Summer Ski Lift to the Restaurant at the Top of the Hill Clip Art

Aspen'southward ski history has more than forgotten details than all the closets in town. Nevertheless, in this timeline of ski-related events and anecdotal tidbits — from dipping flooring boards in pig slop to style curved ski tips to the opening of the Argent Queen gondola — we have come a long way.

This compilation comes from old newspapers, native Aspenites' and locals' recollections,  archived cassette-taped interviews, history books, graduate theses, Aspen Skiing Co. records, and the indefatigable help of the Aspen Historical Society. Where discrepancies occurred, a consensus of sources pointed toward accuracy.

A more than condensed version of this timeline appeared in and was adult in conjunction with Aspen Sojourner Mag (aspensojo.com) in 2014. In reading this living certificate, reflect on how nowadays-24-hour interval Aspen could not be what information technology is today without building upon the succession of all that was temporarily modern in the past.

Miners, nearly 1890, on skis in the Aspen area. Credit: Aspen Historical Lodge

1880: In February, through some seven feet of snowfall, B. Clark Wheeler "skis" into town from Leadville on Norwegian snowshoes to complete the commencement survey of Ute Urban center. He renames the town Aspen.

1880–1890s: Scandinavian silvery miners boom leather pes straps to curled 10-foot wooden boards, introducing "Norwegian skees" as a transportation tool. They schuss with a single steel-spiked pole dragged betwixt their legs as a brake. It was said that the boys from the Connemara Mine on Aspen Mountain came downward from work in 10 minutes. (The Connemara is the rocky dump on the lower skier's left of Silverish Queen.)

1899: Starving occupants of the boondocks of Independence escape record snowfalls (up to 18 feet were reported) and avalanches by fashioning some 75 pairs of skis from their cabin walls and skiing into Aspen. Accounts said it snowed every day that winter in Aspen.

Two skiers in an open area between Castle Creek and Maroon Creek, circa 1900. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1900s–1930s: Aspen locals rip upwards hardwood floors of deserted buildings to make skis, curling the tips with steam and fashioning straps from rubber inner tubes. Fred Willoughby delivered mail on skis to the Midnight Mine. He and his brother Frank skied back domicile via Aspen Mount from Buckhorn Saddle.

1930s: John and Frank Dolinsek made skis from house boards and dipped the tips in boiling pig slop to warm the wood, before bending a front coil. They liked to ski the moo-cow trails on Aspen Mountain. They said that West End townspeople climbed and skied down Aspen Street from where Lift 1A now stands, while East-enders skied lower Smuggler Mountain.

1932: The first U.S. ski manufacturer, Groswold Skis, is opened by Norwegian Thor Groswold in Denver.

1936: Ted Ryan, Baton Fiske, and Tom Flynn hire Swiss mountaineer André Roch (pronounced "Roke") and Gunther Langes to survey the Aspen-Ashcroft area for skiing. They explore Mount Hayden on Groswolds.

1936: Ted Ryan forms the Highlands Bavarian Corporation and builds the offset Aspen-area ski lodge at the junction of Castle Creek and Puzzler Valley. Seven dollars per day ($120 in 2016) includes admission to hike-to-ski terrain, a room, all meals, and lessons with the Otto Schniebs ski school. With ski resorts already in Europe and Canada, Aspen makes bids for ski notoriety. Roch and Lange guide skiers on Mountain Hayden and Castle Meridian to Ashcroft.

1936: The Roaring Fork Winter Sports Club (RFWSC) — the original predecessor of today's Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club — is formed. Every Sun, André Roch gives free ski lessons on Maroon Creek Road at the human foot of what is today Aspen Highlands and at the base of what is today Buttermilk.

Credit: Aspen Historical Order

1937: André Roch marks the first ski trail on Aspen Mountain. Frank Willoughby engineers the project, and local volunteers cutting the run, which extends from the top of what is at present Ruthie'due south down Corkscrew to the tiptop of Monarch Street. Trail is named Roch Run.

The old bullwheel on the boat tow elevator can still be establish on Aspen Mountain. Credit: Tim Cooney

1937: Aspen locals build the eight-rider Boat Tow from the lesser of today'southward Lift 1A to the lesser of what is now Corkscrew and Tower Ten Road. (The top hoist wheel is still cabled to a tree there today.) Materials are a secondhand Studebaker motor, two old mine hoists, and 2 eight-person sleds that went up and downwards in opposition. (The original setup, earlier the eight-person sleds were installed, consisted of a toboggan attached to the uphill haul line, wherein a single passenger reclined on the toboggan with his skis.) The Boat Tow costs $600 ($10,000 in 2016) to build. Skiers pay $0.10 per ride.

