Skiing - The Denver Post

OUTDOORS

Skiing

“like it used to be” Hinsdale Ski Team uses small, Lake City-owned hills to keep skiing affordable

Boots line the walls of the lodge at the Lake City Ski Hill on Feb. 24. Hinsdale Ski Team membership comes with free rentals which removes a major barrier to learning to ski.

Skiers rest next to the Poma platter lift at the base of the Lake City Ski Hill on Feb. 24. The lift serves seven runs and a terrain park with 274 vertical feet.

Don Junak, right, loads Henry Shephard onto the Poma platter rope tow ski lift at the Lake City Ski Hill on Feb. 24. The Poma platter lift is more challenging to use than a more modern chairlift and often represents a challenge to new skiers. Junak is the only full time employee of the hill. PHOTO BY JACOB SPETZLER — SPECIAL TO THE DENVER POST

Carson Shephard looks back at her teammates and family members during the Hinsdale Ski Team weekly practice at the Lake City Ski Hill on Feb. 24.

Sarah Tubbs and her daughter Afton Tubbs, foreground, with the Hinsdale Ski Team, line up to race during the Mardis Gras Fun Race at Wolf Creek Ski Area on March 1.

Sarah Tubbs and her daughter Afton Tubbs, of the Hinsdale Ski Team, compete in the Mardis Gras Fun Race at Wolf Creek Ski Area on March 1,.

Image

By Jacob Spetzler

Special to the Denver Post

The sun beat down on the Wolf Creek Ski Resort parking lots as the Hinsdale Ski Team pulled in on March 1, to compete in the annual Mardis Gras Fun Race.

Wolf Creek wasn’t where the team expected to be racing on that Saturday, but their home base of the Lake City Ski Hill, which doesn’t make its own snow, was forced to cancel its annual Matt Milski Memorial Race. So the hardy group quickly pivoted, hopping in their cars for the two-hour drive through the mountains to Wolf Creek.

The world of contemporary skiing is associated with fancy vacations, multi-national corporations, high-dollar season passes and expensive gear. But in the rural corners of Colorado’s mountains, local skiers find affordable turns on small hills owned by local municipalities. The Lake City Ski Hill, owned by the Town of Lake City, which has a population of fewer than 400 year-round residents, is one such operation. The Hinsdale Ski Team calls it home, keeping accessible skiing alive for area residents.

The hill’s seven trails and 274 vertical feet are served by a single lift — the 1000-foot Poma platter lift, gifted to Lake City by Arapahoe Basin in 1966. One full-time employee, Don Junak, maintains the entire operation with ski patrol, lift and grooming operations all rolled into one job. He’s assisted by two high school lifties.

The team, which will turn 50 years old next season, costs $20 to join. Membership comes with a season pass to the hill and includes access to rental equipment for anyone who needs it. The price stands in stark contrast to season passes at larger resorts that total closer to $1,000.

This year, 20 skiers make up the team — primarily local elementary and middle schoolers — but anyone is welcome to join. In the past, skiers as old as 80 have had their names on the roster. It’s headed up by Coach Henry Woods, a local historical restoration general contractor with his own storied history in ski racing. He has coached the team since 1989 and over those 35 years, he’s made an impact on generations of Lake City skiers. Woods said ski racing played a major role in his life while growing up.

“Ski racing inspired me to be healthier than many of the kids I grew up with in kind of a bad neighborhood in Denver,” he said. “I hope to impart that to the local kids.”

Sarah Tubbs, a mother of three team members, Joseph, Blake and Afton, said Woods forms the spiritual center of the team and has built a welcoming environment for new skiers.

“He seems like almost a family member to people,” she said. “He loves the kids and he loves the sport. He’s always looking for ways to help and get more kids to join.”

Holly Shephard initially moved to Lake City during the pandemic as a respite from their home in the densely populated Dallas area. She said her daughter, Carson, has found a special experience on the team, due, in part, to the nature of ski racing. Fundamentally, every skier is competing against themselves by trying to improve their own race times from contest to contest.

“She may never be the fastest kiddo out there, [but she got to be] part of a bigger group and have common interests with other kids and that’s what got her hooked,” Shephard said.

The Hinsdale Team has built a small competition circuit with other municipal hills like Kendall Mountain outside of Silverton and some bigger ski areas such as Wolf Creek and Monarch Mountain. Every couple of weekends for as long as the season lasts, the team loads into cars and travels to compete.

“You get to go to some pretty cool places.” said Sarah Tubbs’ twelve-year-old son, Joseph. “Even if it’s not ski racing exactly … you get to ski lots of other places.”

Sarah added that if it weren’t for the affordability and accessibility of the Hinsdale Team, her kids would not be engaged with the sport. The nearest mountain after the Lake City Ski Hill is nearly two hours away.

While team membership is affordable, lift ticket prices at the bigger mountains can be expensive. Holly led a series of small fundraisers last year to help offset those costs. Sometimes, the resorts themselves pitch in. When the Lake City race faced cancellation on Saturday, Woods called his friend, Davey Pitcher, the owner of Wolf Creek. Pitcher offered free tickets to the Hinsdale Team and, in total, 8 racers and their families made the trip.

At the end of the ski day, racers, coaches, parents and race officials gathered at the base for the awards ceremony. Hinsdale skiers stood next to racers from across the state, eagerly awaiting the results to be announced. Hinsdale team names peppered the results board and in almost every category, the team had a racer in the top three. Award pendants in hand, the team, sunburned and exhausted but beaming with pride, made their way back to the parking lots for the trip home to Lake City.

Jacob Spetzler is a freelance photojournalist.