After seven years of ownership that saved the Echo Mountain ski area from the brink of extinction, Burwell Enterprises this week sold the small Clear Creek County operation to Jogan Inc., a company based in Englewood.
“Our goal with Echo Mountain was to create Colorado’s most affordable, most accessible, and most diverse ski and snowboard destination,” Burwell Enterprises chief executive Peter Burwell said in a news release. “Our remarkable team members at Echo built that vision into a reality. My family is incredibly proud of that and them.”
Jogan Inc. is “a shared services organization,” according to a profile on the company’s LinkedIn page. “The growing company aims to revolutionize the staffing, transportation, security, consumer, wellness, medical, and real estate industries with technological innovation and comprehensive solutions that bring communities closer together.”
Burrell acquired Echo in 2016 after the previous owners filed for bankruptcy. It has just 60 acres of skiing and one chairlift, but it does have lights that allow for night skiing. It is located on a slope south of Idaho Springs, whose lights are visible from the area at night.
“I am so incredibly proud of all the hard work our team at Echo put in over the last seven years to create, build, and grow it into what it is today,” said Fred Klaas, who managed Echo Mountain while it was owned by Burwell Enterprises. “We were able to build a great foundation for Echo and execute on a lot of its vast potential, and we recognize there is still so much more opportunity ahead for it.”
Asked what this means for the area’s future, Klaas said, “The new owners are really excited about what Echo is today, and the potential for what it can become. More information will be available in the coming days regarding future plans.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
