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Gruber family fundraiser at A-Basin

BOB BERWYNsummit daily newsSummit County, CO Colorado

Gruber family fundraising dinner and silent auction, Feb. 15, 6-9 p.m. at the A-Basin A-Frame; dinner, $20 ($10 for kids).

SUMMIT COUNTY – Friends of Mike Gruber will be gathering at Arapahoe Basin Friday night for a dinner and silent auction fundraiser to benefit Gruber’s family. Gruber died after suffering a head injuries in a ski accident recently, and his longtime friends at A-Basin are going all out in their efforts to help his family.”We have about $20,000 worth of silent auction items already,” said A-Basin mountain operations director Tim Finnigan. That includes all sorts of great outdoor gear and even a two-year lease on a Subaru, said Finnigan, who first met Gruber when he started working as an A-Basin lift op in 1987. Finningan said Gruber quickly became an A-Basin “local,” based on his love for the mountain lifestyle. “He established life-long bonds with our community of skiers here at A-Basin,” Finnigan said. Finnigan said Gruber moved to Summit County in 1986 from Fairbanks, Alaska, and quickly became a mainstay in the local mountain scene.”I first met him while he was trying to figure out how to set up a top-rope at Windy Point,” Finnigan said. Gruber’s interest in climbing blossomed into a passion and bore fruit in many first ascents, both on local ice routes and other well-known climbing spots the Fisher Towers near Moab.Other notable interests were speed skiing, mountain biking, cycling, rock collecting and skiing. Mike was also a craftsman who built his own house, rebuilt Toyota trucks and landcruisers.”He could tune a ski to perfection,” Finnigan said.Mike met his wife Kristy Kelton in 1990 and they were married in 2000. They have a beautiful 2-year-old daughter, Kaileen. “A light has gone out in the our lives, but the fire Mike left us will always burn,” Finnigan said.


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