Tag: lost ski areas

2019–2020 Ski Season Shuts Down

Colorado skiers have been sans powder for a month due to COVID-19.

Governor Jared Polis said in early March that he would not shut down ski areas, but he encouraged skiers to social distance because of the new coronavirus. Then, as the resorts closed voluntarily, he issued an executive order suspending skiing for one week. That was mid March. On March 19th he extended the ban. Also, he discouraged people from traveling to the high country.

Most skiers left the resorts as they shut down, but backcountry enthusiasts just kept skiing. TV news reports showed that the parking lot at Berthoud Pass was packed. In mid-April the reports were that the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) blocked parking areas on Loveland Pass with snow to end parking along the mountain road.

Current generations of skiers are not the first to experience a loss of the “healthful sport” in their lives. World War II brought almost a complete shutdown of small ski areas and hills all over Colorado as the USA mobilized to fight overseas. The winter carnival in Hot Sulphur Springs shut down in 1940. When the war ended things would be different in Colorado; large resorts and alpine skiing eclipsed the little hills and Nordic skiing. Read more about this in the lost ski area books.

What will the changes be to skiing after this pandemic has passed? Perhaps Nordic skiing will become more popular because it lends itself to more social distance between skiers. Or, maybe skiers will have to ride two to a gondola unless they’re family members. Whatever happens, we know Coloradans will keep their chins up, be part of the national effort to defeat this virus, and find a way to ski after the emergency is over.

Skis for Horses

In honor of the stock show and all the folks who helped skiing get started in Colorado by offering their hills for runs and their tractors and trucks to power tows, here’s a good story found in Lost Ski Areas of Colorado’s Central and Southern Mountains.

Colorado’s ranchers, farmers, and tradesmen have always been very mechanical and ingenious. They had to be. For example, this vehicle was equipped with skis to help CDOT employees take care of the roads and skiers on the roads in early days. But did you ever hear of someone putting skis on horses so their owners could go places in deep snow?

The Colorado Division of Transportation (CDOT) used this vehicle to take care of the roads and early skiers. USFS photo.

Well, here’s just one such story, which was published in 1884 in the Rocky Mountain Sun.

A freighter named Brockman recently brought his horses from Summitville to Baker’s station on snow shoes. The shoes were made of wood, two inches thick, eight inches wide and eighteen inches long, and were fastened to the horses feet by means of wires and straps. The shoes were fastened on, and after a few days of practice in Summitville, the horses learned the modus operandi of the scheme, and on Monday Mr. Brockman rode one horse out over from fifty to one hundred feet of snow, while the second horse pulled a sled loaded with provisions over the same course.

You’re not sure whether this is real or not? Neither are the authors, who found the story while looking through old newspapers online.

Thanks to Colorado’s ranchers and tradesmen for their contributions to Colorado ski culture!