Berthoud Pass - The Lost Resorts, Episode 10 (ft. SRG Skiing)

[@SRGSkiing]

So glad I was able to be a part of this first for you, and it was a pleasure working with you!

[@Skier72]

Thanks ShangRei, it was likewise a pleasure working with you

[@markwaters1275]

In 1984-85 I along with Kim Miller (the current ceo of Scarpa) were partners in Telemark Ski Guides at Berthoud Pass. We provided telemark, and alpine touring lessons and did guided trips to Current Creek and occasionally along the divide down to Winter Park. I had some of the best backcountry skiing in my life there.

[@Landwy1]

I was a part-time ski instructor (weekends) as a 17 year old. at Berthoud Pass Herb Hyna was the ski school director. We used the GLM (Graduated Length Method) where the student was introduced to gradually longer length skis. Cliff Taylor the inventor of GLM was an Evergreen Colorado native. However, PSIA never really embraced the method and it died. I thought it worked though. I was at Berthod Pass for two seasons?? around 1972?? before I left to teach part time at Loveland for many years. Some of my best skiing days were at Berthoud. One year in the sixties there was a good snowstorm on Labor Day and Berthoud opened and managed to stay open until around June. That was probably the longest lift served ski season in Colorado history. I remember when Loveland with artificial snow and Berthoud with natural snow would consistently open by October 15. With climate change, Loveland and now Arapahoe don't open up until November. Somewhere I have a picture of my Father skiing at Berthoud on the trail from behind the lodge to a switchback on the west side of the pass in 1937. I remember skiing down that trail and continuing down until we stopped at about where the Mary Jane entrance is, and then we hitchhiked back to the top of the pass. I also remember when there was a big snowstorm and we skied all the way to Berthoud Falls, a place of a couple of cabins on the East side and hitchhiked back to the top. On the cliff on the double haul cable, double chairlift I skied all of the slots in that area. Shortie GLM skis were the only way to make turns because the slots were so narrow. BTW....the old double chairlift was unique in that it had two cables like present day tramways use, except the hauling cable went around bull wheels like modern chairlifts do. I believe there were only a couple of chairlifts in America that used that system. The Sun Valley (Dollar and Proctor Mt.) chairlifts (started 1936-37 season) used a single cable.

[@JaredG_WV]

A Basin has only opened in November once in the last twenty years. Its always mid to late October. They list the dates on their Wikipedia page.

[@fredjudson524]

My Father, Art Judson, was the USFS Snow Ranger in charge of avalanche control and skier safety in the early 1960’s. I got to spend quite a few nights in the old Ranger station building and Erma Hill let Jud’s kids ski for free. Later My Father founded the first region wide avalanche warning program in the Nation.

[@dwightWSmith73]

Was just there this Saturday January 20, 2024 for some great backcountry skiing.

[@AWhiteRaven1]

I first skied here in 1979 when I was in high school. A full day lift ticket cost $7. I even managed to score some free tickets. The snow conditions were always wonderful. I have many memories of fantastic, deep powder with few people to share it with. The old double chairlift was a challenge to ride - if you were not careful it would painfully bang you on the back of the legs before you sat down. You had to sidestep up the steps before loading the lift (see @2:46). The offramp was narrow and steep. I don't recall the lift ever stopping - someone once told me that if it did stop you should jump off since the brake was not reliable (don't know if this is true or not). The lift-served part was fun but short. The Plunge was usually full of moguls and very challenging for those old 205's. What made this place special was all the backcountry terrain. The 90's area (Current Creek) has super steep, narrow and technical avalanche chutes (CDOT just numbered all the slide paths since there were so many) which, when open, always had powder to be found. You took Meadows to a glade area before encountering the chutes. It was the longest descent. Floral Park was also steep and despite its exposure it usually had great snow. I once skied it in waist-to-chest deep powder. For me, Hell's Half Acre was about the steep chutes. Chute 1 (North Chute on the map) is 47 degrees in pitch on the top. If you screw up, you fall off it before falling down. The snow conditions were some of the best I ever have skied in Colorado. The area is mostly below timberline which helps mitigate the fierce winds that blow across the summit. Plus, the clouds get stalled going over the Continental Divide which makes for deep, light snow. However, storm days were a challenge at times. The wind could be brutal. The people who skied here were so nice and friendly, like a big (happy) family. In the days before the bus setup the crowd was small and you could always run into people you knew. The first season they used busses was great. Very few people knew about the goods, so it was mostly uncrowded. The subsequent years saw increased crowds, and it became a battle to get a spot on the next bus. After once having my skis go up without me (put them in the rack on the back and then found out there was no space left and then the bus took off), and then growing weary of the long waits for the bus to get back up, I gave this place up in the early 1990's. There were never any lift lines but by then I craved the longer descents below the lifts. In the summer I hiked around this area a lot. Parking at the top there are lots of options. Once path leads to the Current Creek area where I once found lots of wild Boletus mushrooms. Continuing on you can go all the way into the Mary Jane ski area or fork off and go up Meadows to the summit of the old quad chair, then drop back down to the highway going along the Main Line run. Going up The Glide (the road on the east side) you can reach the Divide and then hike north as far as you want. The views to the east are breathtaking and you can see all the way to Denver. There is also good hiking in Pumphouse Basin. I am grateful for all the wonderful times I spent here.