Earlier there were any ski lifts in Aspen, a grouping of hearty, guided, hike-to-ski skiers at the Highlands Bavarian Club in 1936—located almost the intersection of Castle Creek and Conundrum Road—pose for a group photo. Judging by the springlike snow on their skis and the eastern-facing belatedly-afternoon shadows, they likely just finished a ski run—quite possibly down Mt. Hayden, which was so being considered for development into a ski area, forth with a European-style gondola. 3 men in the front are wearing ties. Pictured in the acme row are Andre Roch, Gretl Arnold Fuler, Steve Hart, Norman Barwise, and an unknown person. In the lesser row are William V. Hodges, Martha Wilcox, Joseph Hodges, Polly Grimes, and Frank Ashley. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1937: Ted Ryan'south Aspen films (in Technicolor) screen in Chicago, showing assorted "ski champions" schussing five miles down Mount Hayden to Ashcroft. The German Ski Team trains at Highlands Bavarian Social club, as Italy joins Centrality powers. RFWSC holds the first-ever Aspen ski race across from the guild on Richmond Hill.

1937: The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad starts running "snow trains," bringing skiers and winter enthusiasts to Aspen. Because of poor roads, the railroad would dominate skier travel for the next decade.

1938: The metropolis of Aspen and the Works Progress Assistants build a warming motel at the top of Roch Run and a l-meter ski jump between what is now lower Slalom Hill and Niggling Nell for "youth development" and regional competitions.

1938: The Aspen Ski Gild (formerly the RFWSC), a group of local ski enthusiasts, sponsors showtime Southern Rocky Mountain Ski Association (SRMSA) downhill and slalom championships on Roch Run. The downhill started at today'southward Midway and took over four minutes to run. With no lifts except the gunkhole tow, racers and skiers hiked up. Future Olympian and soon-to-be Aspenite Barney McLean competes, recollecting a foot of new snowfall and "nobody knew very much about turning."

1938–39: Elizabeth Paepcke, wife of industrialist Walter Paepcke, and a group of friends go a ride up the backside of Aspen Mount with the Midnight Miners in their trucks. Paepcke skis down the front and grasps the future ski area's potential.

1939: SRMSA championships held on Roch Run.

1940: D.R.C. Brown becomes president of the Aspen Ski Club. SRMSA championship held on Roch Run. Billy Fiske dies every bit fellow member of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

1941: The U.Southward. National Downhill and Slalom Championship is held on Roch Run, giving Aspen its starting time international exposure. Roch Run gains attention as one of the best race courses in the world. Ted Ryan's Aspen ski movies continue to show around the U.Southward., with footage of local mount scenery, and give-and-take of Aspen's beauty and potential spreads throughout the ski world.

1941: Plans are drawn for an aerial tramway up Mount Hayden from Ashcroft. Architect Ellery Husted envisions a "Williamsburg Village of the Westward" as base of operations village. Xv runs are plotted from the peak of Hayden into Castle Creek. The Colorado Legislature OKs $650,000 in bonds to build 4,000-human foot, Euro-manner "tellaferry" up Mountain Hayden. Pearl Harbor puts everything on hold. Ted Ryan offers his Ashcroft holding for $ane to U.South. Army ski troops for training for the duration of the war.

1942: The Southern Rocky Mountain Ski Association holds ski-jumping and cross-country events in Aspen. World-record-holder Alf Engen, from Norway, gives a ski-jumping exhibition. Events include skijoring (a skier is pulled behind a saddle horse through a grade) on Chief Street and rope racing (ii skiers tied together on a xxx-foot rope) on Roch Run. A gala ski brawl follows that evening.

1942: The 87th Mountain Battalion trains in Ashcroft but eventually moves to Campsite Hale near Leadville every bit part of the new 10th Mountain Division.

"2 boards upon common cold powder Snowfall, YO HO!
What more does a man need to know?"
– tenth Mountain Sectionalisation vocal

1943: Tenth Mountain Sectionalization troops cross the Williams Mountains from Military camp Hale on Groswold Skis, march into Aspen, and are met by the boondocks band. Some stay at the Hotel Jerome, and are given a steak and a room for $one. Sergeant Friedl Pfeifer is among them and takes note of Aspen'south ski potential. Division veteran of those maneuvers, onetime Aspen Mountain ski patrolman, and colorful longtime local the late Shady Lane, once recollected how abundant wild fauna could be seen from anywhere in boondocks. By Lane's account, when the soldiers came to boondocks and camped in empty lots, uncountable elk, deer, and bighorn sheep regularly populated the lower flanks of the mountain.

1945: Equally tenth Mountain soldiers and Aspenites-to-be fighting in Italy, Bert Bidwell saves Friedl Pfeifer's life in battle. (Bidwell would tell a surprised Pfeifer a month before Pfeifer's decease in 1995 that information technology was he who had saved him in Italy.) Pfeifer returns later the war, minus part of a lung, forms the Aspen Ski Schoolhouse with boyfriend 10th Mountain veterans Percy Rideout and Johnny Litchfield, and takes over the Gunkhole Tow. Intrepid skiers ride up back of Aspen Mountain with Midnight Miners to ski the front side to town. Pfeifer promotes Aspen Mountain over the Mount Hayden proposal.

The White Kitchen Cafe, namesake of the White Kitchen ski run in Highland Basin, and Louie'due south Spirit Business firm, on Hyman Avenue, long before the pedestrian mall was built. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1945–46: Walter Paepcke conceives of Aspen equally a cultural heart and plans the first ski lift with Friedl Pfeifer. With the Hayden-tram plans tabled, Aspen Mountain's reputation presents the all-time opportunity to evolve the hike-and-ski experience to chairlift-ride-and-ski. The renowned Roch Run links outside and local interests to nowadays Aspen equally the happening identify to ski.

