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| Berthoud Pass Ski Area |
Dates of Operation: 1937 - 2001 (Note: did not operate every year in period)
Area Stats:
-Elevations: Summit 12,015 ft; Base 11,022 ft; Vertical Drop 993 ft
-Typical Season: October - Early June
-Trails: Beg 40%; Int 40%; Adv 20%
-Rates: 1984 - Adult $10.00; Child $6.00
-Services: Base Lodge with ski shop, restaurant, cafeteria, and ski patrol
Lifts:
-1984: 1 Constam T-Bar, 1 Heron-Huntington Double
-1999: 1 Borvig Triple, 1 Borvig Quad (removed 1 Borvig double ~1990)
-Shuttle buses were also used to transport skiers using the pass.
History:
Berthoud Pass Ski Area was one of Colorado's first major ski areas, located at
the summit of Berthoud Pass, between Winter Park and Denver. Their main
claim to fame was having the first double chairlift in the state (maybe in the
country) built in 1947. The lift was constructed by Bob Heron and Sam
Huntington of Heron Engineering. Bob Heron later headed one of the major lift
companies in the state of Colorado with notable projects at Aspen, Loveland,
Breckenridge and Copper.
Berthoud Pass has always been backcountry area with many of its runs cut by
avalanches. The resort boasts over 425" of snow each year, some of the most in
Colorado.
Berthoud's history included many owners over the years. In 1988, a tragic lift
accident on the Heron/Huntington double forced the area to close. The owner of
the Borvig Ski Lift Company, Gary Schultz, bought the area with the hopes of
reopening it. He planed on installing a triple, quad, and double to replace the
double and t-bar. The area opened for the 1989-90 and 90-91 seasons. The
lifts were named the Frontier Quad and Mines Peak Triple. The double chair
was located next to the triple chair and served limited beginner terrain. By the
end of the 1990-91 season, Berthoud fell into bankruptcy. The double chair was
then removed and the chairs on the quad and triple were moved into storage.
The following year James Pearsall and Sandra Miorelli (James’ sister) began
negotiations with Gary Schultz to purchase the ski area out of bankruptcy. In
1993, James and Sandra bought the ski area from Schultz and formed the
Berthoud Pass Recreation Corporation (BPRC) and applied for a new operating
permit from the US Forest Service (USFS). The permitting process would prove
to be very difficult for Berthoud Pass over the next five years. Berthoud’s lodge
was to be burnt down around this time period by Forest Service officials for fire
department training. Despite pleas from the ski area, the USFS was determined
to close the area. After the story broke to news officials, a first grade class in the
Clear Creek’s Belmar Elementary wrote letters to the USFS as a class project
and pleaded to officials to leave the lodge. Eventually, the USFS backed off from
their plans, but continued to hinder the reopening of the ski area. Even by 1993,
lodge and lifts had fallen victim to vandals; meaning major renovations were
required to reopen the ski area.
By 1997, the ski area was still closed and Jim and Sandra’s funds to get the ski
area operational were exhausted. Paul Wiebel was formally brought in by Jim to
provide additional funding, although he was already involved with the area. Paul
and Jim knew each other from Nabisco where Jim was the director of outside
distribution. An operating permit was still in the process and was eventually
issued for the south side of the pass only. This meant that only the triple chair
could operate. For the first season, Berthoud reopened with the one Borvig lift
and two shuttle buses to pick skiers up below the lodge level.
The following season, the USFS issued a full permit, allowing the quad chair to be
refurbished and opened. In November of 1998, on the way home from working
at Berthoud Pass, Jim Pearsall hit a patch of black ice outside of Empire and died
in the accident. Sadly, his dream of Berthoud ended with him.
The ski was sold to Marise Capriani of Sol Vista (Silver Creek) in 1999. Her
idea of Berthoud was to turn it into a family-type ski area, similar to Sol Vista.
Berthoud did not live up to her revenue expectations and she decided to close the
chairlifts down after the 2000-2001 season, citing they could not compete with
other area's buddy passes.
The ski area decided to operate with only powder cats, lasting for two seasons.
On March 10, 2003, Berthoud announced that their powder cat operation was
no longer and ski lifts would be removed before summers end. The quad chair
was sold to Berkshire East Ski Area in MA and the triple ended up at a small ski
area in the mid-west.
An organization called "Friends of Berthoud Pass" lobbied the Forest Service to
keep the historic lodge standing and to assist backcountry skiers in the area.
Citing high maintenance costs and low projected usage, the Forest Service opted
to tear down the lodge during the spring of 2005. Currently, all that remains at
the ski area are chairlift tower foundations and trails.
