Editor’s note: Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2.

1. What do vacation rental bookings say so far about Summit County’s 2023-24 winter season? 

Vacation rental bookings in Summit County are underway for the 2023-24 ski season, and early trends continue to show a slight cooling off from the tourism boom that manifested during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Summit’s market is still expected to fare better than most others nationwide, at least according to early data points from Key Data, which tracks short-term rental and hotel listings and booking in markets like Breckenridge. 

— Robert Tann

2. This Colorado mountain town plans to open a terrain park accessed by tow rope this winter

The Frisco Adventure Park has plans to install a tow rope this winter season that will provide skiers and riders access to a terrain park with rails and jumps.

Frisco has operated a winter tubing and beginner ski hill at the adventure park for several year. Over the past few years, the town has set up a couple rails and small jumps when the tubing hill closes in the spring for skiers and riders who want to hike up to the features.

The tow rope will expand on that early terrain park concept, Frisco Adventure Park operations manager John Anicito said. It is planned to be located to the north of the existing magic carpet and could open by February this year, depending on snow conditions, Anicito said.

— Ryan Spencer

3. Part of a house slid down a mountain in Colorado. What did it take for a tow company to recover it in one piece

A modular home slid over a cliffside in the Colorado Rocky Mountains when the semitractor-trailer hauling it up a steep, icy road in Blue River slipped downhill and jackknifed just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Getting the home back on the truck without damaging it beyond repair proved to be one of the most difficult missions Mountain Recovery, a Silverthorne-based towing company, has ever completed, according to Charlie Stubblefield, the company’s owner.

— Ryan Spencer

4. Mountain Wheels: Chevy Colorado’s ZR2 level pushes 4X4 capability

Automotive columnist Andy Stonehouse says the widebody ZR2 build of the 2023 Chevrolet Colorado has some impressive off-road chops and plenty of modern styling:

“The Colorado ZR2 definitely gains the brutal, angry-Transformer/Camaro look, with a fully textured power-dome hood and flow-through bowties on the grille to help those turbos breathe. A more combat-ready bumper with red tow hooks, tiny LED projection lamps and an authentic under-chin plate make the truck the antithesis of small crossovers with plastic bits.

Wide side cut-outs also reveal the big tires and allow unfettered off-road rampaging — you get to see a lot of the tires, really. You can also remotely air them down via the control screen, if you find yourself in sand dunes, or similar circumstances.”

— Andy Stonehouse

5. As Breckenridge introduces plastic bans, town staff roll out a campaign to get the community and visitors on board 

With a couple plastic-reducing initiatives already in effect and more on the way, Breckenridge plans to roll out a campaign this winter that aims to change local and tourist behavior to encourage sustainability.

This plastic pollution campaign is anticipated to hit Breckenridge in early December. It supports the implementation of an ordinance Town Council passed in March, which phases out certain single-use plastics and was largely influenced by the 2021 Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. 

The campaign aims to support the ordinance passed in March by not only notifying people about it but encouraging behavior that keeps Breckenridge looking like Breckenridge. This means working to educate people on the impacts single-use plastics could have on climate change and how it could make the Breckenridge they know and love look different. 

— Kit Geary