1946: The Aspen Ski Corporation is founded by Friedl Pfeifer, Johnny Litchfield, Percy Rideout, and Walter Paepcke. D.R.C. Brown leases his mining claims on Aspen Mount to the new company.

1946: Summer brings the construction of Aspen's first chairlifts: the single-chair Lift 1 to today's Midway and Lift ii, which runs from the peak of Lift 1 to the new octagon Sundeck at the mountaintop where beer, pop, ham sandwiches, and java are served. Together, the ii lifts were billed as "the longest chairlift in world." Aspen Mountain opens on Dec. 14. A season pass costs $140. A day pass is $three.75.

1946: The beginning annual Roch Cup ski race is held. The ski train to Aspen from Denver, with dining and sleeper cars, runs regularly. Mike Magnifico's cobbler shop becomes Magnifico Sports Shop, the first to sell ski equipment in Aspen, including handmade Magnifico ski boots.

1946: Walter Paepcke opens the canton aerodrome, which consists of a log motel and gravel rails.

1947: Dick Durrance films "Wintertime in Aspen" and cuts Ruthie's Run without necessity of Forest Service blessing.

The bottom of Roch Run in 1947, which ended at the top of Monarch Street. The s end of town is visible, including the downtown cadre. Ii skiers pose for the photo. The i in the cap and goggles is Lt. Bill Bowerman, probably of the 10th Mountain Sectionalisation. Credit: Aspen Historical Gild

1947–48: The Little Nell run is cleared and widened as a beginners' hill. The Constam T-bar is built. Night skiing debuts; tickets, $1. Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol is formed. Six patrol phones installed. Lift 1 and Lift ii'south combined uphill capacity is 1,070 skiers an hour. The Friedl Pfeifer Ski Schoolhouse, with Fred Iselin every bit co-director, joins the Aspen Ski Corp. The ii men were nicknamed the "Mount Rushmore twins." Klaus Obermeyer invents the downward jacket — originally cut from down comforters — for the common cold rides upwardly Lift 1.

1949: Unable to compete with automobiles, the Denver & Rio Grande railroad runs its final passenger trains to Aspen; it continues with freight until 1969.

Skiing on Bong Mountain, 1948. From left to right are Fred Denton, Jerry Wallin (managing director of the outdoor skating rink), Jane Duffy, Bob Jones, and Jim Snobble. To their correct is the now-named "Hanging Tree" of the "Hanging Tree Line." Below them, Aspen is visible.

A sign at the top of Aspen Mountain in 1950 shows the Silver Queen trail starting atop Aspen Mountain. The trail went down Buckhorn, across Midway Route, down International, and down what is today's steep Silver Queen run on lower Aspen Mountain The sign says "All skiers must check with ski patrol at Sundeck before going downward Annie Basin or Hard Creek. They will be closed by 12:00 each day." The outset version of the Sundeck, known every bit the Octagon, is partially visible behind the sign. Credit: Aspen Historical Society: The Knuckles Collection

1950: Fifteen-hundred people book rooms in town as Aspen hosts the first F.I.S. Earth Championships to be held in the Us. Downhill grade starts at top of today's FIS, then down Spar, Niagara, and Schuss Gully, with no gates. Zeno Coló wins the combined with "witches brew" wax concocted by swain Italian Mike Magnifico. Stein Eriksen sails 150 feet in the air off of the Willoughby leap during an exhibition.

Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1950 FIS downhill. A racer negotiates what is today's Niagara. The grade ran from the tiptop of today's FIS, down Spar, Niagara, and Schuss Gulley with no gates. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1951: Spar Gulch run is widened. A daily elevator ticket costs $iv.05. Winterskol — an event-filled commemoration for locals during the slow part of the ski season — is started past Cherry Onion bartender Jack dePagter, who later opened the family-style The netherlands House lodge at the base of operations of Lift 1. Total ski tickets sold statewide at four ski areas in Colorado hits 175,000.

A view of Aspen and Aspen Mountain, taken from the Eriksen Ranch on Cherry Mountain. The charm cistron was quite loftier in Aspen in the 1950s, and the ski surface area was all the same taking shape on Aspen Mountain. Credit: Aspen Historical Club

Gary Cooper, without ski gear, catching a chair at the bottom Lift one in 1950. Friedl Pfeifer is standing at left on skis.

The Ski Inn, 1952. Ruth Whyte stands behind Coca-Cola coolers. A Lift 1 base tower is just behind the inn on the left. Note the elk or bear hibernate nailed to the wall above Ruth and that an apple costs twice every bit much equally a candy bar. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

A woman in haute ski gear standing at the lesser of the Little Nell Constam T-bar in 1952, which ran up Nell from 1948-1956, when it was replaced past the former Elevator 4. Visible above the top of the T-bar is what is now upper Picayune Nell, which was then chosen the bottom of the Silver Queen trail. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1952: Walter Paepcke starts Aspen Airways with surplus DC-3s; planes get the virtually efficient travel from Denver for skiers. Larger planes and multiple airlines begin an evolution of operations to service Aspen.

