{"id":116813,"date":"2014-11-03T21:53:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T04:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/at-ski-swap-enthusiasm-for-season-fills-hall-2\/"},"modified":"2014-11-03T21:53:37","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T04:53:37","slug":"at-ski-swap-enthusiasm-for-season-fills-hall-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/at-ski-swap-enthusiasm-for-season-fills-hall-2\/","title":{"rendered":"At ski swap, enthusiasm for season fills hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jason
Jason Meininger, left, tries on a helmet with the help of Butch Geier of the Ski Barn during the 51st annual Hesperus Ski Patrol Ski Swap on Saturday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds.<\/span>STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mothers pulled hats and gloves on their children. Rainbows of jackets and pants came on and off in the aisles. Brazen ski and snowboard aficionados used Google to research random treasures.<\/p>\n

The cool, wet weather was perfect for shoppers, some already decked in a dash of winter garb. The commotion at the entrance never ceased.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a community kind of thing that people expect every year,\u201d said Jim Class, who has been at Ski Hesperus for 30 years. A volunteer for the National Ski Patrol, he grew up on snow. His father served on the National Ski Patrol for the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got my brothers and I skiing when we were 4 or 5 years old. It\u2019s kind of been a family thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The swap, held at the La Plata Fairgrounds, is a local tradition. It\u2019s a frugal shopper\u2019s paradise full of hugs and high-fives between people pulled apart by warmer weather but reunited in preparation for winter\u2019s snowy slopes.<\/p>\n

Durango Mountain Resort\u2019s Greg Ralph called it a blast to watch the buzz about the upcoming season, and conditions look good. With the local mountain under new ownership, the talk on the hill is that he\u2019s a skier\u2019s skier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018ve met (James Coleman), and when he talks, he\u2019s all about the skiing,\u201d said Ralph, DMR\u2019s vice president of marketing and sales. \u201cWhen there\u2019s a real ski guy driving it, that\u2019s pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Durango\u2019s love of skiing goes far out of bounds.<\/p>\n

Outside, John Strand promoted Friends of the San Juans, a new nonprofit organization providing free avalanche-awareness courses in Durango. Representatives from Telluride, Aspen and Silverton Mountain were on hand, sharing their excitement and endorsing their brands.<\/p>\n

Inside, Buck Smith of The Boot Doctors in Telluride was giving impromptu clinics on snowboard technology. He said people were happy, and the energy of the new season was in the air.<\/p>\n

He also said he loves his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to share the stoke with everybody,\u201d he said, holding up a snowboard. \u201cThat\u2019s my job, I get to make people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Dolores ski swap set for Nov. 7-8<\/h4>\n

The Dolores Ski and Sports Swap will be held Nov. 7 and 8 at the Dolores Community center.
\n Drop off your equipment from 4-8 p.m. Friday Nov. 7. The gear sale is Saturday Nov. 8 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
\n Telluride Ski passes also will be on sale. For more information, call 970-749-2393.
\n The Cortez Journal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meininger, left, tries on a helmet with the help of Butch Geier of the Ski Barn during the 51st annual Hesperus Ski Patrol Ski Swap on Saturday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds.STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald Mothers pulled hats and gloves on their children. Rainbows of jackets and pants came on and off in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[13,167],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116813","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=116813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116813"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}