New deck likely coming to Snowmass Ski Area restaurant

Known for hosting D.J.-serenaded, hot tub-furnished closing day parties while brave skiers dressed in costumes pond-skim nearby, a Snowmass Ski Area restaurant is set to expand.

Snowmass Town Council on Monday unanimously approved an Aspen Skiing Company proposal to add an above-ground, 1,898-square-foot deck addition to the Elk Camp Restaurant. 

“That restaurant, it needs this,” Snowmass Mayor Alyssa Shenk said. “I think it is really busy with the passenger traffic that comes up by foot, the coaster, the tubing, the beginner area … I think it’s really hard to find a seat sometimes.”

An elevated steel structure will support the deck on the northeast side of the existing building.

Town Council, however, posed two major questions before its approval: Will restaurant expansion require more employees, and what happens to the area underneath the proposed deck, which currently has doors leading to bathrooms?

According to SkiCo, it takes about four full-time employees to run Elk Camp Restaurant in December. It also told Snowmass officials it is “adamant that no new employees will be created with this project,” city documents state.

But Snowmass Housing Director Betsy Crum later told city officials that the proposal nearly doubles Elk Camp’s seating capacity. As it stands, Elk Camp can seat 250 in its dining room, while a new deck adds a net total of 120 seats; crunching the numbers, Crum calculated the new deck would require about two new full-time employees.

With a major affordable housing project already in the works for Snowmass — in addition to 280 Snowmass employees currently on the waiting list for town-owned rentals — Council member Susan Marolt expressed concerns over housing mitigation.

“I’m just really sensitive to that calculation,” she said. “We just need to make sure that we’re really thinking through what the employee generation is going to be.”

Elk Camp Restaurant construction does coincide with a major remodel of another Snowmass Ski Area restaurant: The Ullrhof, near the Big Burn chairlift, will be under construction for the next two ski seasons. 

SkiCo official Chris Kiley said construction of the new Elk Camp Deck will “offset some of the seating pressure that we’re going to feel next year with the Ullrhof Restaurant down for a year of construction.”

Snowmass, once a week—just for you.
Everyday Snowmass lands in your inbox every Wednesday with the latest news, events, and stories from the village. It’s everything you need to stay connected—all in one place.

Sign up for free at SnowmassSun.com/newsletter.

When it comes to what lies beneath the proposed deck, SkiCo Project Manager Mak Keeling said people can still walk underneath it, and there will still be an egress path leading to the kids’ ski school dining room on the lower level.

Construction of the new deck, set to take place after the Elk Camp Gondola closes for upgrades on Aug. 4, is expected to be completed in fall.

“We’ll kind of have a month-and-a-half of some farewell to the Elk Camp chair going on for some hiking, sightseeing, and biking,” Keeling said. “But after Aug. 4, we’ll be taking the chairs down, removing the rope and taking down the towers, and moving it to its new home.” 

Elk Camp Restaurant reopens for summer on June 21.

Ray K. Erku can be reached at (970) 429-9120 or rerku@aspentimes.com.