[@jsb61motorsports]

I was fortunate to ski Berthoud Pass in the Spring of 2001 when it reopened for the weekend, after receiving a big dump of snow. I remember taking the chair up the eastern slope, skiing down through the forest and picking up the school bus shuttle at the bottom of the pass on the Winter Park side. I still have the sticker “Berthoud Badass”

[@timothywaterman1511]

The badass series was awesome. Berthoud was 1 of 3 stops in North America. Dudes were throwing huge back flips off the big 50' cliff. No one really cared because the skiing was so good that you'd only watch what you could see as you rode up for another lap

[@Wds__99]

I back country skied here ALOT in 2007-2009 when I lived in winter park. I wondered about its history so thanks for this.

[@georgeh.7238]

Used to go by this ski area in the late 70's while heading to "Ski Idlewild" right across from Winter Park which has been abandoned for many years now as well. You should look into that one.

[@howterson]

Terrific stuff what a great post. As a Bethoud Alum, I was very excited to see your skidoc. Very nice and I'd like to add some more color. I believe BP was the first ski area on US 40, one of the most famous ski highways. The snow was notable some of the very finest, lightest powder. Lighter even than Alta's famous powder. The majority of the terrain is NOT served by lifts, but rather by busses. And finally, BP is actually four distinct faces divided east west by the Great Divide and north south by US40. This required 4 bus pickup locations. Two thumbs up for your work!

[@SRGSkiing]

Berthoud was one of the very first in Colorado! By technicality, however, Howelsen Hill was the first ski area on 40, but Berthoud was the first to be accessible to Denver. I do wonder if having busses instead of lifts is part of what caused them to go out of business.

[@exdemocrat9038]

A great place to backcountry ski or snowboard.

[@JB-rt4mx]

You should do Hidden Valley... Estes Park, Colorado USA..Famous Place 😎⛷️🏂

[@Skier72]

That would be a good one. I'm also planning to do Geneva Basin or Marble Mountain sometime in the near future

[@nathanjanuszewski]

Man has this channel grown. Great vid as always. It looks like a great place to backcountry ski now a days.

[@TheCrazyunclemarty]

Surprised to see a new inch fell up there yesterday. It used to stay open into July sometimes?😮 It'd be interesting to have specifics on those closing dates. Great summary thanks 👍

[@andrewbouvier1104]

I would full time that mountain if it was still around, super sad.

[@gumpwumper3752]

Super interesting stuff! It’d be awesome to see a video about the historic Spout Springs Ski Area which is now closed

[@jb1934]

As an intermediate skier living in Colorado for a few years in the early 2000's I stuck to Indian Peaks and A basin. I didn't hear much about Berthoud pass at the time and now I see why, it was out of my league. Still, really cool to connect those dots now years later. Do they still get 300++ inches these days?

[@SRGSkiing]

They absolutely do!

[@coloradocamera]

Pretty cool spot I’ve skinned up a few times and you can hitchhike off both sides of the pass

[@Skier72]

Agreed, it looks like a great backcountry spot nowadays.

[@idahoskilifts4242]

Been loving the series so far! Also nice new profile pic.

[@clovrfpv]

Last thing I expected to hear was mad river mountain being mentioned. That is unfortunately my home mountain haha.

[@scottwheeler7099]

Please consider doing a video on Geneva Basin in Colorado that shut down in the 1980's but was a great local ski area accessible to Denver Colorado residents in the 1970's but very few people know that the resort ever existed.

[@Skier72]

Absolutely, Geneva Basin is in the pipeline!

[@MrBigdc111]

Love this Series there is 2 lost resorts in Utah I don't have much information about either one and would to love to have more. One was in Payson Canyon and the other was in Fairview canyon

[@adamsolomon9353]

I go to the Idaho Springs dump and was always wondering what that lift is from

[@julianhudson7811]

Damn, this is great! If you're planning to expand the lost resorts series outside of Canada, will there be episodes on lost ski areas in New England and the Northeast?

[@Skier72]

Absolutely! I'm just starting off small but will almost certainly expand to the northeast.

[@humanbeing2420]

Great work, guys! Maybe marketing Berthoud Pass as a hardcore, advanced/expert mountain would've been preferable to marketing it as a family mountain, since it was clearly the former and not the latter. Did they think the expert skier market wasn't big enough then? I wonder....

[@SRGSkiing]

Obviously, Skier 72 knows a lot more about the history of the resort than I do given my role in this, but from what I understand, the bigger, more developed resorts just slowly drained Berthoud's business. It wasn't that they didn't want to market it as a hardcore, expert mountain, but just that a higher percentage of the skiing population of Colorado was lower-level, and so they wanted to tap into that market because there just weren't enough advanced skiers to go around between all of the big mountains and Berthoud as well.

[@scampeezo]

Great video... it's too bad these areas more proximate to Denver have closed especially when it isn't unusual to spend three hours on a Sunday idling on I-70 between the tunnel and Lookout Mountain with the rest of the lemmings returning from Summit County or points west.

[@SRGSkiing]

We certainly could use more ski areas around here, no question.

[@EricVinton]

Really feel like these areas could be profitable now

[@davedavidson3212]

Can you do stoner ski resort?

[@Skier72]

Who knows what the future will hold - I'd consider it if I had enough information and photos.