1953–54: A lean yr. Annual snow: 59.10 inches. Total Colorado skier visits: 192,500

A pair of skiers getting off the top of old Lift three on top of Aspen Mount in 1954. The tiptop bullwheel in the eye stood where the invitee service center is today. The top of Lift 2 is to the left, and to the left of that, unseen, is the Aspen Mountain patrol building. Credit: Aspen Historical Gild

1954: Elevator three from lower Tourtelotte (Tortilla Flats) to the Sundeck congenital, for $120,000 ($1 million in 2016). Highway 82 is paved.

1954: "Operation Jeep Elevator": Lift 1 breaks, so the Ski Corporation plows Midnight Mine road. For one week, townspeople drive skiers up to top of Aspen Mountain in their jeeps. They receive $1,109 in tips. Xxx-five Jeeps hauled 2,500 skiers.

Skiers are getting their equipment out of cars afterwards the long ride up from Castle Creek during Operation Jeep Lift in 1954, in an era when everyone in boondocks drove an onetime jeep. After the Ski Corporation plowed the Little Annie Road, townspeople drove skiers up the behind of Aspen Mountain until repairs on the lift were consummate. Sitting in the heart Jeep is Dave Stapleton. John Thorpe is standing side by side to him (white shirt, buzz cut) and Neil Beck is continuing in front of John (gray shirt), and Euclid Worden in black cap. The original octagon sundeck is on the left. The top of Lift 2 is in the middle background; Lift 3 is on the right. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1955: Aspen logs 62,000 skier visits. Pfeifer's ski schoolhouse is the biggest in the country.

1956: Lift 4 installed from bottom of Little Nell to height of Nell with a midway get out ramp, replacing the T-bar. The Sundeck is enlarged with a windowed deck. Fred Iselin survives an avalanche burying on Aspen Mountain's Back of Bell.

Skier transit has always been relevant in Aspen. Fred Iselin is continuing, in a ski sweater, left. Friedl Pfeifer, is too standing, with sunglasses, right. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1957: Elevator 5 is built from the bottom of Bell Mountain to the top, carrying 700 skiers per 60 minutes and nearly doubling uphill capacity to the top of Aspen Mountain. Whipple Jones and Had Deane propose a ski surface area on Sievers Mountain, in the Maroon Creek Valley. Pitkin County Commissioner Tom Sardy spearheads the paving of a single runway at Aspen airport (Pitkin County Airdrome) for larger planes. Airdrome is renamed Sardy Field.

Two skiers existence pulled past horses (ski joring) in the street forth Mill Street near Wagner Park, 1955. Ski joring was one of many annual Winterskol skiing events into the mid-1980s. The original Lift one is in the groundwork. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1958: Friedl Pfeifer and Art Pfister open Buttermilk with a single T-bar and a bus from town. Whip Jones opens Aspen Highlands with two chair lifts, a T-bar, and a rope tow; Stein Eriksen heads the ski school. Skier visits jump to 139,400 for the season across the three mountains.

1959: D.R.C. Brown becomes president of the Aspen Ski Corp. Elevator half dozen is congenital on Aspen Mountain. New Elevator 2 replaces original.

A line for Lift one at the base of Aspen Mountain in the belatedly 1950s. The popularity of the young ski area was increasing and optimistic growth projections were being fabricated. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1960: Kickoff trail preparation on Aspen Mountain: Oliver Caterpillar tractors with blades smooth moguls, followed past a coiffure that packs the snowfall with their skis. Freidl Pfiefer holds the first Aspen Pro ski race at Buttermilk. Toni Spiess, Anderl Molterer, Stein Eriksen, and Pepi Gramshammer compete.

1960: After consolidating numerous mining claims totaling 880 acres, Waddell "Waddy" Catchings proposes Little Annie Ski Area with Gondola from Castle Creek Route to Trivial Annie Basin, connecting with chairlift to Richmond Ridge. He finds little financial bankroll.

The all the same-modern-looking Buttermilk base lodge and eatery, in 1960. The restaurant was replaced by the electric current Crash-land'due south building in the late 1990s. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1960–68: "Surfer bums" discover Aspen and become the starting time ski bums. In 1965, The Denver Postal service dubs them "ski-niks." Emergence of marijuana in boondocks. The advent of stretch pants makes skiing more fashionable.

1962: Four new ski jumps — 7, 12, 25, and twoscore meters — with a viewing stand are congenital at the lesser of today's Slalom Hill on Aspen Mountain to replace the original 50-meter leap. The jumps are sponsored by the Aspen Lions Club to "help boys make the jump to manhood." Two new chairlifts are installed at Buttermilk.

1961–62: The Deject 9 elevator and restaurant are congenital at Aspen Highlands. Olympic Bowl opens. A rival ski area — Vail — opens.

A young skier on Buttermilk Mountain, about 1965. Credit: Source: Aspen Historical Society

1963: The Aspen Ski Corp. buys Buttermilk. Ruthie'southward double chair (Lift 8, capacity of ane,000 people per hour) is built on Aspen Mountain. All downtown Aspen streets are paved. Fred Iselin becomes caput of ski schoolhouse.

