All-female ski festival, complete with a naked lap, finds new home in Colorado

DENVER — A female-focused ski festival that features a signature buns-out lap returns in 2024, this time to a new home resort.

Boot Tan Fest, as it’s coyly called, comes to Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort in Glenwood Springs on March 29-30 inviting women, female-identifying and nonbinary individuals to enjoy a weekend of skiing, special events and the camaraderie of a supportive community.

Jenny Verrochi started Boot Tan Fest somewhat inadvertently in 2021 after organizing a casual, ladies-only naked lap at Bluebird Backcountry near Kremmling. In 2022, it became a ticketed event welcoming 200 people for a ski day that concluded with a run in the buff. In 2023, the event grew to 450 people.

What’s the allure of shredding nude?

“It is the best feeling,” Verrochi previously told The Denver Post.

But in July, Bluebird Backcountry closed leaving the fate of the unique event in limbo. Verrochi solicited resorts from West Coast to East Coast and was pleasantly surprised by how many offered to host. She ultimately decided to keep it close to home.

“We went with Sunlight because, one, they’re local and, two, they’re privately owned,” Verrochi said in December. “It’s a super low-key, very chill vibe. This wouldn’t be possible at Aspen Mountain or Vail Resorts.”

With a new venue comes new amenities, perhaps most notably chairlifts. Bluebird Backcountry, as the name suggests, required skinning up the mountain to ski down.

With three chairlifts providing access to more than 730 skiable acres, Sunlight Mountain does not require any backcountry experience. Because of that Verrochi is expecting upward of 1,500 attendees from Europe, the States and beyond at the 2024 fest.

“Now that it’s at a ski resort with lifts, it’s much more...