
So let’s just stop perpetuating that myth.
I have a hard time seeing exactly how he is going to “patrol” his remote sliver of alpine tundra land. So what if he says “don’t ski there.” I still will without hesitation.