<\/p>\n
Officially the last day of the ski season, Sunday was an eclectic blend of ski culture, disco and vintage ski wear, adult beverages and a certain last-day-of-school feel, all on snowy mashed potatoes.<\/p>\n
Even though Purgatory will turn its chairs next weekend before throwing in this season\u2019s towel, for many, this weekend was a farewell to winter.<\/p>\n
And while \u201cGaper Day\u201d has become a tradition at ski areas across the nation, anybody\u2019s final day can be their own official Gaper Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cGaper Day means I get to wear bright lipstick,\u201d said Kelli Brush.<\/p>\n
A giant pink bunny floated quietly overhead. Someone with a cape bearing the Olympic rings was sitting at the bar at the Beach at the base area. Without warning on the mostly empty runs, gangs of skiers and snowboarders careened by, straight out of some 70\u2019s ski movie \u2013 one-piece suits and racing stripes in full glory.<\/p>\n
A man calling himself David Sanchez bore a large sombrero and a colorful serape; somehow he fit right in on the slopes. His cohorts all exhibited their own brand of style. Jared Sorenson\u2019s ultra tight-fitting acid washed jeans looked impossible to ski in. At 10,000 feet in April, his jean jacket and shirt were unbuttoned to his stomach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed an excuse to wear jeans while I\u2019m skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were, however, some on the mountain trying to get it all in before summer months take it all away. Bryan Bagdol and Jesse Kleinschmidt were serious, sort of, about having fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cConditions are good, considering it\u2019s been 60 degrees all month,\u201d Bagdol said, swinging his telemark skis under the chair lift. \u201cIt\u2019s soft. I like doing big fishtail turns. There\u2019s nobody here.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was an odd, quiet hue over the mushy slopes. Many runs were completely void of people.<\/p>\n
Kleinschmidt said in the heat of the summer, he\u2019ll look back on these last days of riding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to do this much longer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bony, but I love the slush. I just wiped out on a patch of grass, so that was pretty fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Excitement stirred about the resort\u2019s future. A new managing partner is bringing upgrades and improvements \u2013 part of the mountain\u2019s 50th anniversary, beginning with the installation of a new Lift 8, also known as the Legends lift.<\/p>\n
According to a press release issued by Purgatory, a new high-speed quad will go in over the summer, replacing the beloved \u2013 and 30-year-old \u2013 existing chair. Nearly a mile long and swooping skiers up the 1,500 vertical foot gain in as little as 5 minutes, it will change the character of the so-called back side.<\/p>\n
Purg employee Kaeden Fisher, who was loading chairs on Lift 8 on Sunday, said he, like many others, is excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty stoked,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a lot quicker. That means more laps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Gaper Day\u2019 closes the sking season, with a new Lift 8 on the way<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6328,6313],"tags":[13,167,712,1792],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-113434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2-more-sports","category-sports-2","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead","tag-purgatory","tag-snow-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113434"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=113434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}