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from www.denverpost.com - January 10, 2006

Sunlight experience: the soul of skiing

By John Meyer

Denver Post Staff Writer

Glenwood Springs - Ski resort execs tend to promote their resorts based on high-speed lifts, gourmet restaurants, high-priced shopping and other "amenities" that have nothing to do with the soul of skiing.

They also will be happy to sell you a fractional interest in a slopeside condo if you're interested.

I've never understood the need for fancy food - excuse me, fine dining - during a day of skiing. Give me a mountaintop vista full of snowcapped peaks, a bowl of chili, an order of fries, a Gatorade and a PowerBar to go, and I'm happy.

So I was intrigued recently when I got an e-mail from Sunlight's new Front Range marketing guy, Dave Savarese, who left the industry a few years back and was shocked how much it had changed when he decided he wanted to return.

" These large resort companies don't care about skiing, they care about selling you a designer coffee and a condo," he wrote. "Talking to these companies was like talking to IBM or Xerox. They now talk about dynamic sales models and matrix styles of management (but) no one talks about the love of skiing of the passion of the sport."

His point was that Sunlight is different. Savarese knew I was a sucker for a pitch like that, so I agreed to meet him and ski there for the first time in years. I'm glad I did.

Skiing at Sunlight is simple and uncomplicated, old school in the classic sense. The lifts are slow, but that's one of the things that makes Sunlight a great family skiing experience. There's time to talk, connect, relax, forget about being in a hurry for a few hours.

The slopes are uncrowded - on some, you can hear the echo of your voice - and the skiing is delightful.

A modest ski area can have priceless attractions, and Sunlight has one: The view from the summit is one of the best in Colorado, especially looking to the south at Mount Sopris - one of Colorado's most beautiful mountains - and the Aspen area beyond.

Aspen is only 30 miles away, but it's another world. Perhaps you read about the big problem there over the holidays when there were too many private airplanes needing "landing slots" at Sardy Field. Imagine the indignity of flying to Aspen in your Gulfstream and having to circle for 90 minutes before you can land.

" I've seen both ends," Savarese said. "I remember the first time I got off the shuttle bus at Deer Valley (Utah), some dude was grabbing my skis. I said, 'Hey, those are mine!' He was the 'ski valet.' Ski valet?"

At Sunlight you carry your own skis, but the parking is free and the walk to the base is short. One of its three lifts is an ancient double chair that used to be on Aspen Mountain, which has a nice symbolism. The lodge is small - make that cozy and quaint - but functional.

" This is what skiing used to be, and I think what it still should be," Savarese said. "I respect what Intrawest, Vail and Aspen are doing. They do a great job. They build beautiful villages with wonderful condominiums and great amenities on the mountain. But they're not in the ski business. They're in the real estate business. It's about, 'How can we increase the value of the real estate?"'

Every time I write about the changing character of the corporate ski areas in Colorado, I hear from indignant execs who insist they love skiing just as much as the rest of us. They talk about how corporate investment has allowed them to build more high-speed lifts, run more groomers, open more terrain and sell affordable season tickets. They have a point.

The day before I visited Sunlight, I skied Beaver Creek, which is a wonderful resort. Every lift I rode was a high-speed lift.

Skiing the World Cup downhill course and imagining the audacity a racer needs to throw himself onto the precipitous pitch known as The Brink at 65 mph, I thought about how only a world-class resort can host a World Cup. I thought about how lucky we are that Vail Resorts and the Aspen Skiing Company have stepped up to make sure Colorado remains the home of World Cup racing in the United States.

But I'm glad the simple "skiing only" areas like Sunlight, Loveland, Eldora, Monarch and Arapahoe Basin are hanging in there, keeping the bare-boned passion for skiing alive and affordable. You leave Sunlight with a smile on your face and a soft spot in your heart.

Sunlight just feels right.