In December 1964 and January 1965, members of the Kennedy family came skiing in Aspen. Seen on a lift are, left to right, Robert Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, 2 unidentified people, and Caroline Kennedy. Credit: Photograph by Bernard Kolenberg, Times Union Staff/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Jacqueline Kennedy dons a fur hat while skiing in Aspen, on a trip that took place during late December 1964 and early January 1965. Credit: Photo: Tony Gauba in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

1964–65: Exhibition and Loge Peak lifts open up at Aspen Highlands. Buttermilk Westward opens. Aspen Highlands logs 68,000 skier visits; Buttermilk, 87,500; Aspen Mountain, 174,000. Annual snowfall is 219 inches.

1966: Gretl's (now Bonnie's) restaurant is built on Aspen Mountain. Aspen Airways offers 4 flights per day from Denver; a standby ticket costs $25.

A crowd of people waiting side by side to a passenger vehicle in Aspen in 1965. The passenger vehicle says "Glenwood-Aspen Stage." By the mid-1960s, Aspen was gaining in popularity among visiting skiers. Credit: Aspen Historical Gild

Sheep being driven across the Castle Creek bridge from their summer range in the mountains in 1967. Sheep were grazed on the ski areas in Aspen and Snowmass until the early on 1980s. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1967: Independence Pass is paved.

1967: Mt. Baldy opens every bit Snowmass-at-Aspen ski area, an Tall village with five chairlifts. "A planned development with heavyweight corporate proficiency," says Skiing Mag. Day ski ticket: $six.50. Rudimentary snowmaking tried on Piffling Nell ski run, Aspen Mountain.

1967: Aspenite and U.S. Ski Team director Bob Beattie, along with French Ski Team director Honore Bonnet and Swiss journalist Serge Lang, outset the FIS Globe Cup circuit.

1968: Aspen Mountain hosts its first World Cup race, the Roch World Cup, ("World Cup" beginning becomes official FIS event in '67). American Billy Kidd wins the slalom. International ski school jamboree, called Interski, is held on Aspen Mountain.

1969: The Thunderbowl lift is built at Aspen Highlands.

The 1970 Winterskol parade in Aspen. The photo was taken from the corner of Factory and Main and shows a big oversupply watching the parade in front end of the Hotel Jerome. Credit: Aspen Historical Gild

People in the oversupply during the 1970 Winterskol parade in Aspen. Credit: Aspen Historical Club

The Rubey Park bus station in 1970. Credit: Aspen Historical Gild

Aspen Mount, as viewed from Paepcke Park, in 1970. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1970: Bob Beattie'southward World Pro Ski Tour racing begins. Hippies start to polarize town. Mix of outsider residents, onetime-timers, and visitors requite Aspen a distinct character. Aspen Mount lifts painted green with blue chairs. The Aspen area's four ski hills have a full of 30 lifts, with a combined uphill capacity of 26,885 skiers per hour.

A group of people are caught in a moment outside of Gretl's "Tourtelotte Restaurant" on the closing day of Elevator i, April 10, 1971. Gretl, in stylish Bavarian attire, smiles at the camera. Ski patroller "Child" Cunningham is sitting on the railing. Patroller Erik Peltonen is exiting the door with his face to the camera. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

A skier riding up Elevator One on April eleven, 1971 (Easter Sunday), the last day for Lift one before it was replaced by Lift 1A. Truly, the end on an era and a turning point from old Aspen to new Aspen. Credit: Aspen Historical Guild

1971–72: The double-chair Lift 1A replaces the original Lift ane, ending at the bottom of Ruthie'southward lift instead of Midway. The Aztec trail is cutting for Earth Cup. Ted Ryan opens Ashcroft Ski Touring and the starting time Pine Creek Cookhouse. A brusque-lived ski patrol/Teamsters strike on Aspen Ski Corp.'south mountains sees patrollers replaced past scabs. Cliff Taylor introduces the Graduated Length Method of ski teaching at Aspen Highlands.

1971: Spurred by filmmaker Dick Barrymore and the K2 demo team, a spontaneous, word-of-rima oris "offset hot-domestic dog competition" dominated the Ridge of Bell under the Bong Mount lift on March one, where the only rule was to go top to bottom as spectacularly as possible. On a razor-blue 24-hour interval two,000 irreverent spectators watched 89 local competitors rip. Ski instructor Sid Erickson won by popping "Sealander's Rock" at the top skier's left of the steep Ridge, earlier flight over all the bumps in three turns, performing a never-before-seen stunt of luck and skill. A wet T-shirt contest followed at the Red Onion nighttime club. D.R.C. Dark-brown rode over the caricature. After smelling marijuana, he later declared there would never be some other hot-dog contest on a Ski Corp mountain.

January 1972, Aspen City Quango chambers. Aspen Times Editor Bil Dunaway, right, sits in his customary front-row seat. A former world-class ski racer, he seems bemused past the anti-Olympics protest. In 1970, Denver and the Colorado mountains had been awarded the 1976 winter Olympics, merely a protest confronting the games, and the growth they could bring, bankrupt out in Colorado by '72. Somewhen, state voters rejected a funding question and the 1976 games were held in Innsbruck, Austria, instead. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1973: Aspen Highlands Ski Patrol begins the Cloud Ix Eating place deck jump. Doug "Chalice" Driskell is the first to jump 60 feet — while pulling a toboggan — over the restaurant crowd.

