Battle on the Mountain Comes to Breckenridge as HGTV Hits New Heights

Three teams that have experience with home renovation (but are still relatively green) get matched with an HGTV-famous designer who helps renovate a property; each team also has access to a local carpenter. The teams have four weeks to work on different areas of the homes and will get judged each week on a specific project.

The goal is to increase the home’s value, and the team that manages to increase the value of their house the most wins the show’s grand prize. In Battle on the Mountain, “the air is thinner and the stakes are higher,” which was an actual challenge for the teams and the designers.

Denver’s own Rico León (Rico to the Rescue) is one of the designers involved in the battle, along with Kim Myles (Design Star) and Kim Wolfe. Westword chatted with Kim Myles to learn about how she acclimated to the altitude, the challenges specific to a Breck renovation, and her love affair with the state (spoiler: She has one).

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Coaches/trainers Rico León, Kim Myles and Kim Wolfe.

HGTV

Westword: Give us an overview of what it was like to come to Breckenridge from out of state and work on a renovation challenge.

Kim Myles: There’s no oxygen where you are, so let’s talk about that! It’s hard to breathe until you have acclimated, and that is a real impediment to physical labor and sometimes even just talking. That was a huge challenge and very unexpected, because even though you’re told, there’s no way to prepare for it.

Then there were challenges of getting materials in out-of-the-way places. I don’t consider Denver out of the way, but getting things to Breckenridge was really challenging.

Our carpenters were amazing. I have been in the game since 2007; I live my life on the backs of my carpenters. They are the ones who get it done. I love to make something pretty and have an idea of how to do it, but they are the ones who help me execute. They are instrumental; it goes without saying. And HGTV doesn’t skimp — we had good carpenters.

In any renovation, but especially a competition with high stakes, low oxygen and a short time span, there will be unexpected holy-moly moments, and that is the moment where you need to be able to depend on each other and have collaborative assessment of what the challenge is and how to tackle it.

Can you give us some insight into the conditions of the three homes when you started? It looked like they all needed basic upgrades and cosmetic work, but did you screen for bigger problems like well, septic or foundation red flags before selecting a home for the competition?

We don’t want to set any of these competitors up to fail, so we are not choosing any homes that have massive issues that are going to be unsafe, so that was the standard: habitable spaces.

But having said that, each space is unique, which I think is really fun, so each team had unique challenges in the space. The location again came into play — some spaces were built into a mountainside, and some are just kind of your standard cabin, but with issues. Big, big issues. Not dealbreaker issues, but some real issues.

I was very grateful, honestly, to be a mentor and to not be a competitor. I’m a veteran! I have lived this, and my heart does not skip a beat very often, but there were a lot of moments where it was just like, “Oooh, time get in the hot tub and look at the mountains,” because I’ve been some iteration of there, and no thank you. It’s a clutch-your-pearls-and-gasp moment.

How easy was it to find homes that were in relatively the same condition and the same distance away from resources in a mountain town?

That was another challenge — obviously, we were setting everybody up for a meritocracy, which means all of these locations need to be equidistant from a source of material, giving everybody the same shot, and that was a huge challenge. If we couldn’t go to Silverthorne…most of the time we do not have time to run down to Denver. So that is the real challenge — getting access to materials, getting them there — and sometimes it’s the access into the space. You’re bringing in large materials, and these cabins were built around the 1970s, so entrance access for large materials — even if you can get it up the driveway, how are you going to get it where you need it?

What were some of the biggest hurdles for your team to clear?

I would say the big hurdle for us was twofold. We had an outdoor challenge that I will not give away, but oy vey! And just the challenge of an old spot. A great space can have fabulous bones buried under eighteen feet of crap, so there’s that piece, too. You can see all the potential in the world, but there’s elbow grease to get to it.

I know you were probably very busy during the filming, but did you get to experience any of Breckenridge or Colorado while you were out here?

First of all, I had been to Colorado a couple of times for other work situations, but I had never been to Breckenridge, so for me, when I knew this job was coming, I decided to spend the whole summer. I was like, “Listen, if we’re filming from X to Y, then I’m not going to go home; I’m just going to stay and explore, because this is an amazing opportunity.”

Colorado is life! I love Colorado, let me just tell you. Denver: fabulous city, so many exciting things happening in Denver, I’m a huge fan of Denver. I really enjoy the East Colfax district. Things are popping there, really interesting things happening.

I went to Vail, I went to Aspen, I spent time in Breckenridge and spent some time in Steamboat Springs. There’s so much to explore beyond the obvious, gobsmacking, knock-your-wig-off natural beauty. It would be hard for me, because I’d be driving by myself on a highway and I wanted to be watching the vista, but I had to be focused on the road.

The people were so fun, warm, friendly. Just the vibe is nice; it’s real chill, I have nothing but wonderful things to say. I bought all kinds of fabulous pieces of art. It’s great!

I really hope that everybody watches Battle on the Mountain so I can go back and do this again. Let’s explore more!

You heard the leader of Team Myles! Watch Battle on the Mountain starting today at 7 p.m. MST on HGTV. See the full episode release schedule here.