In a pricey landscape, Gunnison’s Cranor Hill hangs on as a cheap, charming place to ski

Since the 1960s, the city of Gunnison has kept Cranor a place for locals to hit the slopes as part of Colorado’s tradition of city-owned hills.

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Feb 15, 2025 - 04:20
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In a pricey landscape, Gunnison’s Cranor Hill hangs on as a cheap, charming place to ski
A woman stands at the base of a snowy hill waiting to catch a Poma lift. There is a sign to her right, reminding her to take the straps of her poles off her wrists.

It’s a tiny bump in Colorado’s ski-country landscape, but the city of Gunnison’s Cranor Hill has kept locals on snow since the 1960s. 

Cranor Hill opened as a private ski area in 1962 and was sold to the city a few years later. The Poma surface lift climbs a little more than 300 feet and serves four runs and a bit of off-piste terrain. It’s one of several city-owned ski areas in Colorado that thrive amid the giants of the U.S. resort industry. 

A Cranor Hill lift ticket and the wire wicket used to affix it to a skier's jacket
Children under 5 and adults 65 and over ski free at Cranor Hill. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Steamboat Springs took over its downtown Howelsen Hill in 1937. The city of Denver opened  its Winter Park ski area in 1940. A nonprofit Lake County recreation board inked a 99-year lease to run Ski Cooper in 1942. The tiny, free Lee’s Ski Hill in Ouray opened in the late 1940s. Silverton’s 35-acre Kendall Mountain first hosted skiers in 1963. Durango opened the 7-acre Chapman Hill in 1966. Lake City opened Lake City Ski Hill in 1966.

Cranor — pronounced Cray-Ner — usually opens in January and closes by the end of February. Because it has no snowmaking equipment, it can lie dormant for entire seasons or open late and close early, depending on snowfall. Day tickets are $35 for adults and season passes run $90 for members of the Gunnison Recreation Center and $25 for additional family members. 

That added up to $190 for season passes for the entire Butterfield family.

“I can see all three kids skiing at once,” Tina Butterfield, a professor at nearby Western Colorado University, said as she skied Cranor with her children and husband. “We can get all of us and our stuff in the car and 10 minutes later we are skiing for the day. It’s family-friendly and reminiscent of my skiing growing up.”

A man wearing orange pants and a blue sweater sits on a green bench inside the warming hut at Cranor Hill. His red ski patrol jacket is draped over a chair in front of him
A ski patroller wearing orange pants and a red coat with a white cross on the back talks to two women. One is wearing a black and white parka and has skis on. The other is dressed all in black and has not put on her skis

LEFT: Ski patroller Chris Pach takes a break inside the warming hut at the base of Cranor Hill. RIGHT: Pach gives an impromptu ski lesson to first-time skier Zoe Ables, right, while her friend Anisty McKensie observes. Both Able and McKensie attend Western Colorado University in Gunnison. Ables said learning to ski was a spur of the moment decision and Cranor Hill was an easy nearby place to start. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Elise Picard learned to ski at Cranor when she was in the fifth grade. She has worked at the warming house at the hill since 2014. She knows just about everyone who comes in for cocoa and snacks.

A busy day at Cranor sees about 60 or 70 skiers, Picard said. Wednesday afternoons can be busy, too, when skiing is free for the after-school crowd. The Crested Butte Snowsports Foundation supports Wednesday free skiing at Cranor for five weeks every winter. The foundation traces its roots back to the early 1900s, when the Gunnison Valley Ski Club helped build some of Colorado’s first ski hills, including the Sagebrush ski area outside Gunnison and the Pioneer ski area up Cement Creek.

A woman wearing a blue shirt talks on the phone behind a green Dutch door inside the warming hut at Cranor Hill. There are posters advertising snacks and ski area hats for sale and warning there is no sledding allowed on the hill. There is a blue Lost and Found bin to the right
Warming house manager Elise Picard talks on the phone with a skier wondering if the lift is running. Picard sells lift tickets, provides information and sells snacks. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)

“It’s so beautiful to see small-town skiing in action and it really is why we exist,” the foundation’s executive director Erica Rasmussen said, noting that her group has partnered with a local gear shop to offer free rentals for Cranor skiers. “We are empowering our community through snowsports at Cranor Hill.”

Olympic halfpipe skier Aaron Blunck grew up skiing at Crested Butte Mountain Resort and recently visited Cranor for the first time. 

“There is something about the small local hills that brings the most out of skiing,” Blunck said. “I think because there are no expectations. It’s just about being outside, celebrating the soul of skiing and cranking out laps. These hills are important. They are the backbone of skiing.”

A boy wearing a helmet and alight blue parka climbs to the base of the lift, using his snowboard as leverage
A young snowboarder climbs from the warming hut at the base of Cranor HIll ski area up to the Poma lift that will take him up the hill. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
A long line of skiers is towed up the hill on a Poma lift. There are two skiers laying in the snow to the right of them.
A woman in a purple parka and ski pants sits on the Poma lift with her young child, wearing a dark colored jacket and ski pants, and a red helmet, hangs on to her knees

LEFT: Skiers ride the Poma lift at Cranor Hill ski area on a Saturday afternoon. The tiny hill gets 60-70 skiers on a busy day. RIGHT: Katie Hunt and her son Sawyer, 2, ride the lift. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)

For the end-of-season, Oh Be Joyful ski races over Presidents Day weekend, the hill bustles with more than a hundred skiers, Picard said. She knows just about everyone who comes in for cocoa and snacks. (The annual Oh-Be-Joyful ski races are scheduled for Monday.) 

Tom and Mary Johnson have been skiing Cranor Hill for more than 40 years.

“There’s not many people, it’s close to home and it’s inexpensive. A great little ski area,” Tom said. “A lot of times the skiing here is better than Crested Butte or Monarch. They get packed down and if they don’t get any snow, they get icy. Here, it doesn’t. You get like 4 to 6 inches of powder here and it’s just fantastic.”

Two skiers make their way down a snowy run at Cranor hill. One of them is wearing a red ski outfit, the other is in light colored ski pants and a dark jacket.
Skiers make their way down one of the three runs on Cranor HIll ski area on Feb. 1. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
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