1974: Aspen'south season pass price doubles to keep local "yahoo skiers" from skiing too much, because tourists are intimidated. Ted Ryan ends the Mountain Hayden ski-area dream and gives the Ashcroft property to the Forest Service for preservation. The Mace family and Toklat Lodge remain as part of the deal. Aspen ski areas break 1 1000000 skier visits.

1975: Dave Farny buys out Waddy Catching and revises Piddling Annie Ski Area plan with base development on Smith Ranch (at present North Star Preserve). With an $eighteen million budget, he proposes 3.half-dozen-mile-long "dog-legged," 2,250-passengers-per-hour gondola from near Ute Cemetery to Richmond Ridge, summiting to a 1,200-seat restaurant. Numerous studies and issues crusade extended controversy amongst Pitkin Canton residents. By 1983 "Farny's Folly" is dead on the planning tabular array.

A typical 1975 ski-bum room in the one-time Silvery King rental apartments, which are now the condominiumized Hunter Creek buildings. Annotation the Hexel (revolutionary dissever-tail ski) ski poster and World Pro Skiing poster, the rustic housekeeping, trophy beer bottles, rolling papers atop the apple tree box, and the softball bays on the counter. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1975–76: Ski bum culture peaks, causing the Aspen Ski Corp. to append validity of the 3-mount ski laissez passer on Aspen Mountain considering rowdy locals were driving away ticket-buying tourists — only employee ski passes and mean solar day tickets honored there. Total ski passes are merely good for Buttermilk and Snowmass. Locals flock to Highlands pass instead. A Roaring Fork citizens grouping petitions the Forest Service for reinstatement to no avail.

A Clif Tayler Graduated Length Method class continuing set in front of the A-framed Highlands base lodge in 1975. Behind to the left is the one-time administration edifice and ticket function. Clif Tayler'south GLM method offered a 5-day ski week bundle, wherein he took rank beginners up through a serial of longer skis during the calendar week, to a point where they could parallel ski and practice a "wedeln," an Austrian, quick, side-to-side series of turns.

1976–77: The renowned drought year—almanac snowfall is 85.70 inches (meet 1953). Independence Pass remains open into Jan and Aspenites drive over to water ice skate on Twin Lakes. Aspen Mount opens Jan. ten, and the get-go deject-seeding program is attempted to produce snowfall. Austrian Franz Klammer follows his legendary "edge-of-disaster" Olympic-aureate downhill run at Innsbruck with a win at America'south Downhill on Aspen Mountain.

An Aspen Airways airplane on the Denver tarmac in 1978, painted in honor of the Denver Broncos who were nigh to play in Super Bowl XII. Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach versus Broncos quarterback Craig Morton. Cowboys won, 27-10. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1977: Snowmaking is installed on lower Buttermilk; cost: $800,000.

1978: Twentieth Century Fox buys the Aspen Ski Corp. Marvin Davis buys 20th Century Pull a fast one on, and the Aspen Ski Corp. becomes a private company amid much corporate shuffling. The Crown family unit buys a 50 per centum stake.

1978: The Aspen Ski Corporation becomes the Aspen Skiing Company.

1979: First Gay Ski Calendar week is held.

Gretl Uhl, in December 1980, on the deck at her restaurant. Credit: Aspen Historical Lodge

1979-lxxx: 1980: After a fourteen-year run where she served homemade food at her eponymous Aspen Mountain restaurant, Gretl Uhl did non renew her lease at the end of the '79-'80 flavour because she couldn't take the terms of the new understanding offered by the Ski Visitor. Known as the "Maven of Strudle," she used 200 cases of Paonia apples each winter to make her signature desert. Half of the dishes she served were Bavarian and the other half American. She hired ski bums, hippies, and local housewives and established her trade-mark two days on and 2 days off policy then all her employees
could ski.

1980-81: Limited reinstatement of full three-mount ski pass with partial validity for Aspen Mountain: Season pass sold for $300, adept on Snowmass and Buttermilk, costs extra $10/day for Aspen Mountain validation sticker. Highlands laissez passer still locals' protest option. Bonnie Brucker (later on Rayburn) takes over Gretl's and a new eatery legend begins. Aspen Mountain ski patroller Fine art Nerbonne hung out at that place so often he became known every bit "Artie near Bonnie's."

The Aspen Highlands ski patrol, about 1980, ski-packing under the Loge Peak lift. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1980: Before any snow flies, local Aspen high schoolers, the Marolt brothers, Callahan brothers, and Francois Pelletier ski the bare-rock shale steeps off Shale Bluffs on old skis, when Highway 82 was nonetheless two lanes. They crusade traffic jams of gawkers on the highway. Multiple days of "stone skiing" issue in merely 1 injury, and the spectacle is shut downward by the sheriff's role.

