{"id":15143,"date":"2025-12-20T13:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T20:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chapman-hill-ski-area-opens-with-holiday-hours-saturday\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:14","slug":"chapman-hill-ski-area-opens-with-holiday-hours-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chapman-hill-ski-area-opens-with-holiday-hours-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapman Hill Ski Area opens with holiday hours Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Chapman
Chapman Hill Ski Area partially opened for holiday hours on Saturday and some Durango residents and out-of-towners were quick to hit the slopes. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chapman Hill Ski Area opened 10 a.m. Saturday for its holiday ski hours, and some people were eager to hit the slopes.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a particularly busy morning, but resident Marc Galeazzi said he was excited for his two boys, Rowan, 8, and Mason, 10, to get outside and enjoy the day.<\/p>\n

The boys were the first ones on the hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just excited that my boys like to ski with me,\u201d he said \u201cI\u2019m not going out today, but I\u2019m glad that they enjoy it like I did, because there was a lot of work getting them up to the point where they actually could ski.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowan and Mason have been skiing since they were 3 and 4 years old, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest part is getting them out the door getting dressed and getting them going. But they\u2019re great at it and they enjoy it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Galeazzi said his family hasn\u2019t been to Purgatory Resort yet and he\u2019s glad they get to ski right in town.<\/p>\n

\"Mason
Mason Galeazzi, 10, catches air at Chapman Hill Ski Area, which opened with holiday hours on Saturday. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chapman
Chapman Hill Ski Area partially opened for holiday hours on Saturday. Mason Galeazzi, 10, looks to his father Marc after reaching the base of Chapman Hill. He and his brother Rowan were the first pair on the hill Saturday morning. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A group of New Mexico residents traveled to Durango on Saturday morning to snowboard at Chapman Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went up to Wolf Creek twice, maybe three times now, but we\u2019re a bunch of broke farmer boys, so this is so much better and cheaper,\u201d Chris Culpepper said.<\/p>\n

He said he and his friends learned how to snowboard at Chapman Hill, and they are in their second season snowboarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adrenaline rush, the exercise, everything. We love it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Chapman
Chapman Hill Ski Area partially opened for holiday hours on Saturday, and Durango residents and out-of-towners were quick to hit the slopes. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chapman Hill Operations Manager Diego Lopez said the ski area\u2019s hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the holidays. It will be closed Christmas Day and New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

The ski area is currently only operating its big tow, a Poma lift that takes skiers and snowboarders halfway up the hill to its midway station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that we can get some snowmaking operations started up here maybe in the next week or so,\u201d he said. \u201cLooks like temperatures might drop again after Christmas, and we\u2019ll try and get the hill more open when we\u2019re able to get some more terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lightning strike during a November thunderstorm fried relays and electrical components as well as one of the ski area\u2019s light panels, and replacement parts were needed before opening day, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Chapman
Chapman Hill Ski Area partially opened for holiday hours on Saturday, and Durango residents and out-of-towners were quick to hit the slopes. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The parts were installed earlier this week, and safety features were checked before operations began. Additionally, crews have been blowing snow and grooming terrain for opening day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had the lights on the big tow side of the hill working. We have parts for that in and those are planned to get installed this weekend,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe\u2019ll hopefully be ready for night skiing here after the holiday hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snow depth at the base of the hill is 4 to 8 inches deep, he said. Crews aim to have about 1 foot of depth before snowmaking operations cease so the snow will last until the middle of March.<\/p>\n

Ski lessons at Chapman Hill start in January, and private lessons can be booked over the holidays, he said.<\/p>\n

Ski passes and lessons can be ordered online at durangoco.gov\/544\/Ski-Area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A day pass is $6 for children age 3 and younger; $14 for children ages 4 and 5; $14 for children ages 6 to 17; and $16 for adults ages 18 to 61. Passes are $5 for seniors age 62 and older, according to the city of Durango.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Chapman
Chapman Hill Ski Area partially opened for holiday hours on Saturday, and Durango residents and out-of-towners were quick to hit the slopes. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lessons start in January, private instruction will also be available <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,997,950,28,976,1660,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-chapman-hill","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-snowboarding","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19503,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions\/19503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15143"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}