Steamboat
Epic! That word is spoken enthusiastically on powder days in Steamboat. My backcountry companions say it often; we can be a bit smug about our tele excursions into unofficial terrain like Way Right, Drunken Indian, Storm King and North Woods. But the truth is, Back in the Day, Loris and Buddy Werner and their friends had truly epic ski adventures. In the 1950s, they’d drive up Rabbit Ears to the top of Hogan Park Trail… before it was a marked Forest Service route. They’d put skins over their alpine skis and break trail all the way to what is now Morningside. That’s seven miles. Once there, they’d build a snow cave, light a fire and settle in for the night.
Epic! That word is spoken enthusiastically on powder days in Steamboat. My backcountry companions say it often; we can be a bit smug about our tele excursions into unofficial terrain like Way Right, Drunken Indian, Storm King and North Woods. But the truth is, Back in the Day, Loris and Buddy Werner and their friends had truly epic ski adventures. In the 1950s, they’d drive up Rabbit Ears to the top of Hogan Park Trail… before it was a marked Forest Service route. They’d put skins over their alpine skis and break trail all the way to what is now Morningside. That’s seven miles. Once there, they’d build a snow cave, light a fire and settle in for the night.
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EDITORIAL<br />
ADVISORY<br />
BOARD<br />
Tr acy Barnett<br />
Main Street <strong>Steamboat</strong><br />
Betsy Blakeslee<br />
The Nature Conservancy<br />
Kyleigh DeMicco<br />
<strong>Steamboat</strong> Springs<br />
Chamber Resort Association<br />
Rick DeVos<br />
<strong>Steamboat</strong> Springs<br />
Winter Sports Club<br />
Randall Hannaway<br />
Owner/ Broker<br />
Colorado Group Realty<br />
Rosie Kern<br />
Yampa Valley Medical Center<br />
Caroline Lalive<br />
U.S. Olympian<br />
Larry Mashaw<br />
Mountain Resorts<br />
Irene Nelson<br />
Irene Nelson Interiors<br />
Joe Roberts<br />
Retired Educator<br />
Susan Schiesser<br />
Artist<br />
Paul Underwood<br />
Café Diva<br />
Publisher’s Note<br />
Loris & Buddy Werner<br />
Epic Edition<br />
Epic! That word is spoken enthusiastically on powder days in <strong>Steamboat</strong>. My backcountry<br />
companions say it often; we can be a bit smug about our tele excursions into unofficial<br />
terrain like Way Right, Drunken Indian, Storm King and North Woods.<br />
But the truth is, Back in the Day, Loris and Buddy Werner and their friends had truly<br />
epic ski adventures. In the 1950s, they’d drive up Rabbit Ears to the top of Hogan Park Trail…<br />
before it was a marked Forest Service route.<br />
They’d put skins over their alpine skis and break trail all the way to what is now<br />
Morningside. That’s seven miles. Once there, they’d build a snow cave, light a fire and settle<br />
in for the night.<br />
The next morning, they’d hike to the summit of Storm Peak and begin the long run down<br />
to the valley floor. “It was quite a deal,” Loris told me not long ago. I bet it was.<br />
“We had first tracks all the time. Nothing was disturbed anywhere. Serenity,” he says.<br />
“Skiing down was the easy part,” Loris recalls. “Getting back to town, working around all<br />
the fences, that was hard.” The skiers would call ahead to avoid disrupting ranch operations.<br />
Virtually all of what is now Right of Way trail was a wagon road, leading into Bashor<br />
Bowl. “You just tried to miss the fences and stay out of the brush,” Loris recalls.<br />
For this commemorative edition, I interviewed dozens of people. I perused the state’s<br />
historic archives, tracked down former ski area CEO Martin Hart and pored through people’s<br />
personal scrapbooks. I thought about setting up a meeting with former ski area owner<br />
Kimihito Kamori in Japan, but didn’t think I could sell our bookkeeper on the expense.<br />
This trip down memory lane (my own <strong>Steamboat</strong> experience only goes back 30 years)<br />
brought to mind long-forgotten stories, renewed old friendships and evoked unexpected<br />
emotions. But the story that most sincerely sparked my imagination was Loris’.<br />
“I kinda chuckle when I hear people say, ‘epic this and epic that.’ You don’t even know,<br />
and I can’t explain it,” Loris says. “It’s you and God.”<br />
I’ve tried all my adult life to adequately describe a powder experience in words. I’ve never<br />
heard it expressed better than Loris did!<br />
We hope you will enjoy this collection of vintage <strong>Steamboat</strong> stories.<br />
14 | ONLINE AT WWW.STEAMBOATMAGAZINE.COM<br />
Courtesy Tread Of Pioneers Museum
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