One of the Marolt twins skiing Shale Bluffs when Highway 82 was ii lanes with a parking pull-off in 1980 (probably Steve — lamentable, Mike). Skis say "Rock Eater" and hat says "King of the Mount." Credit: Aspen Historical Social club

1981: The start Winternational America's Downhill is held on Aspen Mountain. Americans Tamara McKinney and Phil Mahre win GS. McKinney goes on to win the Earth Cup GS title. Ski Magazine writes about Aspen snowmaking: "Most guns in the west." Snowmaking exists on 155 acres of Aspen Mountain, 60 acres on Snowmass, and 74 on Buttermilk.

1981: An Aspen original, Ralph Jackson, the "Clown Prince of Skiing," whose fictional persona was Aspen's "hugger-mugger ski school director," dies. Famous for top hat, cigarette holder, bearskin coat, and blarney.

Seven Former Olympic ski racers interruption for a photo in Aspen on Dec. viii, 1983. They are (left to right) Ni Orsi, Rod Hebron, Jimmie Heuga, Stein Erikson, Kiki Cutter, Moose Barrows, and Stefan Kaelin. Hebron wears a "Sab'due south" chapeau, short for the ane-time locals' favorite Sabbatini ski shop run by Dexter Williams. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

1983–84: A massive avalanche in Highland Basin kills ski patrolmen Chris Kessler, Tom Snyder, and Craig Soddy while they are doing control work. Aspen Mount records highest-on-record annual snow of 278 inches. Aspen Highlands becomes the first of Aspen'due south iv ski areas to allow snowboarding.

Highlands Bowl slide of March 31, 1984. Credit: Via Tim Cooney

1984: U.Due south. Ski Teamer and "bad male child" Bill Johnson follows his Sarajevo Olympic downhill win at the Winternational Downhill — later Franz Klammer calls him a "nose picker."

World Cup "bad boy" Billy Johnson winning the Winternational Downhill in 1984 right after winning Sarajevo Olympic downhill. Credit: Aspen Historical Lodge

1985: Snowboarding is allowed on a trial footing at Buttermilk. A dorm room still costs $15 per nighttime at the Aspen Highlands Inn. New high-speed-quad Lift 3 is congenital on Aspen Mountain.

Rows of snow-covered cabins wait to be put on the cable before the opening of the Silver Queen Gondola for the upcoming 1986-'87 ski season. The "clam shell" cars were the predecessors of today's cars, which have the seats facing inward. The photo is dated Nov. 13, 1986. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

Aspen patron and grande dame Elizabeth Paepke and Aspen Ski Corporation founding member Friedl Pfeifer riding up the Silver Queen Gondola on Jan. 16, 1986, during the official inaugural ceremonies. The gondola opened for the season in December 1986. Credit: Aspen Historical Order

1986: The Silvery Queen Gondola opens; a ride to the top of Aspen Mountain at present takes fourteen minutes versus 30 on the existing chairs. The era of faster, higher-capacity lifts begins in Aspen, setting off ii decades of record growth in Roaring Fork Valley. Aspen Professional Ski Patrol Association, (APSPA) a labor union, forms amid labor contentions with Aspen Skiing Co. President Jerry Blann, after he dramatically cuts employee benefits.

Ski patrollers demonstrating for a fair contract on city holding adjoining the gondola plaza during Christmas week 1986, the year the Silver Queen Gondola opened. The demonstration was over a yearly termination clause in the contract, which was resolved when support for the ski patrol coalesced throughout boondocks. Ski patrollers on all 4 ski mountains maintain a wedlock called the Aspen Professional Ski Patrol Association. Credit: Aspen Historical Society

Sunday, March nine, 1986, a sorry 24-hour interval in World Cup history on Aspen Mountain, after a grade blockade or boycott by skiers and coaches leads to the cancellation of Aspen'south World Cup Giant Slalom. Depression clouds, warm temperatures, and punchy snow were cited by the boycotters as besides unsafe, much to the irritation of Aspen Skiing Company President Jerry Blann (1984-'88), who was unhappy with the racers during his podium speech for not completing the race.

1987: A three-mount ski pass costs $595 with an Aspen Mountain daily surcharge. Total Colorado skier visits: nine,453,359.

The gondola at the bottom of Little Nell in mid-winter of 1987, showing a free-flowing lift line before corrals, and not a single skier wearing a helmet. To the right is the deck of the i-time Little Nell bar, restaurant, and night guild (downstairs and originally called "Nell's Bottom" in the 1970s). Raucous crowds gathered on the deck on spring days. In the background annotation the gratis all-twenty-four hour period on-street angle parking forth Durant Street for the lucky early bird skiers.

1988: Snowmass allows snowboarding. The inaugural 24 Hours of Aspen ski race on Aspen Mountain sees sleep-deprived teams of 2 ski racers average 65 to 70 laps in 24 hours for charities, with only gondola rides to rest. Aspen Mountain holds its first women'south World Cup Ski race.

1988–89: The landmark Little Nell après-ski deck and bar are torn downward, replaced by the five-star Little Nell hotel. Men's World Cup racing returns to Aspen. Ingemar Stenmark, the winningest racer of all time with 86 Globe Cup victories, wins his terminal race in Aspen.

