Читать книгу Powder Ghost Towns - Peter Bronski - Страница 12

FOREWORD

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.