The winter solstice passed weeks ago, but the dawn of the real winter season in Sun Valley has only just arrived. Snows that came gradually this season are beginning to bring Bald Mountain up to its full potential—and just in time for The Ski Tour this weekend.
"We're right at the cusp of Baldy skiing quite well," said Sean Glaccum, a third-year Sun Valley ski patroller and born-and-raised Sun Valley resident. "One more storm and the brush is gone."
Glaccum and fellow patroller Tim Cron, also a longtime local, sat on Sunday afternoon in the patrol's rustic headquarters, perched on the scenic lip atop Christmas Bowl near Baldy's summit. With the mountain skiing well and Saturday's 57-miles-per-hour gusts gone, there was unmistakable electricity in the air.
"We're all amped up for The Ski Tour," Cron said. "We're hoping for some action."
The Ski Tour, which will commence Thursday and run though the weekend, has brought a buzz to Baldy. Ski celebrities are trickling into town, showing up on the hill and at local watering holes.
But it's all amidst the regular day-to-day roll that is life in Sun Valley.
And that roll has a lot to do with skiing.
'Old school'
Sun Valley ski culture has tradition dating to 1936, when Union Pacific Railroad, under direction from Averell Harriman, opened the resort. It was the nation's first destination ski resort, where the chairlift was invented and, arguably, where the tradition of the ski bum was popularized by filmmaker Warren Miller, who lived in the River Run parking lot while making his first ski movies.
That culture is alive and well today—albeit evolved—in people like Jeff Smull, a local real estate broker who skis 100 days or more a season. A former freestyle skier and racing coach from Washington, Smull still dons 21-year-old orange Lange ZR boots. But they've got new liners, which he installed in 1991, he pointed out with a shrug.
Ancient ski boots aside, Smull arcs his boards with the best of them. Between high-speed cruisers on Baldy's manicured corduroy Sunday, Smull said The Ski Tour is a step in the right direction for ski areas like Sun Valley, where the skiing demographic is undeniably aging faster than at other resorts.
"I hate to say it, but I'm actually kind of old school," he said. "There's only so many dollars you can suck out of me, so they need to be changing the product to appeal to more people. In the long run, it will be really good for the ski industry. I'm 47. I'm going. These are the events that will bring new skiers in."
Smull spends about 80 percent of his winter ski days riding lifts on Bald Mountain, but about 80 percent of those are spent skiing the backside. He's been arcing turns here for 14 years, and he knows the mountain's secrets—and local socioeconomic dynamics—as well as most.
Later, pausing for a breather half way through a backside powder stash, Smull explained that the vision of The Ski Tour founders Kipp Nelson and Steve Brown is something to be admired, something he said he hopes will pay off for the local area. If they're paying attention, Sun Valley Co., local cities and the local chambers of commerce will follow suit in becoming more passionate about promoting and organizing such events, Smull said.
"This is a tough mountain to pull The Ski Tour off," he said. "Here, in all candor, we've got a bunch of old farts skiing this mountain. But there still is a buzz. I think it's an apprehensive buzz, a 'Gee, I hope this thing is successful' buzz."
'This is gonna' be cool'
The Sun Valley Ski Patrol is something of a time-honored tradition. It's one of the most mature ski patrols in the nation, although new blood has been injected in recent years as some of the old guard have retired.
Sunday was business as usual for the patrol on Baldy. At the summit, Glaccum and Cron, two of the newer members, explained that the camaraderie and avalanche control mornings are two of the more enjoyable aspects of the job.
And Glaccum, also a photographer and river guide, showed photographs of early morning sunrises, days like Saturday when the clouds and sun mixed to create a "tornado of light."
This weekend's events, however, should also be business as usual for the patrol. And that means maintaining a safe, controlled environment for people who come to Sun Valley to ski and snowboard and to watch and participate in The Ski Tour.
Cron, in his sixth year with the on-mountain safety and medical crew, said the ski patrol would staff the Baldy half pipe and Dollar Mountain skiercross course, but otherwise would run things as it usually does.
Rich Bingham, the patrol's assistant director, has been working on Baldy for 40 years. He said it's been a long time since an event of such caliber has come to Sun Valley.
"This is gonna' be cool," Bingham said. "It's something different for here. The skiercross—everybody, the guys building the course, say it's one of the best ones they've ever been involved in doing. It's just a new twist with some exciting athletes involved.
"They pretty much have their own crew of course setters and builders, and they pretty much take care of athlete safety. They have a really good setup here with all the subcontractors and people building the courses. We, obviously, will have a little bit of input, but most of it comes from the contractors and course builders."
The Ski Tour co-founder Nelson said everyone from on-mountain staff to Sun Valley Co. management have been extremely cooperative about helping to make the event a success.
"Everybody seems to be up for it," he said. "Whether that's ski patrol guys, whether that's ski racing kids or whether that's people who aren't necessarily skiers who want to see a great event come to town. They've been terrific to work with."
Is the ski bum dead?
I.M. Chauncey has been ski bumming in Sun Valley for 11 years. A telemark skier, the 33-year-old is a common figure on Bald Mountain and about town, but he said he's part of a dying breed—not because of his free-healed inclinations but because of his lifestyle.
"Ski bumming is a way of life that's died," he said. "All I have to do is turn out the lights when I leave because the ski bum is dead in Sun Valley. There aren't many of us left. Do you see many others like me? No. And Duracells aren't going to cut it."
Chauncey was enjoying a few $1 Pabst Blue Ribbons—a popular apres ski activity—at River Run Lodge. He said he likes to ski "fast and furious" the way pianist Paul Tillotson was, at that very moment, tickling the ivories at the day lodge.
In a sense, Smull said, people like Chauncey are right, "in a sense."
"I don't think the ski bum is dead. I think the ski bum has evolved," he said. "We're professionals who are ski bums. We're not professional ski bums. I think the new ski bum has a retirement package."
For his part, Nelson said the ski bum is the person who is super passionate about "skiing and the lifestyle," but he also acknowledged that mountain town real estate prices are making the ski bum era of the 1970s more difficult for modern-day youths to attempt.
But it's that youthful vitality and enthusiasm for skiing that The Ski Tour is trying to revive.
"That's what we're trying to do in terms of bringing a lot of the lifestyle," Nelson said. "There used to be a lot more fun associated with skiing, and we're bringing some of that back and celebrating that, celebrating that mountain culture."
Nelson reflected on the 1970s and 1980s when freestyle and racing events attracted skiers.
"There used to be 15 or so events like that. And what we wanted to do was bring back events with that festival-type atmosphere."
So, maybe, just maybe, people like Chauncey aren't an endangered species after all. If nothing else, Chauncey, Smull, Cron, Glauccum, Bingham and Nelson are all passionate about skiing and the lifestyle that surrounds it.
Chauncey pointed across the bar at a man wearing a brown T-shirt.
"Look at that," he said. "He's got my shirt on. That's my old roommate wearing my old shirt to the bar. Put that in the paper."
Ketchum resident Jeff Smull enjoys some backside Baldy powder Sunday afternoon. Smull said events like The Ski Tour should help restore some of ?zing? to Sun Valley skiing. Photo by Greg Stahl
