Kirkwood Celebrating 50 Years
In the Fall of 1970, the Sacramento City College ski club had a membership party and 3 of my college buds were excited to go skiing… and, we decided “let’s go”… So, around midnight, I drove them home in my 1963 Covair to pick up their gear and set my roof ski rack and got loaded up for an adventure…
The previous winter was huge and many snowfields were lingering on the mountain tops and we decided to drive up the Hwy 88 corridor to Carson Pass… Along the way, we stopped and admired the view of Kirkwood Meadows… on the fence there was a sign that read, “Future Home Of Kirkwood Meadows Ski Area”… Viewing the U shaped Valley with Thimble Peak and all the other geological volcanic plugs adorning the ridge line, I thought, what an absolutely beautiful place to build a ski area…
Fast forward to January of 1972, the ski club put a trip together to ski the new Kirkwood Meadows ski area… We car pooled up for the day and hit it just right as fresh snow was falling as drove up Hwy 88 and chains were required… There was a new highway maintenance station at Peddler Hill and road was being plowed up to Kirkwood… When we arrived, there was a roadway plowed to Main Lodge and parking lot… There were maybe 3 condominium projects under construction coming in with Base Camp across the road from the lodge… It continued to snow, but no wind and the lifts were operating… That first year, lifts were old double chairs with Chair #1, Chair #2, Chair #3 and Chair #4, only… There were no lifts on the front side of the mountain…
I had started learning to skiing at the age of 12 in 1962 with first turns at Peddler Hill, then Sierra Ski Ranch and Boreal Ridge, then eventually with the college ski club, skiing at Mt. Shasta, Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley, Mt. Rose – Slide Mtn. and Heavenly… But, I had never skied knee deep cold blower powder like that day off Chair 4 in 1972… Floating through the snow like it wasn’t there… Doing laps off Chair 4 convinced me that I needed to direct my life ambitions to figure out how I could get involved with the ski industry and live and work at Kirkwood.
I was working at the California State Franchise Tax Board, while finishing up college and decided to ta a leap and change everything up… I enrolled the Glen Fishback School of Photography to become a freelance photographer…
In the fall of 1972, while attending the annual Sacramento Vorlage Ski Show as a part time employee with Metropolitan Sports, I met the Marketing Director of Kirkwood and showed her a binder full of color slides I had shot at Kirkwood that season and she purchased several images and invited me to come up to Kirkwood to photographer the grand opening of the Kirkwood Mountain Outfitters ski fashion show… I jumped at the opportunity and photographed the fashion show and was introduced to Hannes Lamprecht, who was the Director of the Ski School and he expressed an interest to have me shoot the NASTAR program and submit photos to Ski Magazine, to which the NASTAR race program was the sponsor of the program…
I had the privilege to open the first Photo Concession at Kirkwood in 1973 and photographed the NASTAR citizens ski racing program… That year they hosted races on Wednesday and Friday through Sunday… Ron Randall was administrator of the NASTAR Race Program as well as the pacesetter and for 3 winters I spent numerous days at Kirkwood skiing and shooting NASTAR
Racers… Developing B&W negatives and hand printing B&W photographic proofs and provided a mail order photo service… At the end of the that winter season, I submitted a boatload of photos and Kirkwood was awarded a full page ad, featuring my photos in Ski Magazine…
I eventually moved full time to Kirkwood in 1978 and worked myself up to the Advertising & PR Director of the resort and lived and worked at Kirkwood into the early 80’s…
Kirkwood Celebrated their 50th year anniversary this past December 17 and was honored to be a part of this celebration being invited to an on hill ski video and interview session to be included in their 50th anniversary video…
The Party was a wonderful affair reconnecting with old friends who worked and help develop Kirkwood from it’s beginning… Congratulations, Kirkwood on 50 years of serving skiers and outdoor enthusiasts an incredible winter and year round experience!
As we depart 2022, I want everyone to reflect on great memories from the past and wish everyone a Happy New Year!