Rod Rodgers used the Fraser Tubing Hill for years before he started to work there clipping the ropes and sending kids back up the slope. The cowboy who owned the place, who most knew simply as John, charged $3 a ride, but he opened the hill 1971 as more of a way to attract customers for horseback rides, ice skating and cross-country skiing.
“Then more and more people like us came to use the hill,” Rod said in a phone interview. “So he took the other things out and just did the tubing.”
Fraser may be the oldest professional tubing hill in Colorado. It’s hard to know for sure, but even when Rod began working there, in 1982, “there were tubing hills nowhere,” he said. But Fraser was probably the one that made tubing a feasible attraction. In 1991, Rod had seen enough and bought the place with his brother, Monte.
“Fraser’s got quite the reputation,” Rod said. “I just think we are good at what we do.”
That reputation spread so far across the state that many ski resorts offer a tubing hill now. Other places that offer winter attractions have them as well, such as Saddleback Ranch in Steamboat and its “Yee-Haw” hill or Snow Mountain Ranch’s tubing hill in Winter Park next door to Fraser (Winter Park resort also offers one, making the area the Orlando of tubing).
“I think you’d be surprised how many folks have them,” said Chris Linsmayer, public affairs director with Colorado Ski Country USA, which lists 10 resorts on their site with tubing. “That’s a space the ski industry has really stepped into.”
What Fraser offers is friendly but no frills service and fat tubes for rent in a building that doesn’t look much different from your grandfather’s shack deep in the mountains, save for the bright orange paint. The prices have gone up to $25 for an hour, but those are comparable to other sites, especially the stiff competition next door provided by the Colorado Adventure Park. Colorado Adventure inspired a Hatfield-McCoy love affair between the two hills, and Rod admits that their close competition, with their nicer buildings and fancy amenities, hurt Fraser for a while. But last year was a good year, Rod said, especially given that COVID-19 inspired families to get out: “Our hill is quite a bit bigger and steeper.”
Indeed. It’s a cliché to say it, but these aren’t your neighborhood tubing hills, even if your friends named one of them “Killer Hill” or something equally ridiculous. Fraser’s hills are fast and, yes, furious, which, along with the towing, inspires the amusement-park prices.
“This is like a ride. That’s the way I look at it,” Rod said. “I compare it to Lakeside and Elitches.”
Tubing hills have taken off in the last half-dozen years, Linsmayer said, as resorts try to find ways to compete with each other by investing in experiences not related to skiing: It’s not enough to simply offer the most terrain, bowls or runs any longer.
“When you’re with family or friends, some may not want to go skiing every single day,” Linsmayer said. “Not everyone in that group will necessarily want to go skiing at all.”
Aspen opened a hill at Snowmass, a resort viewed by the industry and customers as more family-friendly than its bougie counterpart, in 2014 to accompany its large ski school and a play center.
“People come on vacation to ski and have the kids learn,” said Tucker Vest Burton, “but you know kids. It’s good to have options.”
Much like Las Vegas resorts, ski places want to offer complete packages, Vest Burton said, to make it more of an experience.
“As part of being a top destination, it’s an added thing,” Tucker said. “If you’re from New York, and you want to have the true winter destination experience, for some that’s just skiing, but for others it’s not.”
Some resorts, however, are so pleased with their tubing hills that they do see them as a main attraction. Monarch Mountain opened its tubing hill just a couple years ago and inspired some to make their first visit to Monarch, said Scott Pressly, vice president of mountain operations.
“We do have people to go tubing who wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Pressly said. “Our goal is maybe they will see the skiing and snowboarding, and maybe next time they will want to give that a try.”
A pair of tubers record their ride on their way down in the tubing park at the Monarch Mountain ski area Jan. 02, 2021.
Last year, for instance, the park had record visitation in the tubing park, but the resort also had record numbers overall, another COVID-19 influence.
“We are all trying to grow and diversify our offerings,” Pressly said. “I think a large percentage of our guests are here to go tubing the first time. It’s not quite as scary to sit on a tube and slide as opposed to skiing.”
This content was originally published here.