Dan Ramker News Today

Passionate uphillers applied pressure to representatives from Vail and Beaver Creek resorts and the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday, Dec. 19, at an annual meeting at Cripple Creek Backcountry in Avon.  Attendees in a packed...

Beaver Creek is grappling with the loss of one of its strongest leaders, both literally and figuratively, after Gary Shimanowitz, the resort’s longtime director of operations, died suddenly on Friday, Feb. 24.

Downhill skiers enjoyed Beaver Creek’s newest expansion for the first time Monday as the 250-acre beginner area known as McCoy Park opened to the public.

Officials from Vail Resorts and the U.S. Forest Service dig up some wet dirt Thursday morning at the top of the new McCoy Park area at Beaver Creek. From left are Bill Kennedy, Carl Orlowski, Kyle Griffith, Gary Shimanowitz, Nadia Guerriero, Leanne Veldhuis, Carl Eaton, Dan Ramker and Addy McCord. Guerriero, Beaver Creek’s chief operating officer, got to hold on to her gold shovel as a keepsake. Vail Resorts/Special to the Daily Beaver Creek and U.S. Forest Service officials broke ground Thur...

July 1, 2021, 9:39 pm From left to right, Gary Shimanowitz, Nadia Guerriero,  Eagle-Holy Cross District Ranger Leanne Veldhuis,  Carl Eaton and Dan Ramker, director of mountain operations at Beaver Creek (David O. Williams photo). Beaver Creek on Thursday broke ground on a 250-acre expansion of beginner and intermediate ski terrain high atop the mountain with expansive views of the Sawatch and Gore Mountain ranges. Its new McCoy Park terrain will include two new quad lifts, 17 new a...

Ross Leonhart/rleonhart@vaildaily.com At Beaver Creek, mountain operations use two types of snowcats to maintain the conditions across the mountain. With long, steep runs in Colorado, winch cats are used for heavy maintenance and use a 3,000-foot cable attached to the top of runs that spools out as the driver comes down, and tenses up to support the 25,000-pound machine coming back up. For skiers and splitboarders earning their turns at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and other mountains outsi...