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Monarch Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / Monarch Ski Resort

Monarch Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of Colorado in USA. The resort is in the town of Salida, CO.

We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Monarch stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Monarch is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes with with Monarch Ski Resort. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Monarch's website.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Monarch around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Monarch Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Monarch has a total of 64 ski trails, which are serviced by 7 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. With 800 acres, Monarch Ski Resort has a moderate amount of skiiable terrain available for skiers. This area is equivalent to 324 hectares, 1.3 square miles, or 3.2 square kilometers.

Monarch's slopes see on average 350 inches (10.7 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 29 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
64
Ski Lift
Lifts
7
Skier
Skiable Acres
800(3 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
350"(10,668 cm)

Monarch Ski Resort Elevation

Monarch Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 11,952 feet, or 3,643 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 10,790 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 1,162 feet (354 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 11,952 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
11,952'(3,643 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
1,162'(354 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
10,790'(3,289 m)

Monarch Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
51out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Monarch can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 77% of its trails rated at or above intermediate ski level.

 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Monarch has 800 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Monarch is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 23% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 77%.
Green Circle
Beginner
23%(184 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
27%(216 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
50%(400 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Monarch Ski Resort good for beginners?

Monarch can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 77% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.

Monarch Ski Resort Location

Monarch Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Salida, CO.

Address:
Salida, CO 81201 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
skimonarch.com

GPS Coordinates:
38.54000, -106.33000

Getting to Monarch Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Monarch Ski Resort), its coordinates of 38.54000, -106.33000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Salida, CO to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Monarch Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Denver International AirportDENDenver, CO127 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Monarch.

NameCodeCityDistance
Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy FieldASEAspen, CO55 mi
San Luis Valley Regional Airport/Bergman FieldALSAlamosa, CO80 mi
Eagle County Regional AirportEGEEagle, CO82 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Monarch Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Monarch Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Crested ButteCrested Butte, CO12,162 ft74%42 mi
Powderhorn Ski ResortPowderhorn, CO9,850 ft58%45 mi
Aspen Mountain Ski ResortAspen, CO11,212 ft79%52 mi
Aspen Highlands Ski ResortAspen, CO11,675 ft93%53 mi
Aspen SnowmassSnowmass Village, CO12,510 ft86%55 mi
Ski CooperLeadville, CO11,700 ft42%57 mi
Copper MountainFrisco, CO12,313 ft66%64 mi
BreckenridgeBreckenridge, CO12,998 ft82%68 mi
Beaver CreekBeaver Creek, CO11,440 ft62%75 mi
VailVail, CO11,570 ft77%76 mi
KeystoneDillon, CO12,408 ft69%76 mi
Wolf CreekPagosa Springs, CO11,904 ft50%78 mi
SunlightGlenwood Springs, CO9,895 ft51%80 mi
Loveland Ski AreaDillon, CO13,010 ft63%82 mi
SilvertonSilverton, CO13,487 ft99%88 mi
Kendall Mountain Ski AreaSilverton, CO9,596 ft19%88 mi
Echo Mountain ResortIdaho Springs, CO10,650 ft27%90 mi
ButtermilkLarkspur, CO9,900 ft47%90 mi
TellurideTelluride, CO13,320 ft89%91 mi
Winter Park ResortWinter Park, CO12,060 ft72%98 mi
Ski Granby RanchGranby, CO9,202 ft30%100 mi

Monarch Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation11,952 ft
Base Elevation10,790 ft
Vertical Drop1,162 ft
Trails64
(23% Beginner,  27% Intermediate,  50% Expert)
Lifts7
Skiable Acres800
Avg. Annual Snowfall350 inches
Monarch Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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