Skiing small.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN

COLORADO'S SMALLER SKI AREAS CAN'T COMPETE WITH GLITZY GIANTS LIKE VAIL AND ASPEN. SO THEY FIND OTHER WAYS TO DRAW A CROWD.

They're Colorado classics. The Gems of the Rockies. Pluggers.

They're Colorado's smaller ski areas -- a dozen in all -- that each year open their runs without multimillion-dollar marketing budgets, without glitzy names like Vail and Aspen, and without chic mountain villages.

They're the Davids vs. Goliaths of Colorado's 27 ski areas, and they're not about to take a powder in the battle for ski market share.

"We're where Colorado skis," said Kathy Dirks, marketing director for Powderhorn Ski Area near Grand Junction, which attracts fewer than 100,000 skiers a season. Contrast that with No. 1 Breckenridge Ski Resort's 1.4 million skier visits, Vail's 1.3 million or Keystone's 1.2 million skier visits.

"We have no aspirations to be a big ski area, but have found what we do best and then go with that," said Dirks.

Powderhorn, like most successful small resorts, has carved out a niche in Colorado's $3.5 billion ski industry by catering to a range of customers -- families looking for affordable skiing, the Front Range youth market, group sales or destination skiers from as far away as Nebraska and Kansas.

At Powderhorn, 90% of skiers and snowboarders are Coloradans, primarily from the Western Slope; destination skiers from California, Texas and eastern Utah make up about 4% of its market.

Loveland Ski area, at the Eisenhower Tunnel, relies on Front Range skiers for 80% of its market, but .has seen its foreign market grow to 3% of the total as visitors to neighboring Summit County resorts give Loveland a try. At Eldora Mountain Resort in Nederland, Denver-Boulder skiers and snowboarders rule.

"We like to think of ourselves as being 'classic' Colorado ski resorts that offer good snow, good value and a friendly experience," said Powderhorn's Dirks. "We're a winter sports atmosphere the way it should be."

And Colorado's bigger areas welcome the can-do attitude of their little sisters.

"The bigger resorts need them," said Joan Christensen, spokeswoman for Winter Park Resort, which posts about 1 million skier visits annually. "They serve very much as a less intimidating option for people who are learning to ski. No one runs a marathon for their first race, so we see these areas as an asset."

In the Fraser Valley, nearby Silver Creek Resort acquired the extreme-skiing Berthoud Pass Ski Area last year, offering a dual lift ticket...