1991–92: The full iii-mount flavour pass (Aspen, Buttermilk, and Snowmass) is reinstated at $1,600, without an Aspen Mountain surcharge.

1993–94: American A.J. Kitt is robbed of his World Loving cup downhill victory on Aspen Mountain, as warm temperatures, low clouds, and a controversial rut on the road above Straw Pile incite a Swiss protest and the cancellation of the race. The Crown family unit acquires 100 percentage of the Aspen Skiing Co. and purchases Aspen Highlands.

1994–95: A near-record annual snow of 239.36 inches; avalanches close Castle Creek Road. Man buried in Conundrum teepee. A uniquely wild piece of Aspen history dies when Aspen Highlands suspends the ski patrol restaurant deck jump. A 4-mount twenty-four hour period ski ticket costs $52. A.J. Kitt again robbed of Aspen Mountain Globe Loving cup downhill victory by FIS conclusion because 37 racers hadn't yet run due to heavy snows.

1997: Stein Eriksen is knighted by the Rex of Norway. The Cirque Headwall platter elevator opens at Snowmass, powered by air current-power credits. A new Ruthie'south triple chair replaces the double on Aspen Mountain. After 17 years, Bonnie retires at the end of her lease and Brigitte Birrfelder takes over the, keeping the proper noun Bonnie's Restaurant. The eating place continues to rent locals and to continue a work schedule that allows employees to ski.

1999: A new Sundeck is built on Aspen Mountain and includes the new, private Aspen Mountain Guild.

2000: The Aspen Skiing Co. tries to change name of Aspen Mountain to Ajax to avoid marketing confusion over having a snowboard ban on only 1 of four mountains. Locals protest, preferring historical Aspen Mount instead of Ajax.

2001: Ski Company president Pat O'Donnell reverses course and allows snowboarding on Aspen Mount, beginning April 1. Aspen Mountain keeps its name.

Signs of control work in Highland Bowl. Big fresh turns coming upward shortly. Credit: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism

2002: Highland Basin opens to its summit for hiking up and skiing downwardly. The annual 24 Hours of Aspen ski race permanently cancelled. Buttermilk hosts the X Games for the get-go time.

2005: Nick DeVore wins first Colorado Freeride competition on Burnside Cliffs, Snowmass, jumping three cliffs on telemark skis. First Aspen-area loftier-speed "six pack" chairlift installed at Snowmass; capacity: 3,000 skiers per hour. The first Summit for Life uphill race is held on Aspen Mountain to do good the Chris Klug Foundation.

2011: The Power of Four ski mountaineering race debuts, a grueling ski-mountaineering event with 12,000 feet of vertical gain over 25 miles. The single-day ski ticket breaks the $100 barrier ($104).

2012: Snowmass adds 230 acres of hike-to terrain on Burnt Mount. Gwynn's High Alpine Restaurant is concluding independently operating eatery on all iv mountains.

2013: Suicide on ski area. Jeff Walker skis Aspen Highlands bowl laps before taking his ain life in a wooded out-of-bounds expanse. Extended search for him after being reported missing yields no results. Out-of-premises snowboarder discovers the missing human being'south body weeks later with gun nearby.

A view of Aspen from the Silver Queen Gondola on Aspen Mount in 2014. Credit: Brent Gardner-Smith / Aspen Journalism

2013–14: Aspen's four mountains now have total of 42 ski lifts with a capacity of 55,213 skiers per hour. Skier visits up 7.8 percentage from the year before to ane.iv meg, while Colorado visits up 10 percent to 12.6 million. Annual snowfall 226 inches. Jan. 31 remembered as "24 in 24," 24 inches of snowfall in 24 hours.

2014-15: Strong snow start stalls with second lowest January total of five.26 inches. Women's World Cup racing on Aspen Mountain. Biggest 10 Games ever at Buttermilk with best athletes and some 100 Olympians competing. Snoop Dogg plays concert.

A view of Aspen through a chair on Lift 1A in 2015. Credit: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism

2015-16: U.S. racer Mikaela Shiffrin wins Globe Cup slalom on Aspen Mount by an astonishing three.5 seconds, the largest margin of victory in modern women's ski race history. El Niño weather-pattern year delivers late snows in March and April, rounding upward to snowfall of 225 inches, with an extended weekend skiing on Aspen Mountain for Memorial Day and the first weekend of June.

2017: A La Niña conditions-pattern year begins with low snow. Aspen Mountain does not take enough snowfall to open on Thanksgiving 24-hour interval. Opens with limited skiing on Nov. 27. On Dec. 19, up to 19 inches of snow in 48 hours, setting up a cracking start to the season.

FIS men's and women's Tall Earth Cup Concluding comes to Aspen Mountain March 15-19. Showtime time since 1950 FIS World Championships.

Tim Cooney, a freelance writer and veteran Aspen Mountain ski patroller, is collaborating with Aspen Journalism and the Aspen Daily News to explore Aspen history. The Daily News published the timeline as a two-office serial, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016, and on Friday, December. xxx, 2016.

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Source: https://aspenjournalism.org/aspen-ski-history-timeline/

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