Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410180002
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: G8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WALTER ROESSING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In those glamorous, glittering, high-priced Colorado ski towns, reservations to exclusive gourmet restaurants must be made weeks in advance, upscale second homes are priced in seven figures and celebrated politicians and actors often are more accessible than in Washington, D.C., or Hollywood.
But it isn't necessary to take out a second mortgage on your house to afford a vacation to all the West's ski towns.
Situated in Colorado, Idaho and Utah are four choice resorts that combine big-time skiing with small town ambience, including reasonable prices for lodging, food and apres-ski fun. Not only are these ski towns friendly, laid-back and low-key but all are more than a century old.
Breckenridge is the oldest continually occupied community on Colorado's western slope. The 135-year-old Victorian mining town has one of the Rocky Mountain's largest National Historic Districts, with 354 registered buildings.
All activities are doubly breathless because this rustic seat of Summit County is 9,600 feet above sea level.
Until the mid-1950s, the town was so forgotten it was included in the listings of Colorado ghost towns. Reborn as a ski town, Breckenridge has scores of retail shops, restaurants and one traffic light.
With lodging for every pocketbook, many families settle here because they can take turns skiing Breckenridge and such nearby resorts as Vail, Copper Mountain and Keystone.
The town sits at the base of Breckenridge Ski Area, one of the state's largest with 17 lifts, including four high-speed detachable quads; 126 trails, a 2,610 lift-serviced vertical rise and four interconnected mountains. Advanced skiers can hike above the timberline to the 12,998-foot summit of Peak 8 before plummeting into 800 acres of European-style bowls.
Breckenridge is 75 miles west of Denver via all-weather Interstate 70.
ONLY 124 years old is the Colorado town of Steamboat Springs.
Unlike the others, Steamboat Springs was established by fur trappers who ranged along the colossal Continental Divide. Ranchers and farmers also helped create this town 157 miles northwest of Denver.
An indication of the town's age is Main Street, built exceptionally wide to accommodate cattle and wild horse drives.
Actually, there are two Steamboats. There's the town of Steamboat Springs and the self-contained Steamboat Ski Area.
The town is blessed with a strong, authentic Western heritage that is reflected in the casual ski dress by visitors and locals. That attire is exemplified by Billy Kidd, the Steamboat Ski Area's director of skiing. Kidd, so it's said, only takes off his signature cowboy hat when he showers or sleeps.
Kidd is a former Olympic silver medalist. Steamboat Springs is called Ski Town USA because it has produced nearly three dozen Winter Olympic competitors, more than any locale in America.
Though the town's ambience is casual, the downhill skiing is world-class.
All schussing is done on 10,568-foot Mount Werner, which has four distinct peaks and a 3,668-foot vertical. The resort boasts 21 lifts, including the eight-passenger Silver Bullet gondola, 107 runs and 2,500 permitted acres that range from wide-open meadows to challenging tree skiing.
While 54 percent of Steamboat's ski mountain is rated intermediate, there are plentiful playgrounds for beginners, novices and children.
The town's wildest winter event is the Steamboat Winter Carnival, Feb. 6-12, to celebrate its 82nd consecutive year. Its annual parade features a band marching down Main Street with every member wearing skis.
Another town that once was a magnet for 19th century miners is Park City.
More than a century ago, its bonanza of precious ores yielded $475 million worth of silver, gold and zinc, paid $1 billion in dividends and spawned 23 millionaires. With a population of 15,000, the mining remained productive until 1939. Then, almost all the mines closed and Park City deteriorated into a dusty, depressing town of 900 discouraged souls.
But in 1963, someone discovered a valuable resource in the 350 inches of dry powder that falls each winter. Calling the snow "surface silver," developers gave Park City new life by transforming this hard-luck community into the home of two outstanding ski resorts.
Park City Ski Area is Utah's biggest.
It has a gondola, 13 chairlifts, 88 trails, a 3,lOO-foot vertical, 1O,OOO-foot summit, snowmaking and skiing 13 hours a day. Its 2,200 skiable acres are considered so prime - and so accessible to Salt Lake City Airport just 40 miles away - that the U.S. Alpine Ski Team lives and trains on its slopes.
Also within the city limits is upscale Deer Valley, with 13 chairs, 66 trails, a 2,200-foot vertical, a 9,400-foot summit, snowmaking and a world-class mountain village.
"But we're more than a ski town. We're a historic mining center, too," insists Nancy Volmer of the Chamber of Commerce. "The beauty of our town is that, except for the condos around the base of the two ski resorts, it looks quite similar to the boom mining days."
Weather-beaten buildings and old sluice boxes, ore carts and other traces of the rich past are seemingly everywhere. A stroll down Main Street - named to the National Register of Historic Places - leads to 65 historic structures. Among the most interesting is the Egyptian Theatre, where Robert Redford holds his film festival each January.
Main Street also is the hub for most of the town's shops, restaurants, bars and the headquarters of Mrs. Debbi Fields' cookie empire.
A fourth classic is Ketchum, located in the picturesque Wood River Valley 82 miles north of Twin Falls, Idaho.
Lured by rich deposits of silver, galena and lead, Ketchum was founded in 1880. However, by 1935, this once-bustling town had plummeted to a population of 270 shepherds.
That's when it was discovered by Averell Harriman, then the board chairman of Union Pacific Railroad. Harriman bought 4,300-acre Brass Ranch for Union Pacific and started building Sun Valley, the nation's "first complete ski area."
Today Ketchum has a year-round population of 3,500, and it's the commercial centerpiece of the region.
Unlike most rural areas, Ketchum is a lively cultural community. It has a score of art galleries and supplements the prestigious Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities. Of course, Ketchum is the one-time stomping ground of Ernest Hemingway, whose family members still reside here.
For dining, the town has 61 restaurants, including Louie's Pizza, which occupies a former church erected in 1881. There's also a wide choice of nightlife.
The town's showpiece is Sun Valley Lodge, which debuted during Christmas week of 1936. Lodge guests have ranged from President Harry Truman, Clark Gable and John Wayne to Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis. Groucho Marx was married in suite 305 and Peggy Fleming, Jean-Claude Killy, Raquel Welch and Brian Boitano have filmed TV specials here.
Sun Valley Ski Area operates two separate mountains.
Baldy - situated in Ketchum's city limits - is the big mountain with a 3,400-foot vertical, 9,150-foot summit, 65 groomed runs, 600 acres of snowmaking and 13 chairs, including seven high-speed detachable quads. Dollar Mountain in Sun Valley Village is a playground for beginners and children, with four chairs, 13 runs and a 628-foot vertical.
Hut-to-hut cross-country expeditions and heli-ski adventures also are available.
Ketchum's airport in nearby Hailey is among Idaho's busiest, with Horizon and Skyst operating flights from Salt Lake City, a Delta hub.
For more information:
Breckenridge Ski Resort, P.O. Box 1058, Breckenridge, CO 80424; (303) 453-3000.
Park City Ski Area, P.O. Box 39, Park City, UT 84060; (801) 649-8111.
Steamboat Ski Resort, 2305 Mount Werner Circle, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487; (303) 879-6111.
Sun Valley Company, Sun Valley, ID 83353; 208-622-4111.
Walter Roessing is a freelance travel writer based in Walnut Creek, Calif.
by CNB