Nora Pykkonen, who purchased Echo Mountain Resort in 2012 with plans to develop a private ski racing training facility, has filed for bankruptcy.
Unable to repay the creditor who financed her original purchase, Pykkonen last Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing $1.45 million in debt to the resort’s top 20 creditors, consisting mainly of $100,000 to $200,000 loans.
“We will continue to operate just as we have been operating,” Pykkonen said. “This is just a restructuring.”
The mother and co-founder of the Seattle-based Slalom Consulting management firm was pondering a move to Vail in 2012 to foster her family’s avid pursuit of ski racing.
Instead, she bought the 226-acre ski area in Clear Creek County and converted it into a private, membership-only training ground for school-age ski racers. She hired Olympic-level coaches and promised $5 million in upgrades. Ski clubs and university teams from across the country booked time and lanes. She sold memberships in her new Front Range Ski Club for $5,000. The plan was to grow a ski racing scene for Front Range skiers.
But interest waned. Fees from race training were not enough to pay the bills. Novembers were busy, but race traffic would slow in December and January. She dropped her membership fees and started offering less expensive annual fees. In 2014, she opened to the public for walk-up ski racing. In 2015, she opened for public skiing, drawing mostly beginner skiers to the runs adjacent to the ski racing lanes.
Pykkonen expected to see Front Range skiers taking advantage of her hill’s proximity to Denver. She was buried in first-timers.
“Over Christmas, we were just shocked by the number of never-evers coming up to take lessons,” she said, noting that more than 90 percent of her visitors since opening in late November are out-of-state visitors — mostly Texans — who have never skied and, while visiting Colorado, had Googled “closest ski area to Denver.”
“Opening to the public was definitely the right thing to do,” she said.
The market shift is not new for Echo Mountain. When Maryland hotelier Jerry Petitt revived the long dormant Squaw Pass ski area in 2006, the plan was a 30-acre snowboarding and freeskiing terrain park with 660 vertical feet of rails, tables and kickers. The video game consoles andcoolers full of energy drinks in the garage-like lounge were popular with teenage visitors. Still, within a couple years, Petitt changed tack and started targeting families with lessons and affordable packages that included $5 Friday night lift tickets. Visits grew and Petitt expanded the terrain before selling to Pykkonen in August 2012 for an undisclosed amount.
Pykkonen is following a similar path with a plan to attract first-timers. Most of her new guests, she said, show up in street clothes. She rents them entire kits — gloves, helmets, jackets and pants — plus ski gear.
She’s busy six days a week now, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., with an eclectic mix of newcomers and racers. “We are definitely in the black with a very healthy bottom line,” she said.
Still, she owes the one secured creditor who helped finance her purchase in 2012. She will have to present the bankruptcy court with a new business plan that could erase debt from unsecured creditors.
Debts listed in her bankruptcy filing include $150,000 owed to her director of operations, Bob Gregory, and more than $75,000 to Clear Creek County for water and taxes.
The new business strategy is much broader than just ski racing. Echo Mountain now has five terrain park features adjacent to ski racing lanes and a mix of beginner-to-intermediate ski runs next to more difficult gladed skiing.
Teams from Vail and Winter Park rent racing lanes for weeknight training under the lights. Pykkonen is hoping to develop a nordic track on the resort’s unused acreage above the lifts. She wants to start hosting inner-city kids who have never skied. She’s courting investors with a plan to expand Echo’s beginner terrain to more than double the 90 first-time skiers the hill can accommodate now.
“There are so many opportunities. There definitely is demand from the first-time skiers. We are figuring out what works and what doesn’t work. This is definitely a work in progress,” she said.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or @jasonblevins
