style kids
Family friendly slopes
These small Colorado ski areas don't expect you to model the latest ski fashion.
They do expect you to bring the kids. By Hal Clifford
D
uring the long, damp winters of my
childhood in suburban Massachu-
setts we met the bus before dawn
each Saturday morning. My mother put me
on the Trailways charter for a day with the
ski club on the slopes of Sunapee ski area,
in New Hampshire.
My memories of skiing a quarter centu-
ry ago are these: the scalding stickiness of
hot chocolate beneath the high, dark roof of
Sunapee's base lodge; the rasp of skis over
New England boilerplate snow; the peel-
ing maroon paint and bear-trap bindings on
my short, wooden skis; learning how to grasp
a rope tow while wearing woolen mittens;
being pulled up the bucking, rutted hill.
Sunapee seemed huge to me. Even Blue
Hill— not much more than a rope tow—
Clockwise from top left,
The alpine troops of the
10th Mountain Division
trained at Ski Cooper
before going off to World
War II. A skier takes flight
at Loveland. Monarch
Resort offers a separate
lift just for kids.
looms tall in my memory. Were I to return
I'm sure I would find those two ski areas to
be paltry, seedy, perhaps bankrupt and long-
gone. I prefer to remember than to revisit.
Like tens of thousands of Americans, I
learned to ski at a little, local ski hill, often
with my family. Hundreds of these ski ar-
eas have closed in the intervening decades.
They were the Little League of skiing, the
places where it was and is O.K. to ski
in blue jeans on your brother's old, short
boards. They were the places where we
learned to ski before graduating to Mam-
moth, Stowe, Jackson Hole, Snowmass,
Taos, Waterville, Vail.
Many of them are gone— but not all. It's
still possible to find good, fun, little ski ar-
eas, even in the heart of Big Ski Country:
the Colorado Rockies. Skiing has always
been the quintessential winter family sport,
and these little mountains have struggled
to keep it that way. They offer deals for fam-
ilies, specials on lessons and rentals. They
don't mind if you don't know what you're
doing. They want you to become skiers.
They want your kids to become skiers.
They want you to have fun.
Ski Sunlight, Glenwood Springs An
hour from Aspen to the south, an hour from
Vail to the east, Glenwood Springs sits be-
side the Colorado River as one of the state's
first resorts. The natural hot springs first at-
tracted Ute Indians, then Teddy Roosevelt.
These days tired skiers luxuriate in the 102-
degree water of the big outdoor pool and in
the adjacent vapor caves.
Ski Sunlight lies 10 miles southeast from
Glenwood Springs. With 440 acres and 2,010
feet of vertical drop, Sunlight is one of the
bigger small areas in the state. This is a good
hill if your group of skiers is of mixed abil-
ities. The recently opened Sunlight Ex-
treme area will challenge any teenager on a
snowboard or skis.
Conversely, the long, winding Ute Trail
is a great place to ski with little kids and get
your money's worth for the slow chairlift
ride to the top. Absolute beginners are di-
rected to a teaching area called Sunshine
Meadow. Many of Colorado's smaller ski ar-
eas create separate beginner areas, which al-
leviates at least one beginner fear: being hit
by another, more experienced skier.
As with all the little ski areas described
here, you'll stand out more if you actually
have the latest ski fashions than if you don't.
The 1982 Spider stretch pants will do fine,
as will a pair of jeans (but oh, those are cold
when you fall!) Do not, however, attempt
STYLE • 131-21131 1995 •
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