Monarch Ski Resort

Official URL | Snow report page | Webcam page

Monarch Ski resort is located about 25 miles west from Salida. It isn't very large, having only four lifts, but it has many great features. I personally really enjoy that it's not a big resort, that it's easy to get everywhere, and that there is plenty of steep terrain to ride. For telemarking it offers plenty of tree and bump skiing, for carving it has nice groomers. Although none of the runs are very long, there are times when there are hardly any other skiers and so it's easy to get a lot of turns.

In 2005 the area opened up part of its snowcat terrain to the general public -- it's called Mirkwood Bowl. About a 15 minutes hike from the top of one on the lifts allows the rider to access some 300 acres of backcountry terrain.

As the resort is only 25 miles from where I live, it's easy for me to drive up for a few hours of riding in the winter mornings -- and during the week there are hardly any visitors. Also, did I mention that Monarch has excellent snow?

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Stories

Monarch opening weekend 2007 By: tom, December 2007 alpine-snowboarding: Monarch opened three weeks late this year, due to lack of snow. But
Drills for alpine carving By: tom, January 2005 alpine-snowboarding: One of the main comments that I get on my snowboarding technique is To see the recommendations from folks on BomberOnline, click here. Following are some pictures of what happened, and a video that L...
Alpine practice: Switch - steeps - and fresh By: tom, December 2006 alpine-snowboarding: Getting better, but still having a hard time dealing with the terrain I have been initiating turns a lot earlier, traversing the hill on Oh, still tons of counter-rotation, but I felt good on my Prio...
Carving Monarch 9-Jan-2007 By: tom, January 2007 alpine-snowboarding: I've been pretty comfortable riding with hands behind my back, but
Learning to carve at Monarch By: tom, March 2004 alpine-snowboarding: Carving -- I saw the movies of Patrice and Jacques on the web (at
Learning to snowboard at Monarch By: tom, March 2004 snowboarding: As a telemark skier, I always thought that picking up snowboarding My friends Michael and Kanyu came to visit for a few days, and as I'd like to think that I picked it up reasonably quickly -- and I ...
Starting 2005 carving season at Monarch By: tom, December 2004 alpine-snowboarding: Whoo-hooo! Monarch opened Lisa got back into the swing of things fairly quickly -- had some I had a harder time -- although there is no doubt in my mind that But with all the falling, I still had a g...
More carving exercises By: tom, March 2005 alpine-snowboarding: Easter came along, seems like just a few weeks of the season left, Following each of the pictures are my comments on what I think we're Lisa has sometimes a hard time with her heel-to-toe transitions...
Practicing push-pull carving turns By: tom, January 2006 alpine-snowboarding: We got back from Christmas in Europe and were very stoked to finally I am working on three different things at once, hoping that they will I put together a video from a bunch of short clips, quality ...