[wind] [flagpole clanging] My little brothers came down here and called me in Vail and said they were building a ski mountain halfway between Walsenburg and Trinidad.

And I said they must have really met some rich Texans because there's no mountains between Walsenburg and Trinidad.

And I had no idea that 20 miles inland, there was a big mountain where they could put a ski area.

It's not a ski community.

Its an agricultural community with a bunch of second-homeowners at the top of the valley.

One out of four years we get good snow here.

So it's a tough situation.

But it's really neat to sell lift tickets for $40 in a market that is pushing $300.

Cuchara was founded in the 1890s.

It's a little tiny community with one little road through it.

In 1982, they opened a little ski area with a couple runs.

But, it was always a struggle and it very rarely made money.

Seven different owners tried running the ski area.

And we closed in 2000.

It sat vacant or empty for 20 years.

before anyone did anything.

Everybody was disappointed because a lot of people from Oklahoma and Texas came down, and so we lost all those people, plus all the local people that would come up and ski and enjoy the mountain.

We lost an awful lot of our business.

Without the ski area, this is a three-month town.

Two different developers bought the ski area after 2000, and they failed at getting anything going.

And when we found out we could buy it for $150,000, we said, “We have to do this.” We had a bunch of gung-ho people, locals, some of them skiers, some of them not skiers.

And in about two months, we raised $150,000, [operator whistles] and we bought the thing.

And then we go, “Well, now we own a ski area.

Now what are we going to do?” We started hearing about these nonprofit ski areas.

So many potential skiers and snowboarders are pric are priced out of the market.

My kids, they had classmates who had never driven the 12 miles from La Veta to Cuchara.

They never knew that this mountain was up here.

If we can offer an affordable solution, or a free solution for some of the youth around here, we can get them up here to ski and snowboard.

[Ski Bus rumbling] This is a very closely-knit community.

It's a small ski area.

Everyone here is doing volunteer work.

People are just putting their everything into this mountain to make it run and giving everybody a chance to experience, Southern Colorado skiing.

Yeah.

Volunteering on ski patrol does feel more personal, I like something to do.

than like something to do to make money.

In the old days, it was all a business for profit.

In the old days, it was all a business for profit.

But now our goal i to involve Colorado people in the outdoors, having fun.

So, its more local now as opposed to a business where it was before.

I think it's badly needed for the community to have these winter activities.

we've had 50 to 60 people here today, many of them from the area, but also from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

So theyre here staying in the hotels, they're eating in the restaurants.

And if this wasn't here, Cuchara would be just a stop on the road.

This means a lot to our community.

We work hard to support this and other activities throughout the county.

I guess this mountain is just a place where where local people get to escape.

A lot of people just have a connection to the area itself, they've been coming up here for a while and spending so much time up here in this beautiful place.

And I think that is the root of their devotion to the mountain.

[light music] [wind]