Yippee! That’s what skiers say in 2020 with snowfalls that continue to accumulate inches.
In 1913, the people of Denver were not so thrilled when a blizzard hit the city, bringing 57 inches of snow in December alone. The city was immobilized, but there was a silver lining in those snow clouds.
Carl Howelsen was living on Sherman Street in Denver and working as a brick layer. He took the opportunity to ski around and show off his Nordic prowess.
One of the men who saw Howelsen ski, George Cranmer, asked Howelsen to show him how to ski. In that moment the passion for skiing among Denverites was born. Howelsen and Cranmer became great friends and the early ski clubs of Denver were born. Plus they set up a ski jumping exhibition one hundred years ago at Inspiration Point in Denver that was wildly popular. (The image atop this post shows the take off they built.) It ignited a passion throughout Colorado for ski jumping, which became the extreme sport of the day.
Read more about it in Lost Ski Areas of Colorado’s Front Range and Northern Mountains.