Steamboat

Park Smalley:
Great Western
Freestyle
Camp
Park Smalley, a member of the Colorado
Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame, is a former
U.S. Olympic Team and Steamboat Springs
Winter Sports Club coach. A pro mogul
skier, he has been dubbed “the father
of freestyle skiing.” The Park Smalley
Freestyle Complex at the Steamboat Ski
Area is named in his honor.
Ironically, the story of my arrival in
Steamboat begins with the Shah of Iran.
When I was a member of the Marlboro
Ski Team, one of the more exotic stops on
our tour was Tehran. We arrived at 4 a.m.
and were picked up by our 5’2” driver, who
took us to the Tehran Hilton, where — by
the way — we spent Christmas.
The ski area was not far outside of
Tehran and actually had some pretty good
skiing. They built a jump for us, and we did
a demonstration for the Shah. He watched
it, got back in his helicopter and was gone.
The money I earned on that trip funded
my move to Steamboat Springs. I came here
from Killington, Vt., with Mike Williams
and Rusty Taylor. Mike was raised here and
thought it might be a good place to start a
camp for young “hot doggers.”
We used wobbly scaffolding to build
an artificial ramp at Howelsen Hill, and we
had 200 bales of hay to use for a landing.
We’d fluffed about 150 of them when Mike
said he wanted to test the jump. A couple
things went wrong: 1) we really did need
all 200 bales and 2) we didn’t place them
quite right — Mike landed on the far side
of the hay.
Next we tried water. Our plan was to
build a pond, and John Fetcher, who was
probably quite amused by our “creativity,”
drove an old tractor down to the site. He
asked me if I wanted a ride in the cab, and
I climbed in. He quickly showed me how
the controls worked, then said he had other
things to do, wished us luck and left.
We dug the pond and filled it with
water. Not being on an engineering par
with John, we failed to realize that the
water would seep into the earth quite so
fast. Then we had the idea of lining the
pond with big sheets of plastic and having
our friends stand around the edge and
hang on to the liner.
That was the beginning of the Great
Western Freestyle Camp. We only had five
or six students that summer, but look who
they were: Fuzz Feddersen, 12 years old
with a mouthful of braces; Cooper Shell;
and Nelson Carmichael, who was the third
stooge. Maria Quintana was there too. Four
out of five of those kids went on to break
barriers in the sport.
Fuzz, Maria and Nelson competed in
the 1988 Olympic Games, and I was their
coach. It was the first time freestyle was
recognized as an Olympic sport — it was
an exhibition event that year. Nothing
touches that Olympics when it comes
to my memories. From out-jumping
our haybale landing at Howelsen to the
Olympics. It was just incredible.
Courtesy Park Smalley
Courtesy Park Smalley
STEAMBOAT MAGAZINE | SKI SEASON 2012/13 | 81