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Top 5 most-read stories last week: Car parks on ski trail, new Breckenridge development and lodging data

A skier avoids an abandoned Audi sports car parked on Schoolmarm trail at Keystone Resort on Monday, Jan. 6, 2024. The Summit County Sheriff's Office says the driver left a note on the car with a phone number so officials could contact them quickly.
Summit County Sheriff’s Office/Courtesy photo

1. Driver parks sports car on Schoolmarm ski trail at Keystone Resort

Guests skiing Schoolmarm trail at Keystone Resort had to avoid an Audi sports car Monday, Jan. 6, after a bad set of directions led the vehicle’s driver to abandon it the previous night.

Summit County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Mike Schilling said the driver from Boulder was following GPS directions to the Sagebrush employee housing complex Sunday night, when a directions app told them to turn onto the ski area. The driver followed the directions and eventually became stuck in deep snow. Schilling said the driver abandoned the car and left a note with a phone number.

— Andrew Maciejewski



2. Breckenridge sees new trends in its lodging data which differ from prior years, industry professionals say

Now that a key travel booking period has passed, the Breckenridge Tourism Office has a more precise outlook on the ski season and staff members say the data is showing some unprecedented trends. 

Bill Wishowski, director of operations for the Breckenridge Tourism Office, told industry professionals during a Dec. 17 presentation that patterns in revenue and booking are unlike anything he’s seen in the past two decades. 



He said data indicates nights booked will be up during the ski season, travelers’ average length of stay will be down and so will revenue. The average length of stay was at 3.6 nights in 2024, which is down from 4.3 in 2023, and revenue is down 5% from 2023, despite a 2% increase year over year in guest nights booked. Additionally, the revenue per available unit is up.

“I’ve heard anecdotally, discounting is happening more on lesser quality, smaller units, but things that are kind of in that mid-to-upper range, quality wise, those rates are whole,” Wishowski said. 

He added this is particularly interesting because data shows the number of available lodging units is down 7% year over year.

— Kit Geary

3. Breckenridge officials review 400,000-square-foot development that will bring major changes to Peak 8’s base area

Following years of negotiations and revisions, the company behind one of the largest developments in Breckenridge presented officials with a near-final concept for a key aspect of its project.

Breckenridge Grand Vacations’ received general approval from Breckenridge Planning Commission at a Jan. 7 meeting for a plan that is set to become the Imperial Hotel & Private Residences. The project is one piece of a seven-parcel development that will need Planning Commission approval. 

Commissioners gave kudos to the developer for navigating what many of them described as one of the more complex projects to come before them. 

— Kit Geary

4. Breckenridge Ski Resort opens Imperial chairlift on Peak 8 following large controlled avalanche caught on video

People riding 6-Chair at Breckenridge Ski Resort on Friday, Jan. 3, were treated to an up-close view of an avalanche that ripped the snow from Imperial Bowl a day before the highest chairlift in North America opened to the public. 

Imperial SuperChair, which reaches its top terminal at 12,840 feet elevation, opened for the season Saturday, Jan. 4, following the large controlled slide. 

Senior communications manager Sara Lococo said the avalanche, which was recorded by various people while ascending 6-Chair Friday, was part of the resort’s planned avalanche mitigation work as patrollers worked to open Imperial SuperChair to the public. Lococo said the resort posted a video of the slide to its social media channels as a reminder to guests to respect terrain closures.

— Summit Daily staff

5. Summit County local assaulted by 2 assailants at Breckenridge gas station

The Breckenridge Police Department says it has no leads after a local man was assaulted at a gas station just before the new year.

Around 6 p.m. Dec. 30, Breckenridge police officers were dispatched to a fight in progress at a gas station, according to a police report Summit Daily News obtained through a public records request.

When police arrived, a 26-year-old man told officers that he had stopped at the gas station after work to refill his tank when a family walked out directly in front of his truck, leading him to stop so he didn’t hit them, the report states. 

The man told police he apologized to the family before driving to the gas pump, but he claimed someone in the group slapped his passenger window as he drove by and shouted, “Go back to Mexico,” according to the report. A family member told Summit Daily News that the victim was born in the U.S.

While the man was putting gas in his truck, two of the men from the group approached him and began pushing him and punching him in the head, knocking him to the ground, the report states.


— Ryan Spencer


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