SAM Magazine—Idaho Springs, Colo., Sept. 21, 2023—Burwell Enterprises has sold Echo Mountain to Jogan Inc., LLC, for an undisclosed amount in a deal that closed Monday. The Burwell family acquired Echo in 2016 for $3.8 million, resurrecting the small ski area—located just 36 miles from downtown Denver—from bankruptcy. 

“Our goal with Echo Mountain was to create Colorado’s most affordable, most accessible, and most diverse ski and snowboard destination,” said Burwell Enterprises CEO Peter Burwell. 

Englewood-based (Colo.) Jogan Inc., LLC, is a “shared services organization,” according to its LinkedIn profile, with interests in providing “technological innovation and comprehensive solutions” for the staffing, transportation, security, consumer, wellness, medical, and real estate industries. The company has several subsidiaries listed on its opengovco.com profile.  

At press time, Jogan Inc. had not issued an announcement of the acquisition.

Echo Mountain has 60 skiable acres served by one triple chair and two conveyor lifts. It has been marketed as a welcoming place to try skiing or snowboarding, with a message on the homepage of its website that says, “Calling all overlooked adventurers.” The approach appeared to have been working—in the November 2021 issue of SAM magazine (“It’s Alive: Small Ski Areas Reanimated”), general manager Fred Klaas reported that more than 50 percent of Echo’s guests were non-white. 

“I am so incredibly proud of all the hard work our team at Echo put in over the last 7 years to create, build, and grow it into what it is today,” said Klaas in a statement about the sale. “We were able to build a great foundation for Echo and execute on a lot of its vast potential, and yet, we recognize there is still so much more opportunity ahead for it.”