Winter Park ski resort in Colorado reaches 70

Winter Park, Colorado’s longest continually operated ski resort, will turn 70 this winter and will celebrate by opening the new village cabriolet lift, a feature of nearly all Intrawest resorts. The open-topped gondola provides slope access. Winter Park will also celebrate the completion of its new slopeside resort complex, The Village at Winter Park Resort.

The popular Ski Train that had ferried passengers between Denver and Winter Park since 1940 will not run at all during the 2009–2010 season. Iowa Pacific Holdings has not been able to reach an operational agreement with Amtrak, which was to provide crews to operate the train.

The Union Pacific Railroad said Thursday that it has approved a request from Amtrak to operate a revived Ski Train between Denver and Winter Park for the upcoming ski season. In April, a company operated by Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz said it would no longer run Ski Train excursions to Winter Park, potentially ending a 69-year tradition. Anschutz’s firm sold its Ski Train railcars to a Canadian railroad company.