Area Stats:
-Elevations: Summit 12,015 ft; Base 11,022 ft; Vertical Drop 993 ft
-Typical Season: October - Early June
-Trails: Beg 40%; Int 40%; Adv 20%
-Rates: 1984 - Adult $10.00; Child $6.00
-Services: Base Lodge with ski shop, restaurant, cafeteria, and ski patrol
Lifts:
-1984: 1 Constam T-Bar, 1 Heron-Huntington Double
-1999: 1 Borvig Triple, 1 Borvig Quad (removed 1 Borvig double ~1990)
-Shuttle buses were also used to transport skiers using the pass.
History:
Berthoud Pass Ski Area was one of Colorado's first major ski areas, located at
the summit of Berthoud Pass, between Winter Park and Denver. Their main
claim to fame was having the first double chairlift in the state (maybe in the
country) built in 1947. The lift was constructed by Bob Heron and Sam
Huntington of Heron Engineering. Bob Heron later headed one of the major lift
companies in the state of Colorado with notable projects at Aspen, Loveland,
Breckenridge and Copper.
Berthoud Pass has always been backcountry area with many of its runs cut by
avalanches. The resort boasts over 425" of snow each year, some of the most in
Colorado.
Berthoud's history included many owners over the years. In 1988, a tragic lift
accident on the Heron/Huntington double forced the area to close. The owner of
the Borvig Ski Lift Company, Gary Schultz, bought the area with the hopes of
reopening it. He planed on installing a triple, quad, and double to replace the
double and t-bar. The area opened for the 1989-90 and 90-91 seasons. The
lifts were named the Frontier Quad and Mines Peak Triple. The double chair
was located next to the triple chair and served limited beginner terrain. By the
end of the 1990-91 season, Berthoud fell into bankruptcy. The double chair was
then removed and the chairs on the quad and triple were moved into storage.
The following year James Pearsall and Sandra Miorelli (James’ sister) began
negotiations with Gary Schultz to purchase the ski area out of bankruptcy. In
1993, James and Sandra bought the ski area from Schultz and formed the
Berthoud Pass Recreation Corporation (BPRC) and applied for a new operating
permit from the US Forest Service (USFS). The permitting process would prove
to be very difficult for Berthoud Pass over the next five years. Berthoud’s lodge
was to be burnt down around this time period by Forest Service officials for fire
department training. Despite pleas from the ski area, the USFS was determined
to close the area. After the story broke to news officials, a first grade class in the
Clear Creek’s Belmar Elementary wrote letters to the USFS as a class project
and pleaded to officials to leave the lodge. Eventually, the USFS backed off from
their plans, but continued to hinder the reopening of the ski area. Even by 1993,
lodge and lifts had fallen victim to vandals; meaning major renovations were
required to reopen the ski area.
By 1997, the ski area was still closed and Jim and Sandra’s funds to get the ski
area operational were exhausted. Paul Wiebel was formally brought in by Jim to
provide additional funding, although he was already involved with the area. Paul
and Jim knew each other from Nabisco where Jim was the director of outside
distribution. An operating permit was still in the process and was eventually
issued for the south side of the pass only. This meant that only the triple chair
could operate. For the first season, Berthoud reopened with the one Borvig lift
and two shuttle buses to pick skiers up below the lodge level.
The following season, the USFS issued a full permit, allowing the quad chair to be
refurbished and opened. In November of 1998, on the way home from working
at Berthoud Pass, Jim Pearsall hit a patch of black ice outside of Empire and died
in the accident. Sadly, his dream of Berthoud ended with him.
The ski was sold to Marise Capriani of Sol Vista (Silver Creek) in 1999. Her
idea of Berthoud was to turn it into a family-type ski area, similar to Sol Vista.
Berthoud did not live up to her revenue expectations and she decided to close the
chairlifts down after the 2000-2001 season, citing they could not compete with
other area's buddy passes.
The ski area decided to operate with only powder cats, lasting for two seasons.
On March 10, 2003, Berthoud announced that their powder cat operation was
no longer and ski lifts would be removed before summers end. The quad chair
was sold to Berkshire East Ski Area in MA and the triple ended up at a small ski
area in the mid-west.
An organization called "Friends of Berthoud Pass" lobbied the Forest Service to
keep the historic lodge standing and to assist backcountry skiers in the area.
