{"id":805752,"date":"2020-03-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381014"},"modified":"2020-03-27T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T15:00:00","slug":"trygve-berge-reflects-on-his-ski-journey-including-founding-breckenridge-ski-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/trygve-berge-reflects-on-his-ski-journey-including-founding-breckenridge-ski-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"Trygve Berge reflects on his ski journey, including founding Breckenridge Ski Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 From his studio apartment in downtown Breckenridge, near where the Lower Four O\u2019Clock ski run meets pavement, Trygve Berge looks out at Breckenridge Ski Resort.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the world\u2019s most popular ski destinations. And it also happens to be a playground that many Summit County locals believe wouldn\u2019t exist as it does without the input of the 1956 Norwegian Olympic skier \u2014 the forefather of modern Breckenridge and a former farm boy from Voss, Norway.<\/p>\n

Seven decades after he and his family survived Nazi occupation and a half-century after he had the aha moment that the Tenmile Range could become a ski area, Berge, 87, is still a Breckenridge local. After he has his cup of coffee and doughnut in the morning, Berge will walk up and down the town\u2019s steep streets to \u201cget my pump going,\u201d as he says, before meeting up with friends. On days where he can go ski the mountain, about 10 days this past winter, he describes the snow as \u201cthe best in the world.\u201d Heck, last June, he wore sunglasses and a white, purple and teal retro ski get-up while riding Peak 7\u2019s spring slush.<\/p>\n

Along with fellow Breckenridge Ski Resort co-founders Sigurd Rockne and Bill Rounds, Berge is the man who put Breckenridge on the map. He\u2019s the man who was the guiding force in laying out the ski runs off, say, the Colorado SuperChair. And when you consider his success as a Norwegian championship and Olympic Alpine skier and his years of community impact instructing thousands in the ski school at Breckenridge, he\u2019s the Alpine skiing winner of the Summit Daily\u2019s Peak Performers contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always felt that this was my home,\u201d Berge said Tuesday, a month shy of his 88th birthday.<\/p>\n

Long before Berge \u2014 and fellow 1956 Norwegian Olympic Alpine skier Rockne \u2014 laid out the first runs on Peak 8, he dreamed of being an architect. As a child, Berge was an accomplished gymnast in Norway, a talent that aided his ski skills, which came on ski jumps and cross-country courses.<\/p>\n

Berge was 8 years old when the Nazi occupation began. Berge and other neighborhood Norwegians weren\u2019t permitted to gather to ski or do most anything else, including attend church. Still, when not working on the family farm, the young Berge would sometimes ski tour to visit neighbors, keeping the passion alive.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
An early Breck postcard features ski school director Trygve Berge doing a flip on Peak 8.<\/strong>
John Topolnicki \/ Summit Historical Society<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After the occupation concluded, Berge, essentially stumbled on the Alpine version of skiing, winning his first race through gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked over the mountain that morning, hadn\u2019t seen these people, and this lady said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you ski through it and see how you\u2019re doing,\u2019\u201d Berge said. \u201cSo I skied through it, and I won my class, and that was the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the gymnast-turned-downhill skier realized his potential, he put his architecture dreams on hold and moved to Oslo, where many of the country\u2019s best Alpine skiers were located. He won the Norwegian downhill national championship a couple of years later in 1956, the same year the then-23-year-old DQed in the Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo Olympic downhill after he lost a ski midrace.<\/p>\n

It was during this time that Berge grew close with the man he said was his best ski instructor, Norwegian Olympic medalist and skiing\u2019s first superstar Stein Eriksen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ski more like Stein than Stein does,\u201d Berge said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Former Norwegian downhill champion Trygve Berge on top of Keystone Resort with his home mountain, Breckenridge, in the background. Berge teamed with Sigurd Rockne to open Breck in the \u201960s.<\/strong>
Casey Day \/ Special to the Daily |<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Berge followed Stein to the United States, which eventually led him to Breckenridge. On the lookout for areas with good slopes and exposure to the sun, Berge said the first time he laid eyes on the Tenmile Range, he knew a ski area was a must.<\/p>\n

After the Peak 8 Ski Area, as it was originally called, opened in December, 1961, Berge, along with Rockne, taught the Peak 8 Ski School for the next decade. As Peak 8 Ski Area, and eventually Breckenridge Ski Area, grew in the ensuing years, Berge and Rockne went to consumer shows in places like Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis to promote skiing. In one case in Milwaukee, Berge showed off his fabled gymnastics-inspired somersaults on ice atop a ramp sprayed by a local brewery. In another favorite memory, Berge skied atop hairbrush-like plastic bristles at one of President Richard Nixon\u2019s inaugurations.<\/p>\n

As ski area ownership evolved and as his role at Breckenridge changed, Berge\u2019s remained a Breckenridge local. He helped teach future freestyle ski stars like Scott Rawles, who once worked at Berge\u2019s ski shop near Ski Hill Road.<\/p>\n

As Berge skis into his ninth decade on snow, he still has the Peggy Fleming-like grace he prided himself on for so many years. If he were to chose one final run at Breckenridge, it would be off the Imperial Express SuperChair and down into Upper Four O\u2019Clock, Mach One and eventually Sawmill \u2014 the heart of the Peak 8, 9 and 10 terrain he eyed to ski all those years ago.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Breckenridge Ski Resort founder Trygve Berge, center, and friends prepare to load the Independence SuperChair at the base of Peak 7 on closing day in June during the extended 2018-19 winter season.<\/strong>
Antonio Olivero \/ aolivero@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Home in his apartment amid the coronavirus pandemic, Berge laughs about how he\u2019s been \u201cdoing the elbow thing\u201d with people around town during his daily walks rather than shaking hands. Reflecting on his life, Berge says he hopes he\u2019s known as a guy who was always out there, doing his best with whatever he had.<\/p>\n

Berge explains how in Norwegian \u201cTrygve\u201d means \u201ctrust\u201d and \u201cBerge\u201d is the derivative of \u201cmountain\u201d or \u201ccliff.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way, beginning in 1961, Breckenridge trusted its mountain to Berge. And for that, he\u2019s thankful.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreckenridge is a place that you call home, while Aspen or Vail isn\u2019t,\u201d Berge said. \u201cYou can live there, but it doesn\u2019t feel like home. Not to me, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

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

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 From his studio apartment in downtown Breckenridge, near where the Lower Four O\u2019Clock ski run meets pavement, Trygve Berge looks out at Breckenridge Ski Resort. It\u2019s one of the world\u2019s most popular ski destinations. And it also happens to be a playground that many Summit County locals believe wouldn\u2019t exist as it does […]<\/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-805752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 04:07:35","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\/805752","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=805752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}