Late last January, a storm finally moved into the Roaring Fork Valley carrying a forecast of 7 to 10 inches. Up Four Mile Road from Glenwood Springs, Sunlight Mountain Resort used the timing to announce that its new Segundo chair would carry skiers for the first time, at 10 a.m. on a Saturday. "In my nine year tenure, it's definitely the latest we've ever opened Segundo," Travis Baptiste, Sunlight's director of business, told the Aspen Times. Sunlight is Glenwood's hometown hill, the lift-served skiing that sits just over the ridge from Aspen Glen. It had just finished the largest capital project in its history, and then its first winter with the new lifts produced almost no snow to run them on.
The homepage now reads "Celebrating 60 Years," and opening is scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 11. On paper this is the second season for the new Primo and Segundo. In practice it will be their first full one, and it also includes the 60th anniversary of the day Sunlight first opened.
The Names Are Older Than Any Chair on the Mountain
Sunlight replaces its lifts and keeps their names, and has done so for most of its history. Here is the lineage behind the three chairs listed on the trail map this winter:
- Primo, 1966. Sunlight opened on Dec. 16, 1966, with three runs and one chairlift, named for rancher Primo Martinez, according to Visit Glenwood's skiing history. A 2015 Aspen Daily News history describes that first chair as a 7,000-foot Riblet double that originally ran on natural gas.
- Segundo, early 1970s. The original Segundo began at Aspen, where it carried skiers from 1954 to 1969, and moved to Sunlight's west side in 1973, the Post Independent reported. The Aspen Daily News history says it was Aspen Mountain's lift No. 3 and came to Sunlight in exchange for 20,000 shares. By the time it was retired, it was the oldest operating lift in Colorado.
- Tercero, late 1980s. Sunlight's short beginner lift, which serves most of the mountain's learning terrain, went in during the late 1980s.
- Primo and Segundo again, 2025. Primo became a brand-new quad built by Leitner-Poma in Grand Junction. Segundo was replaced by Arapahoe Basin's former Lenawee chair, a triple. Both now have safety bars and footrests, and both kept their original names.
Even the founding story is about reusing what was already there. The Post Independent's 50th-anniversary account credits Don Vanderhoof, John Higgs and Floyd Diemoz as the 1966 founding investors. Floyd and his father, Adolph, built the base lodge in time for an early-December opening. Before Sunlight, the Vanderhoof family ran Holiday Hill near today's Showdown trail, with rope tows powered by an old car engine. Across town, Red Mountain operated from 1941, ran as Glenwood Mountain Park for its last stretch, and closed in 1966, the same year Sunlight opened.
A Debut Season That Mostly Wasn't
The 2025 rebuild ran close to schedule. Helicopters pulled the old towers on June 9. Both bottom terminals were set by early September. Primo's haul rope went on in late October. The resort planned for completion by late November and an opening on Dec. 12. More than 180 old chairs from Primo and Segundo went to new owners through a passholder drawing, an online auction and a live auction at Morgridge Commons in Glenwood Springs.
Then the winter didn't come. Colorado's historically low snowpack and warm temperatures pushed Sunlight's opening late, and it took until almost February to run all three lifts at once. The resort had planned to run through April 5 and instead closed March 22 with a 16-inch base. As the Aspen Times reported, CEO Cindy Dady's closing statement called it one of Sunlight's "toughest seasons" and added:
"Even with limited snow, the energy on the mountain never wavered. From a few memorable powder days to a lineup of fun and successful events, the Sunlight vibe stayed strong all season long."
That puts the new Segundo's full-lift season at roughly the eight weeks between late January and March 22. The quad on Primo, which runs to the summit, never got a normal December or a deep-snow spring. The pitch on the homepage this fall, "With two new lifts, we're boosting laps, not prices," describes something most skiers have had little chance to try.
The Anniversary Lands in Week One
Sixty years to the day after Primo first turned, Dec. 16 falls on the Wednesday of Sunlight's first week of operation. The early-season events that follow are already on the resort's calendar:
| Date | Event | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend of Dec. 11 | Opening weekend | First weekend of the 2026-27 season |
| Wed., Dec. 16 | 60th anniversary | Sunlight opened Dec. 16, 1966 |
| Thu., Dec. 17 | Moonlight Race | First of four, with Cripple Creek Backcountry |
| Sun., Dec. 20 | Ski With Santa | Cocoa and lodge photos at 10 a.m., group lap at 10:45 a.m. |
| Jan. 14, Feb. 18, Mar. 18 | Moonlight Race Series | Remaining dates |
The Santa lap goes down Tercero and Midway, so it stays on the beginner side of the mountain. The Moonlight Races, run with Cripple Creek Backcountry, are uphill events. That makes them a good way to see how much of Sunlight's winter happens on skins rather than on chairs.
Uphill Comes Before the Lifts, and It Has Rules
Most of last season's community events still went ahead with limited snow. Two weeks after the annual Skier and Teacher Appreciation Day, the third annual "12 Hours of Sunlight" ran on the same Saturday Segundo was scheduled to open. Teams of one, two or four had 12 hours to log as many laps as they could, skinning up the Sunking route and skiing down.
For now, the homepage says all uphill routes are closed until the 2026-27 season. When they reopen, Sunlight's uphill pass program sets out how access works:
- Cost. The 2026-27 Uphill Season Pass is $50 for unrestricted uphill access with no blackout dates. It does not include lift rides. New passes carry a $5 media fee.
- Passholders. Regular Sunlight season passholders get uphill access free. Everyone else needs an uphill pass or an uphill day ticket.
- When. Uphill travel on foot or skis is allowed on designated routes during the winter operating season, including pre- and post-season. It closes during snowmaking and whenever safety requires.
- On the route. Stay on designated routes and keep to the side, yield to downhill traffic, keep at least 100 feet from grooming and snowmaking equipment, and leave dogs at home. Ski patrol does not cover the mountain before or after normal operating hours.
The snowmaking closure matters most in a slow early season. In a lean December, the guns and the uphill routes share the same trails.
Where the Partner Days Point
A Sunlight pass reaches beyond Four Mile Road. Qualifying passholders get three free days each at Loveland, Monarch and Powderhorn, and Sunlight offers its passholders 30% off an Indy Pass add-on. Powderhorn has followed the same path as Sunlight. For 2026-27 it replaced its 1972 West End double chair with the Wild West Express, a high-speed detachable quad, according to the Post Independent's season preview. So on two of the Western Slope's independent mountains, a 1970s double chair has made way for a quad within two seasons.
Back in town, Sunlight Ski & Bike at 309 9th Street in Glenwood Springs is the resort's downtown rental, retail and repair shop. It hosted this fall's Ski Swap on Oct. 24. The old Primo and Segundo chairs were sold off in 2025, and their names will be back on the mountain when Sunlight marks 60 years this December.
At Corey Crocker, we follow the places that shape a winter in Aspen Glen, from Sunlight's opening weekend to its longer history. If you're thinking about how a property here fits the way your household spends its winters, Corey is glad to talk it through, starting with a confidential home valuation.