Citing high maintenance costs and low projected usage, the Forest Service opted
to tear down the lodge during the spring of 2005. Currently, all that remains at
the ski area are chairlift tower foundations and trails.
| Trail Maps: (Click for larger views!) |
| 2000 |
| 1997 |
| 1970's |
| Area Map: |
| Area Pictures before 1980: |
| Left: Colorado's first double chair built by Heron Right: Berthoud's historic lodge in the 1960's |
| Area Pictures from the 1980's: |
| The Heron/Huntington Double Chair * |
| Area Pictures during the Late 1990's:** |
| Berthoud's Triple Chair The area operated for a couple summer seasons, providing chairlift rides. |
| 1 |
| 2 |
| 4 |
| 3 |
1. Berthoud's quad chair after the ski area's lift system closed for the last time.
2. The refurbishing of the quad chair in preparation for operation during the summer of 1998.
3. The triple chair caring skiers to fresh powder.
4. After the chairs closed in 2001, this snowcat was used to transport skiers.
2. The refurbishing of the quad chair in preparation for operation during the summer of 1998.
3. The triple chair caring skiers to fresh powder.
4. After the chairs closed in 2001, this snowcat was used to transport skiers.
| 1 |
| 2 |
| 3 |
| 4 |
| 5 |
| 6 |
| 1. Looking north from the top of the quad 2. Glades on the west side of the pass 3. A ski patroller turning in fresh powder 4. The east side of the ski area, which contained the triple chair and the lodge 5. The chair reserved for Elvis. Unfortunately, Elvis never made an appearance. |
| Pictures Taken in 2003: |
This was terrain served by the quad chair on the west side of the pass. # / ##
| The east side of the area served by the triple chair. # |
| Berthoud's Lodge ## |
| The line of the beginner lift, removed in the early 1990's ## |
| Pictures Taken in 2005: |
| $ |
| ## |
Berthoud's historic lodge was torn down in 2005 by the US Forest Service.
| Have you ever skied at Berthoud Pass? If so, email us your memories. Memories: "In the early 1970's Berthoud Pass Ski School was headed by a former Austrian National Team member named Herb Hyna. Being a young racer who thought that he was hot stuff because he was a ski school director at Arapahoe East, I would go to Berthoud and catch the powder days and harass Herb. For several seasons I kept challenging the old Austrian to a race from the top of the chair down to the highway. He would always laugh and say that I wouldn't have a chance. One day, I started bagging on Herb in order to impress my girlfriend and a couple of my ski buddies. This time he took the challenge. I grabbed his White Stars and of we went. Herb took his own chair up, I followed in the next chair, it was a long silent ride to the top. At the top, neither of us said a word to each other. Here we were, the 65 year old Austrian champion and the 22 year old hot shot. I launched off preemptively, only to see Herb shoot by me on the right. With each rolling pitch Herb put more distance between the two of us. I remember seeing Herb drop over the final face leading to the road. At this point, I knew that I had just been schooled in the Austrian technique. By the time I reached the bottom of the run and the highway, Herb was strolling across the parking lot and back to the lodge. After that day we became good pals and kept in touch through the years, until his passing a number of years ago." - Tom P. ---- "I worked at Berthoud Pass 1950-51, for Sam Huntington. Had many wonderful times there and enjoyed skiing whenever possible. I have climed all over the hills on both sides of the road and walked many miles along the tops of the mountains. The area sure has changed down through the 53 years. I know Sam is dead, and suppose many of the others who worked there in those days are also." -Frank R. ---- “Berthoud Pass was very nearly the end of my college career! In the fall of 1977, after a change in ownership, and during my Sophomore year at the Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud offered a free season pass through a local radio station contest. From Friday evening, all through the weekend, I dialed repeatedly every 20-30 minutes in the hope of being the right caller (there was NOT auto-redial then, although we did at least have a push button phone!). Finally, Sunday evening at 7:30PM, I scored! Needless to say, I didn't get all my homework done that weekend, but it would get worse, much worse! During the ski season that followed, I skied 53 days...while being enrolled in 18 semester hours of engineering school! I discovered that I could make it from Golden to the parking lot in just over 30 minutes, even in my severely underpowered '66 Volvo 122s! I also discovered that it was easy to skip Thursday Chem Lab in order to ski all day, not to mention all day Sat/Sun, and usually a half-day on Tues if I skipped my one afternoon class. None of this helped an already lax student to excel... On the other hand, all of this instilled a love of powder skiing, searching out unknown glades, jumping off of windblown (small) cornices, skiing down either side of the pass to hitch a ride back up, and hooking up with new ski buddies. It also created a forever powder fiend, part of the reason I've lived in Utah since 1985! Incidentally, my story