Colorado — Monarch Mountain had a monumental 2025-26 season. The opening of No Name Basin added lots of new terrain and a new fixed-grip chairlift to Monarch’s lineup. It looks like they aren’t done growing, as more investments are planned in the years ahead.
This week, Monarch Mountain announced that the U.S. Forest Service has accepted its 2025 Master Development Plan (MDP). While the plan has been accepted, each proposed project referenced that hasn’t previously been approved will need to undergo a separate review process.
The vision is for these changes to occur over a 10-15-year period. Some of the proposals include new chairlifts, building replacements, new facilities, more parking spaces, and trail grading. While snowmaking was referenced in the MDP, it would be implemented as a last resort.
Probably the most surprising part of the master plan is the willingness to replace many of its old lifts with detachable chairlifts. Currently, Monarch Mountain has no high-speed chairlifts. It plans not only to build a new one from the base to the ridge (Great Divide Express) but also to replace its older lifts with detachable quads. However, replacements for Breezeway, Garfield, Panorama, Pioneer, and Tumberlina could be either detachable or fixed-grip chairlifts, depending on demand and the state of the ski industry around the time of the replacement.
The Three-Phase Approach
Like another natural snow-only Colorado ski area (Ski Cooper), their master plan is divided into phases. The first phase (1-3 years out) would include adding new conveyor (aka magic carpet) lifts, adding a rope tow between Breezway and No Name Basin, expanding the Day Lodge, trail grading, a new mid-mountain lodge (Pano Lots), and replacing the ski patrollers’ base area building.
Phase two (4-8 years out) includes multiple new chairlifts (Divide Express, Pioneer, and Breezeway), replacing the rental/children’s center and maintenance shop, expanding the wastewater plant, and growing Paradise parking lots.
Phase three (9+ years out) envisions more lift replacements (Garfield, Panorama, and Tumberlina), another chairlift out of the No Name Basin pod to reduce congestion, improvements to the snowsports beginner zone, adding road parking, relocation of snow tubing, more facilities for alpine and Nordic skiers, and possibly adding snowmaking.
To learn more, you can read through Monarch’s master plan here.
Image/Video Credits: Monarch Mountain
