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PARK CITY, Utah — The individuals responsible for the ski industry’s boom of the‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s in the Rocky Mountains are now rapidly passing.
Early this year it was D.R.C. Brown, the president of Aspen Skiing Co. from the late 1950s into the late 1970s.
More recently figures at Vail, Tahoe and Park City have all also died, as has the founder of one of the first ski magazines.
Earl Eaton died in late May.
He grew up on a thin-living ranch in the Eagle River Valley, and made a bit of money helping scrape Camp Hale, the home of the 10th Mountain Division, before he himself trundled off to war in Europe.
After War War II, he returned to Colorado, got himself a pair of skis, and moved to Aspen.
He was an adventurer, one summer rafting down the Colorado River and eventually the Grand Canyon.
But he was always looking for the next big thing, be it a uranium deposit or a ski resort..
In Aspen, he met another dreamer, Pete Seibert, and one March day in 1957 they strapped on skins and hiked up to a moderately-sloped mountain about 10 miles away from where Eaton had grown up.
Eaton had hunted and prospected for uranium there. Seibert had trained at Camp Hale, also less than 10 miles away, but had not noticed what is now called Vail’s Back Bowls.
It was, he agreed with Eaton, just what he had been hoping for.
Ski area operations subsequently began in 1962, and if success wasn’t immediate, the proximity to Denver’s large number of skiers and its well-connected airport made Vail’s success probably inevitable.
Eaton, with blue-collar sort with great mechanical instincts, worked on the ground literally to get the resort up and going.
Later, he hoped to get on the ground floor of ski-bikes. Unlike Vail, though, that idea never took off, although he was allowed singularly to ride his snow bike on Vail Mountain whenever he pleased.
He did so nearly until his death at age 85.
A plaza in Vail is named for him.
Passing in early June was Nick Badami, who is credited with helping solidify Park City’s transformation from a grimy has-been mining town to a world-known ski town.
He had been chairman of BVD, the underwear company, when he purchased Alpine Meadows, a ski area near Lake Tahoe.
That was in 1970, and he bought Park City Ski Corp. in 1975.
Badami was a champion of snow-making systems, enabling it to secure World Cup ski racing, which in turn set it up as a venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
He sold his Park City operation to Powdr Corp in 1995, but remained active until 2003.
If Park City would have developed into a major ski resort anyway, without Badami’s investment and vision, it would have happened later, Park City Mayor Dana Williams told the Park Record.
Also passing this year was Merrill Hastings.
A native of Massachusetts, he was in Colorado before World War II to ski at Berthoud Pass, and was also in the 10th Mountain Division before a shoulder injury forced him out.
He ended up in Italy anyway, enlisting with the British, and what a spectacle it was, he later would say.
After the war, he went to college, but was quickly bored.
Besides that, Hastings could never be second fiddle to anything or anybody.
He ended up in Colorado where in 1948 he founded a magazine called Rocky Mountain Skiing, later shortened to Skiing, which he sold in 1964.
He also started a trade magazine.
He also played a key role in Colorado gaining the bid for the 1976 Olympics.
But while he loved skiing, he was always interested in the broader world, and subsequently founded Colorado magazine and Colorado Business, among other titles.
Air carrier buys fleet of fuel-efficient Q400s
KETCHUM, Idaho – The rising oil prices are steadily nudging changes in how we live. One change is in the fleet of planes used by Horizon Air, which offers commercial service to Sun Valley and other locations.
Horizon is adding 15 Bombardier Q400 turboprops, the newer 78-passenger model. Frontier is also using the Q400 for its shuttles from Denver to Aspen, Jackson Hole, and other mountain valleys.
The Q400 has 33 percent improved fuel efficiency compared to other regional planes.
Horizon is getting rid of 37 of its older, gas-guzzling planes, notes the Idaho Mountain Express.
Early this year it was D.R.C. Brown, the president of Aspen Skiing Co. from the late 1950s into the late 1970s.
More recently figures at Vail, Tahoe and Park City have all also died, as has the founder of one of the first ski magazines.
Earl Eaton died in late May.
He grew up on a thin-living ranch in the Eagle River Valley, and made a bit of money helping scrape Camp Hale, the home of the 10th Mountain Division, before he himself trundled off to war in Europe.
After War War II, he returned to Colorado, got himself a pair of skis, and moved to Aspen.
He was an adventurer, one summer rafting down the Colorado River and eventually the Grand Canyon.
But he was always looking for the next big thing, be it a uranium deposit or a ski resort..
In Aspen, he met another dreamer, Pete Seibert, and one March day in 1957 they strapped on skins and hiked up to a moderately-sloped mountain about 10 miles away from where Eaton had grown up.
Eaton had hunted and prospected for uranium there. Seibert had trained at Camp Hale, also less than 10 miles away, but had not noticed what is now called Vail’s Back Bowls.
It was, he agreed with Eaton, just what he had been hoping for.
Ski area operations subsequently began in 1962, and if success wasn’t immediate, the proximity to Denver’s large number of skiers and its well-connected airport made Vail’s success probably inevitable.
Eaton, with blue-collar sort with great mechanical instincts, worked on the ground literally to get the resort up and going.
Later, he hoped to get on the ground floor of ski-bikes. Unlike Vail, though, that idea never took off, although he was allowed singularly to ride his snow bike on Vail Mountain whenever he pleased.
He did so nearly until his death at age 85.
A plaza in Vail is named for him.
Passing in early June was Nick Badami, who is credited with helping solidify Park City’s transformation from a grimy has-been mining town to a world-known ski town.
He had been chairman of BVD, the underwear company, when he purchased Alpine Meadows, a ski area near Lake Tahoe.
That was in 1970, and he bought Park City Ski Corp. in 1975.
Badami was a champion of snow-making systems, enabling it to secure World Cup ski racing, which in turn set it up as a venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
He sold his Park City operation to Powdr Corp in 1995, but remained active until 2003.
If Park City would have developed into a major ski resort anyway, without Badami’s investment and vision, it would have happened later, Park City Mayor Dana Williams told the Park Record.
Also passing this year was Merrill Hastings.
A native of Massachusetts, he was in Colorado before World War II to ski at Berthoud Pass, and was also in the 10th Mountain Division before a shoulder injury forced him out.
He ended up in Italy anyway, enlisting with the British, and what a spectacle it was, he later would say.
After the war, he went to college, but was quickly bored.
Besides that, Hastings could never be second fiddle to anything or anybody.
He ended up in Colorado where in 1948 he founded a magazine called Rocky Mountain Skiing, later shortened to Skiing, which he sold in 1964.
He also started a trade magazine.
He also played a key role in Colorado gaining the bid for the 1976 Olympics.
But while he loved skiing, he was always interested in the broader world, and subsequently founded Colorado magazine and Colorado Business, among other titles.
Air carrier buys fleet of fuel-efficient Q400s
KETCHUM, Idaho – The rising oil prices are steadily nudging changes in how we live. One change is in the fleet of planes used by Horizon Air, which offers commercial service to Sun Valley and other locations.
Horizon is adding 15 Bombardier Q400 turboprops, the newer 78-passenger model. Frontier is also using the Q400 for its shuttles from Denver to Aspen, Jackson Hole, and other mountain valleys.
The Q400 has 33 percent improved fuel efficiency compared to other regional planes.
Horizon is getting rid of 37 of its older, gas-guzzling planes, notes the Idaho Mountain Express.
