Skiing & Snowboarding (YWAM Denver)

Only forty-five minutes from the nearest world-class ski resort, YWAM Denver is the place for skiers and snowboarders. Whether you're a beginner, intermediate or expert, the slopes of Colorado beckon everyone.

In fact, we plan designated Ski Days in the fall and winter when we'll take the entire student body to the mountains to ski. If you've ever wanted to learn how to ski or snowboard, Colorado is the place to be.

1. Colorado has 55 mountain peaks that rise over 14,000 feet. Of the state's 26 ski resorts, the closest to that height is Arapahoe Basin at 13,050 feet. It is the highest lift-served resort in North America. 
2. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) plows 5.8 million miles of highway each year. Forty-six plows serve Interstate 70 between Denver and Vail. 
3. The greatest 24-hour snowfall ever measured in North America fell on Silver Lake - 76 inches on April 14-15,1921. Wolf Creek Pass holds the Colorado record for the most snow in one season - 837.5 inches in 1978-79. Nevertheless, the state averages 300 days of sunshine annually. 
4. Over 90 of percent of all resorts in Colorado have snowboard specialty runs including groomed halfpipes, straight jumps and other unique terrain.
5. With 14 cars and a 750-passenger capacity, the Winter Park Ski Train is the largest regularly scheduled passenger train in the United States. Offering weekend trips to the resorts since 1940, the train travels through 29 tunnels, crosses under the Continental Divide, and drops passengers off 50 yards from the ski lifts. 
6. At an altitude of 11,444 feet, the Alpenglow Stube restaurant at Keystone Resort bills itself as "the highest gourmet restaurant in the world".
7. The National Ski Patrol, based in Denver, lists 2,047 Colorado members and first allowed women patrollers in 1942. Twenty-one trained dogs help the ski patrol perform avalanche rescues in the Colorado high country.
8. Combined, Colorado's major ski resorts serve more than 115,000 gallons of hot chocolate and more than 100,000 gallons of chili to hungry skiers every season. 
9. Colorado's Eisenhower Tunnel opened in 1973, giving high-country travelers faster access to ski resorts on the west side of the Continental Divide To complete the pair of two-lane tunnels on 1-70, 2.5 million cubic yards of rock were excavated. 
10. Winter Park's National Sports Center for the Disabled is the largest center of its kind in the world. Since its inception in 1970, more than 46,000 physically challenged people from all around the world have learned to ski, snowboard, and snowshoe.
11. Keystone is Colorado's only resort with extensive night skiing throughout the season. It offers 515 lighted acres on 18 trails.
12. Colorado has some of North America's best extreme back country within 75 miles from Denver. Berthoud pass has now set up a shuttle to pick up back country skiers and snowboarders at the bottom of the mountain and shuttle them to the highest hiking trails.
13. Skiing in Colorado dates back to the 1860's, when Norwegian miners used skis to get to and from work and postal carriers delivered the mail on skis. 
14. During the 1996-97 season, Colorado recorded the largest number of skier visits in one state in a single season; 11,845,052. '
15. The networks of groomed trails maintained by the cross-country ski centers at Aspen and Snowmass, along with the miles of paths in the forest that connect them, make up North America's largest system of free Nordic ski path.