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Summit locals partied at an April Fools Day gathering at Breckenridge. Courtesy of Summit Daily News and Pup's Glide Shop
By Geoff Mintz, The Summit Daily News
Note: This is part of a series of stories by The Summit Daily News taking a look at Breckenridge as the ski area glides into its 50th year.
It was the age of the neon one-piece, rear-entry boots and 200-centimeter GS skis. It was also a time of great transformation for Breckenridge, which was officially on the map by the end of the decade.
Taking a trip back (perhaps in a hot-tub time machine), one would find the ski mountain to be a very different place in 1989 compared to 1980 — some say more corporate and certainly a lot busier.
“People wanted long, straight skis,” said Rick Ascher of Pup's Glide Shop on Ski Hill Road in Breck. “207s seemed to be the norm, and rear-entry boots were coming out. I thought they were great. I loved the way you could get in and out of them with just one buckle, and they skied fine, I thought.”
Everyone wanted to be a racer back then, but there was still a great deal to be said for a daffy, backscratcher or perhaps a spread eagle with the poles through the legs. Dual mogul contests and Powder 8s were some of the choice means of anointing the king of the mountain. It was originally local patrollers who participated, then later ski instructors and other ski-bummin' types.
“There was a good sense of community back then. People were skiing all the time. You'd know everybody up there,” Ascher said. “It was kind of the end of the era when things became more corporate. Things really started to change, and there were more and more newcomers, as (Breck) became more on the map.”
“It went from being podunk to big time,” chimed in Jim Grotemeyer, also of the Glide Shop, while buffing out a race ski probably 30 percent shorter than those used in the '80s.
Read more about Breck in the 1980s and see a timeline at the Daily News website.
Read more about Breck in 1961 - including the memories of a Colorado Springs resident who moved there as the ski resort opened - next week at OutThereColorado.com and in the Thursday Out There section of The Gazette.
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