{"id":795012,"date":"2019-04-20T10:08:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T16:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/56-years-in-vail-will-close-as-it-always-has-with-celebration\/"},"modified":"2019-04-20T10:08:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T16:08:01","slug":"56-years-in-vail-will-close-as-it-always-has-with-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/56-years-in-vail-will-close-as-it-always-has-with-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"56 years in, Vail will close as it always has \u2014 with celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"
Closing Day on Vail Mountain is about the same now as it was 56 years ago when the ski resort opened. People laugh, celebrate and ski.<\/strong>
Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VAIL \u2014 When Vail\u2019s Founders closed the books on its first season in April 1963, they did the same thing we still do on closing day \u2014 celebrate a little, laugh a lot and ski in between.<\/p>\n

The good stuff never changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came down the mountain and had a couple kegs of beer by the gondola,\u201d recalled Rod Slifer.<\/p>\n

Everyone in town was there, homeowners, second homeowners, lift operators \u2026 everyone, Slifer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say everyone, I mean everyone. We needed everyone to make a crowd,\u201d Slifer said smiling.<\/p>\n

There will be more people at the top of Vail\u2019s Chair 4 Sunday than were in all of Vail at the end of that 1962-63 season.<\/p>\n

Neither rain nor snow<\/p>\n

Prior to that first 1962-63 ski season, Vail\u2019s Founders kept an eye on the sky looking for clouds and snow. Neither showed.<\/p>\n

After working at everything all the time for months, they had some lifts built, the Red Lion and Lodge at Vail were operating. All they needed was snow, which was slow to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no snow,\u201d Slifer said.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 1, 1962, Slifer drove his car to Mid-Vail.<\/p>\n

Finally the snow came, Vail opened on Dec. 15, 1962, and the snow kept coming. There were some bumps along the way, like that sub-zero day a month later, in January 1963, when the resort sold eight lift tickets at $5 each. But Vail survived and so did its early founders.<\/p>\n

Vail\u2019s final run of the season, down any route you choose from the top of Chair 4, eventually evolved into the Chinese Downhill. Get to the bottom as fast as possible. The first one at the Red Lion with a tall cold one is the winner. In 1963 it had to be the Red Lion. It was one of the only clubs open and in those days you could ski to the front door. After the weather warmed you could also ride a horse to the front door.<\/p>\n

Vail\u2019s first ski school director, Morrie Shepard, drove to Vail from Aspen on May 1, 1962. That same day, Slifer made the move from Aspen to Vail to help handle the millions of details that go with building a ski area from the ground up. For that, Slifer was paid the princely sum of $500 a month. He laughed and said it\u2019s more money than he had ever made before.<\/p>\n

That first year Slifer lived in a trailer 8-feet wide and 32-feet long, with Pete Seibert and Shepard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cozy living,\u201d Slifer said.<\/p>\n

Slifer met Shepard when they were both working in Aspen. They taught skiing in the winter and painted houses in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou paint houses together all day long for a couple years, you get to know each other,\u201d Slifer said.<\/p>\n

Baja bound<\/p>\n

In the early days they also did what people still do when the mountain closes. They left, said Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Brown, another of Vail\u2019s Founders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early days of Vail we used to head for Mexico as soon as the season ended. Back then we drove. We couldn\u2019t afford to fly,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

Baja and the beaches was their favorite destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaja was undeveloped. We had some beaches all to ourselves; miles of white sand and shallow water, really nice, and some good fishing,\u201d Brown recalled.<\/p>\n

They also worked. One spring Brown stuck around to work on a house he was building, or filmed construction: clearing trails, building Mid Vail, putting up lifts, some of the buildings in town. Sometimes he and Bob Parker would edit films he shot during the winter.<\/p>\n

In April 1961, Bob Parker, Pete Seibert, Pepi Gramshammer, Shepard, Brown and a few others rode to the top of what is now Chair 5 in Earl Eaton\u2019s old snow cat, and Brown filmed everyone skiing in the Back Bowls. \u201cThere were no Bowls lifts back then. We had to hike out after each run, Brown said. \u201cThat\u2019s how \u2018Forever\u2019 got its name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pepi, a professional ski racer in those days, took off and skied all the way to the bottom. When he climbed out, he said it took \u201cForever\u201d to climb out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also when Pepi fell in love with Vail; vast terrain, great spring snow,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

All years are good<\/p>\n

Years come and go. You remember them all, but especially the good ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s snow was as good as it has ever been. There is not a patch of dirt anywhere,\u201d Slifer said.<\/p>\n

Weather data is also more reliable than it was in 1962. There used to be a stake outside Mid-Vail, on your right as you got off the lift. According to Vail legend and lore, Seibert would pile new snow around it every morning.<\/p>\n

The legend is true, Slifer said laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so lucky,\u201d Slifer said of life in Vail. \u201cThe smartest thing I did was that I never left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Closing Day on Vail Mountain is about the same now as it was 56 years ago when the ski resort opened. People laugh, celebrate and ski.Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum VAIL \u2014 When Vail\u2019s Founders closed the books on its first season in April 1963, they did the same thing we still do on closing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-795012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 18:34:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}