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Hey, Spike! covers a Copper gathering of friends

Miles F. Porter IV
Special to the Daily/Miles F. Porter IVLeft to right are Ian 'Ski Meister' Parker, Jim 'Buzzard' Spenst, Chuck 'CT' Tolton, Chuck 'CJ' Julin, Diana Wilson, Don Riggle, Duffy Wilson, Sam Parker, Danny 'Amos' Moroz, and Mickey Wilson.
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DATELINE – Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011, atop Copper Peak at 12,441 feet above sea level, marking 28 years since the tragic loss of ski patroller Mickey Johnston in an avalanche in Graveline Gulch.

Meeting at PHQ (patrol headquarters) on Sunday morning, above the Super Bee six-pack and Excelerator quad lifts, we took a snowcat up along Spaulding Bowl Ridge to just above the Storm King Poma and hiked up and over Copper Peak to view the rock-strewn out-of-bounds Graveline Gulch to the west. That gulch, while included in the ski resort’s master plan, has never been opened for public skiing as in-bounds.

The view of State Highway 91 to Leadville and the backside of the Tenmile Range, with Breckenridge on the other side, is vast – and long into the past.



Back in 1983’s start of the ski season, it had snowed right at 40 days straight, bringing deep depths, upwards of 250 inches by the end of December, much like the snowfall of 2010.

Duffy Wilson, then a Breckenridge resident and owner of Very Sound, a stage production company, was director of the Copper Ski Patrol. He was assisted by Chuck “CT” Tolton and Sam Parker, both of whom would succeed Duffy in later and long-lasting stints. Sunday also marked Duffy’s 61st birthday. He lives in Durango.



Today, Silverthorner CT is involved in consulting for a resort group in China, and Sam, who lives in Bill’s Ranch, is the director of public safety over at tony Beaver Creek. CT has missed only one of the informally planned events. On this Sunday, he put on his alpine touring skis and skins at the bottom and trekked up “15” to be there for our arrival. NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) folks do that.

“This annual effort – with its attendance ebbs and flows – shows the high regard we had, and still have, for Mickey,” CT says.

Mary and Hey, Spike! had owned the Copper Cable newspaper for almost one year when the tragedy occurred. We were skiing, just about ready to load onto S lift when the call came for assistance. Mary and Mickey shared a unique bond: His license plate was ZL-1752 and Mary’s was ZL-1753, a local way of marking their establishment here – way back in the ’70s.

Mickey was a good-looking blonde Army medic veteran who did ski action “shoots” for professional photographers when not patrolling, and in the summers operated, with Kathy “KK” Skulski, a painting firm called Mountain Coatings. KK’s still here, working for Avalanche Therapy, and is married to Fire Chief Steve, another ex-Copper patroller.

That day, Mickey was skiing with fellow patrollers CJ Julin, Jamie Matthews, Bruce “Popeye” Cochran, and a visiting patroller, Bruce Holthouse of New Mexico. They had thrown bombs into the gulch to trigger sloughs in a process to evaluate the area for future expansion. The charges did not create any slides – until Mickey started skiing down. A slab broke, catching Mickey, dragging him, pummeling him repeatedly. It was more than suffocation that took Mickey. CPR and even a Flight for Life chopper’s first-ever landing down on the highway couldn’t turn things around.

It was a week before Christmas and the event cast a heavy pall over the staff having to serve the holiday needs of resort visitors. Copper’s president then was Andy Daly, a former Aspen ski patroller, who would go on to head Vail Resorts. Andy’s now the mayor of Vail and recently purchased Powderhorn Ski Area near Grand Junction with those Gart brothers.

Joining us this time was Mickey Wilson, Duffy and Diana’s son, now 23, and named in honor of Mickey. Sam Parker’s kid, Ian, just 18, was also in the group, with most of us having been friends for 30-plus years.

Back in 1982, Duffy, a then-pony-tailed anti-war type, had hired Don Riggle, then an almost-retired Army Ranger lieutenant colonel and veteran of Vietnam from Colorado Springs. It took Don several phone calls and an unexpected in-person visit to convince Duffy to hire him. Riggle’s still there working and makes sure we don’t forget Mickey, and the bond his death created.

Another glue factor came many years later when our son, mfpv, a NOLS-trained EMT, joined the patrol and learned from some of Mickey’s buddies like Riggle, Joe Fassel and Roger Peart, all still on the mountain. “Smiles” is now a patroller at Salida’s Monarch Mountain Resort, where Spike first started skiing in 1959 with Frankie Blotz, who became a National Ski Patrol-ler there.

Others making their “Mickey’s Day” pilgrimage of recollection this time were Danny “Amos” Moroz, the Copper patrol’s avalanche and weather expert who retired a few years back after 30 years and is now a Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue inspector; CJ Julin still lives at Copper and works for Equilibrium Resorts; and Jim “Buzzard” Spenst, Copper’s former head of mountain operations and now the general manager of Eldora Ski Area.

Coming out of that unfortunate loss was the Mountain Education Fund, started by Copper, the clinic’s Dr. Tom Steinberg, and an outpouring from the community.

Mountain safety and rescue procedures became even more important.

Miles F. Porter IV, nicknamed “Spike,” a Coloradan since 1949, is an Army veteran, former Climax miner, graduate of Adams State College, and a local since 1982. An award-winning investigative reporter, he and wife Mary E. Staby owned newspapers here for 20 years.

Email your social info to milesfporteriv@aol.com


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