{"id":41691,"date":"2022-03-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/these-small-city-owned-ski-areas-keep-up-the-tradition-of-skiing-for-all\/"},"modified":"2022-03-14T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T18:00:00","slug":"these-small-city-owned-ski-areas-keep-up-the-tradition-of-skiing-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/these-small-city-owned-ski-areas-keep-up-the-tradition-of-skiing-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"These small, city-owned ski areas keep up the tradition of skiing for all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Calvin
Calvin Chase, 11, gets pulled to the top of Chapman Hill in 2014 by a tow rope that had been in place since near the beginning of the ski hill.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When people think of Colorado skiing, certain big resorts pop to mind.<\/p>\n

Aspen. Telluride. Vail.<\/p>\n

Maybe they even know some of the smaller ski areas, like Powderhorn outside of Grand Junction, or Ski Cooper near Leadville.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another level of small when it comes to the state\u2019s ski areas, so small that if you\u2019re in the tiny community of Ouray, you literally turn up Third Avenue, go two blocks, and there you are.<\/p>\n

This is the world of little, city-owned ski hills, and they\u2019re scattered across western Colorado.<\/p>\n

In Ouray, the ski spot is called Lee\u2019s Ski Hill, and on a recent blue-sky weekend, dozens of people were gathered at the bottom of it \u2013 a vertical drop all of 75 feet \u2013 clapping and whooping from their lawn chairs as little kids competed in a ski-jump contest. One little boy even managed to do the Macarena, the \u201990s dance craze, while airborne.<\/p>\n

That made Sarah Gray cheer even harder, in her magenta, snakeskin-print tights, cut-off jeans and flap hat, an outfit that shows she came \u201cto party,\u201d she said. She recently moved to Ouray, and has been so impressed with the community spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a quirky little mountain town. And it holds onto that,\u201d she went on. \u201cLike, there could be a set of condos built right on this hill, but there\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lee's
Lee's Ski Hill in Ouray under sunny skies in February 2022. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The piece of prime real estate was actually set aside for this very purpose in 1946, when a local woman named Deema Mary Lee donated much of this land to the city \u201cto be used as a recreation area for the young people of Ouray.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouray native Rick Trujillo, born here a few years after the hill opened, found that quote in paperwork decades ago. That was back when the city was contemplating selling off the land, a plan that was quickly abandoned after he intervened. Trujillo, the oldest of 11, knew he had to protect the ski hill. He had basically spent his childhood winters here. He and his friends would come after school, turn on the rope tow and ski until dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no supervision! None whatsoever!\u201d he exclaimed with definite pride in his voice.<\/p>\n

These days, a seasonal city employee is on site, and the rope ski lift has been upgraded. But one thing has not changed: the price. When Trujillo was growing up, Lee\u2019s Ski Hill was free.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s still free of charge,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich I think is unique in Colorado or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sadie
Sadie Smith flies down the course at Chapman Hill on her way to winning her age group in the single-run moguls in 2014. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A desire to keep something special \u2013 and affordable \u2013 for children has kept small, city-owned hills going in Durango and Silverton too. Durango\u2019s Chapman Hill has been used as an in-town ski area for more than 70 years, but it wasn\u2019t until the 1950s when it acquired a rope tow. It has 500 vertical feet and now has snowmaking and snow grooming.<\/p>\n

Steamboat\u2019s \u201cother ski area,\u201d Howelsen Hill, is actually protected as a city park now. And tiny Lake City, close to Ouray as the crow flies, but a few hours by car, still has its one-lift ski hill. Local government did float the idea of closing it \u2013 three times, actually. But each failed.<\/p>\n

Henry Woods, a skier in Lake City for decades, made sure of it by bringing in the heavies: local moms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest powers in the world, is angry mothers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Woods, who coaches a ski team for kids, says the ski hill used to charge a small fee for the schoolchildren. But he found even five bucks was a barrier. So he worked out a deal with the school, where every student gets in for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s no haves and have nots at the ski hill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Meredith
Meredith Nass performs a spread-eagle off a jump at Chapman Hill Ski Area during an aerial competition in 2020. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On Monday mornings, a crowd of kids descends on the hill\u2019s base for ski team practice. They joke and roughhouse in line as they wait for the lift, a historic hand-me-down from Arapahoe Basin that dates back to the 1940s, and is actually the oldest lift of its kind still in operation in the state.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called a Poma lift, and straddling a disk between your legs, you let it pull you up the hill. It requires concentration and strong hands to keep from tumbling down. But the kids are absolute pros, including 11-year-old Labron Wampler. He\u2019s only been skiing a year but can feel himself getting better.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, yeah,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery day.\u201d<\/p>\n

So it doesn\u2019t matter that there are so few ski runs that one is actually the summertime driveway for a fancy house, or that typically there just aren\u2019t a lot of people here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m really shy, so I like it,\u201d Wampler said.<\/p>\n

And for local mom to three Sarah Tubbs, it\u2019s been a supportive place to relearn how to ski.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can fall on your butt and laugh at yourself,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

\"Logan
Logan Shreck glides along a rail Jan. 17, 2017, at Chapman Hill Ski Area. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Perhaps more than anything, it\u2019s close by. Going to any other ski resort would take two hours or more. To get to this hill, her hill?<\/p>\n

\u201cFive minutes,\u201d she said, with a laugh. Sometimes it\u2019s even quicker.<\/p>\n

But for all these bonuses, longtime employee Don Junak knows ultra-small ski areas can still be a tough sell in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s dozens of ski hills that I used to ski at when I was young that are not there anymore,\u201d he said, sporting his long, gray beard. \u201cJust go by the wayside \u2018cause the big resorts took over.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as he sees it, who wants to go to one of those?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have a $5,000 pair of pants and a $10,000 pair of skis, et cetera,\u201d he said, with a wry smile.<\/p>\n

Compare that to Lake City, where equipment is provided free-of-charge with lift tickets, which only cost $25 dollars for adults. Junak felt so strongly about keeping this place going that for the first 12 years he worked here, he did it for free. He\u2019s just glad the Lake City Ski Hill survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what\u2019s gonna happen though, with global warming,\u201d he said. \u201cYou never know \u2019cause this year we\u2019re really dry on snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making things worse: This is one of several municipal ski hills that can\u2019t make its own snow. In Gunnison, city-owned Cranor Hill has gotten so little snow, it couldn\u2019t even open this winter. It was looking pretty bad for Ouray, too, until a recent storm brought feet of much-needed powder to Lee\u2019s Ski Hill, just in time for Cabin Fever Day.<\/p>\n

Carrie Hickman, who grew up in Ouray, watched as kiddos in brightly colored ski helmets and bibs zoomed up to a line for a rope tow \u2013 basically a rope suspended in air the kids clung to as it spirited them up the hill.<\/p>\n

Hickman did that countless times as a child, and even participated in this very same event as a 3-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so to be back here with my kids, participating as 5- and 7-year olds, it\u2019s so cool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that it\u2019s also kind of bittersweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s still a loving place here in Ouray.\u201d<\/p>\n

A window into old Colorado, tucked right off Main Street.<\/p>\n

\"Matt
Matt Morrissey, former recreation supervisor at Chapman Hill, checks a snowmaking machine in 2018. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango\u2019s Chapman Hill has been used as an in-town ski area for more than 70 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,997,950,28,1299],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-chapman-hill","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-ski-jumping"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41691","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=41691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}