{"id":123315,"date":"2013-11-06T22:57:29","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T05:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hesperus-ski-swap-celebrates-50th-year\/"},"modified":"2013-11-06T22:57:29","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T05:57:29","slug":"hesperus-ski-swap-celebrates-50th-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hesperus-ski-swap-celebrates-50th-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Hesperus ski swap celebrates 50th year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter
Peter May-Ostendorp buys skis at Hesperus Ski Patrol's ski swap at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. At left is Sara Evans.<\/span>STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, it took place in vacant storefronts on Durango\u2019s Main Avenue.<\/p>\n

Now in its 50th year and known as the Hesperus Mountain Ski Swap, the event fills every corner of the pavilion of the La Plata County Fairgrounds and even spills over into breezeways between buildings.<\/p>\n

Proceeds from the event help fund the all-volunteer ski patrol at Hesperus Mountain west of Durango.<\/p>\n

Buz Branch, director of the swap and director of the Hesperus ski patrol, said he\u2019s been at it for 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call ourselves the \u2018Hesperados.\u2019 If you can ski Hesperus, you can ski anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said thousands of people show up to pick up deals, trade out gear and shop for their families.<\/p>\n

Anna McBrayer said she outfits her family from the swap alone. Her son Aneas, 6, was in a basket full of skis, boots and gear.<\/p>\n

Second Avenue Sports\u2019 Ron Thompson was roaming the pavilion, helping customers find the right sizes of anything and everything. He called the swap a kick-off to the winter season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a line a mile long out the door, and then there\u2019s the line to the cashier,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s always pumped to come out to these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his 63 years with the National Ski Patrol, local Don Fritch has worked at mountains around the country. He describes Durango as a real ski town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the furthest south you can go, and then you hit desert,\u201d Fritch said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a great ski town \u2013 it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Bates, who does marketing and public relations for San Juan Untracked, was on the scene promoting the new cat-skiing operation. He said it was inspiring to show up and see the turnout.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all community here,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get here at 7:30 in the morning and there\u2019s already a huge line, and everyone is psyched for winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branch said Hesperus makes donations to organizations that provide volunteers to help with the swap, including the Bayfield High School baseball team and the Durango High School basketball team.<\/p>\n

The checkout lines were loaded with people holding skis, snowboards, clothing and all sorts of goods for the winter season. Local Dave Haggen, who said he likes the warm Southwestern winters, also said he found huge bargains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good for two pairs of skis and a pair of boots for under a hundred bucks,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t beat that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snowboarder Matt Ellis stood outside the pavilion, braving the chilly morning to promote the Fort Lewis College big-mountain ski team.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s ready for snow. \u201cIt\u2019s coming,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I can\u2019t wait. I wish I was skiing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May-Ostendorp buys skis at Hesperus Ski Patrol’s ski swap at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. At left is Sara Evans.STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald Then, it took place in vacant storefronts on Durango\u2019s Main Avenue. Now in its 50th year and known as the Hesperus Mountain Ski Swap, the event fills every corner of the pavilion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13,1792],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-123315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-snow-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123315","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=123315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123315"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=123315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}