When one considers skiing in Colorado in the 21st century, names like Aspen, Vail, Telluride, and Breckenridge inevitably come to mind. The ski resort industry in Colorado has grown immensely from its humble, pre-World War II beginnings into one of the dominant winter sports regions in the world. But what few modern skiers and snowboarders realize is that the history of skiing and ski areas in Colorado is as rich as the gold and silver that were mined from these hills.
Scattered throughout the seven major mountain ranges in Colorado lay many forgotten ski hills, some small and others large, but all overgrown relics of a once vibrant skiing community, a community focused solely on the experience of skiing, and not the bottom line. From the earliest ski hills at Chalk Mountain, Pikes Peak, and Cement Creek, to more modern “lost ski areas” like Ski Rio, Berthoud Pass, and Conquistador, the shared history of vibrant Front Range ski clubs hosting jumping events and miners using immense wooden skis to race each other back to the bars runs deep.
Fortunately, modern backcountry skiers can relive much of the colorful history of these lost ski areas with a keen appetite for adventure and a desire to relive the old days. As a lifelong skier and college history major, I have spent many days ski touring over the deep and untracked snows of lost resorts like Marble, Montezuma, Geneva Basin, Berthoud Pass, and Dallas Divide, soaking up the sense of good times gone by and imagining myself as a skier in the 1930s or 1940s. While skinning up, one can contemplate the ghost skiers that once carved turns down these slopes, and take solace in the fact that our sport evolved to what it is today because of the experiences of those skiers and ski area operators. I love inspecting the old rope tows and broken-down lift shacks, imagining the joy that these slopes and tows brought to generations of skiers.
Inevitably, these ski hills will fade into the memories of the skiers that cared about them, and unfortunately, modern skiers and snowboarders may not know or care enough to keep their memories alive. Fortunately for backcountry skiers and ski history buffs, Peter Bronski has taken the time to accurately and with great detail guide us into the past so that we all might relive the glory days of skiing in Colorado. Powder Ghost Towns will inspire skiers to search out the ski history that may lie in their own backyard. With this book I’m confident that many of our lost ski areas will get a chance to relive their glory days as skiers once again seek out the joys of skiing and riding on their slopes.
Enjoy,
Chris Davenport
Old Snowmass, Colorado
September 2008
Chris Davenport is a professional big-mountain skier (www.steepskiing.com) who has appeared in more than a dozen feature ski films, including ones from Warren Miller Entertainment and Matchstick Productions. He is the second person to ski all of Colorado’s Fourteeners (http://www.skithe14ers.com), and the first person to complete the feat in a single year.
A skier approaches Ironclad Ridge, with the Rock Creek drainage and lower slopes of Saint Vrain Mountain behind.
Introduction
HISTORY
Because the individual chapters of this book discuss Colorado’s skiing history in great detail, here I’ll paint the picture using only the broadest of brushes, so as to put the individual backcountry destinations and lost resorts into historical context.
The earliest documented skiing in Colorado dates back to the 1850s. Guides, doctors and nurses, priests, mailmen, and miners all skied simply to get about their work and daily lives through the heart of Rocky Mountain winters. Those earliest skis were made from wood, and averaged 8 to 12 feet long. Animal skins strapped to the base of the skis served as the “skins” that allowed for uphill travel.
It wasn’t long before those pioneering skiers were racing one another downhill. By the 1880s, Crested Butte and Gunnison were already hosting ski races. In 1883, the Ski Club at Irwin became the first documented organization devoted to recreational skiing in the state. By 1887, skiers at Ouray had developed “après skiing,” enjoying wine and food together after a day on the slopes.
Colorado hosted the first Winter Carnival west of the Mississippi in 1912 at Hot Sulphur Springs. Many other Winter Carnivals soon followed, as did an influx of Norwegians, Swedes, Swiss, and other talented skiers. Soon, native Coloradans started to leave their own mark on the state’s ski culture. By 1936, Colorado had its first rope tow; by 1939, its first overhead chairlift. Both of these “firsts” belong to ski areas that are now lost, as do other significant milestones—first night skiing, lowest elevation ski area, first double chair.
The 10th Mountain Division, which trained at Camp Hale near Leadville, ushered in another era of skiing for Colorado. When the soldiers returned from World War II, they founded many of the state’s megaresorts that operate today.
Today, only a relative handful of ski areas remain open—27, plus or minus a few in any given year. They include the big resorts—Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen, Telluride, and Steamboat—and also mom-and-pop locations such as Eldora, Monarch, Wolf Creek, and Sunlight. These resorts continue Colorado’s legacy as “Ski Country USA.” But it was the lost ski areas—which total perhaps as many as 200—that started it all.
Looking down the lift line of Bear Bumps at Cuchara Mountain Resort
They closed for many reasons. Competition. Not enough skiers. Inconsistent snowfall. Financial woes. Yet they all share one common attribute—they’ve become Colorado’s “other” ghost towns. They are powder ghost towns, reclaimed by the mountains with the passage of time and falling of snow each winter season. But they remain accessible to the backcountry skier who is willing to leave the beaten track and the lifts behind in search of untouched powder and tangible pieces of Colorado’s skiing past.
USING THIS GUIDE
This section describes how to use the guidebook, including how lost ski areas were selected for inclusion, as well as the information you’ll find within each chapter.
CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION
The selection process for deciding what lost ski areas would be included in the book was, in part, a subjective one. As the author of the book, I had the luxury of deciding which ones did and didn’t make the cut. In general, every ski area had to have a blend of good history and good skiing. But I did try to bring a degree of objectivity to the table. Every ski area also had to satisfy three basic criteria:
It had to be legally and publicly accessible (about half of Colorado’s lost ski areas are on private property);
It had to have enough vertical to make the skiing worthwhile (many lost ski areas were small rope tows with vertical measured at a few hundred feet or less);
It had to have reliable snowfall (more than a few lost ski areas, especially those in the Front Range, closed for lack of consistent snowfall).
Those criteria were more guidelines, though, than hard and fast rules. In the end, I made choices intended to give you—the reader and backcountry skier—the best skiing. If it made sense to link up a smaller lost ski area with a larger area of backcountry terrain above it, I did so. In a select few cases, a historically