has always included that in my 53 ski days that season, only 5 of them didn't include SOME fresh snow. The story ended that season with my being invited to NOT return to school the following year, although I was provided an opportunity to plead my case to the Readmission board. With the help of my then- girlfriend and future ex-wife, I did so successfully, remained in school, and graduated on schedule in 1980... whew! My season at Berthoud redirected my life and made me the skier I am!” -Cliff C. ---- "Sad to see the "pass" is now closed, we were there in 2000 around 10 of us from Scotland had travelled to Colorado, what a day and what runs through the back country! I'll never forget the climb by car on the way up, talk about steep. The memories of Berthoud will live in me forever...." -Jamie ---- "I skied the Bert one time at Thanksgiving in 1978? (Winter Park was closed at that time). I remember it well because during that trip I overcame my fear of the steeps and discovered my undying love of back country skiing which lasts to this day." -John C. ---- "We had friends that owned The Yodel Inn in Hideaway Park. We would come up in November to help them get ready for the new ski season. We would go up to Berthoud Pass to ski. I remember being thrilled to get to ski so early in the season. That place was cold and windy. It was an experience skiing there. I remember steep slopes at the time." -Marilyn H. ---- "Sad to see the "pass" is now closed, we were there in 2000 around 10 of us from Scotland had travelled to Colorado, what a day and what runs through the back country!I ll never forget the climb by car on the way up, talk about steep. The memories of Berthoud will live in me forever...." -Jamie "In 1964 my parents enrolled me in the Eskimo ski club (I was twelve years old) that ran buses from Denver to Berthoud Pass Ski Area from January until April. We got on the bus at the old Bear Creek Shopping Center somewhere around Sheridan and Alameda. The interstate was not completed and US 40 was two-lane highway. As a youngster you could really learn to ski all types of conditions at Berthoud Pass, I remember being stuck at tower number four for three hours one time in a blizzard, we got off the chairlift only after the ski patrol throw a rope up and we were lowered down in a sling, what a wonderful time. I also remember seeing Warren Miller filming at Berthoud that winter. It was always an adventure to ski from the top of the chairlift down to Winter Park and hitchhiking back up to the Berthoud Pass Lodge. In high school, I worked at Gart Brothers both on Larimer and the “castle”. I became good friends with Herb Hyna the famous Director of the Berthoud Pass Ski School; he was a great skier and great guy. Herb was a member of the Austrian National Ski Team, and during the Nazi occupation of Austria, Herb was forced to teach skiing technique to the Nazi soldiers, or be sent to a concentration camp. He didn’t talk about it much, but it goes to his deep love of skiing. He truly was at home at Berthoud Pass Ski Area, and I don’t know of him ever missing a weekend at the ski area during the seventies." -Mark L. "I skied Berthoud Pass a few times while a student at CU Boulder, class of '52. I fell off that double chair once -- because I was enjoying conversation with my seat mate and didn't see the hump of snow we were approaching. My tips dug in and I fell on my face. The chair was so close to the snow that it knocked my hat off passing over me! Uninjured, except for my pride,I managed to roll to the side before the next chair got to me. Another memory is of trying out for the CU girls' ski team by running a slalom course on the other side of the highway (T-bar there). I made the first cut, but washed out next time, so didn't make the team." -Peggy S. "Back in the early 1970's, the lift attendants would rarely check for legitimate lift tickets at Berthoud Pass. Being young and short on cash, this ski area was quite popular with my friends and I." -Brian D. "It was late in the season 2001, and the spring breakers had all gone home, and looking for the beach. I was living in Breckenridge at the time, and there was a storm coming through. A friend of mine is a weather junkie, and loves to try to predict storms. The day before it started to snow, he was claiming that Berthoud Pass was going to the biggest dump. It snowed about 10 inches in Breck, so it was hard to leave my home mountain with fresh snow. We showed up to Berthoud with about 30 other people, and proceeded to ride 36" of fresh snow all day long. This was about 2001, when they still ran the lifts, and had a bus to pick you up at the road. The Ski Patrol would open up a new section of terrain every 2 hours, so we would just keep following them to the dropped ropes. We rode chin deep powder until 4:30 on our last traverse out, and there was still more snow to ride. One of the best riding days of my life!" -Joe B. |
| Copyright © coloradoskihistory.com All Rights Reserved. Information Sources: The Colorado Ski Museum Jonathan Miorelli Picture Credits: * Scott B., # Jason S., ## Brad C.,^ RSN, ** The Colorado Ski Museum, $ Jonathan M. |
| Pictures from 1997-2000 by RSN: |
| The Heron double chair's grip. (Picture thanks to Rich B.) |
