In 1960, two years before Vail opened with one gondola, two chairlifts and a Poma lift, I rode to where Chair 4 ends with Pete Siebert in some sort of an Army surplus, over-the-snow vehicle.
He was able to drive to a vantage point where I got my first view of the now famous back bowls. There were no ski lifts, no ski tracks, just an awesome potential for my movie camera.
While we were doing this, a small group of investors were trying to raise the necessary money to build the first lifts, the hotel and a small subdivision.
When I showed up the following year with my camera, the 42-room hotel was finished, the gondola was running, as was a chairlift to the top and a chairlift down into the back bowls and very few skiers.
Every member of the small staff was busy working so they couldn’t ski for my camera, so I got a hold of a friend of mine, Bob Smith, who later invented Smith goggles, when I found out he was staying in Aspen. I talked him into driving over to Vail to ski for me and he commuted for four or five days because there were no beds available in Vail at that time.
Since those early days Vail has grown into one of the largest ski resorts in America with weekend crowds sometimes in excess of 25,000 skiers and snowboarders on the hill at the same time.
Unfortunately some unanticipated consequences have come from the development of this great ski resort.
The 100-mile drive to Denver normally takes an hour and a half, but on a Saturday or Sunday night, it takes much longer.
The first time I filmed in those back bowls there were so few skiers that I got five days of untracked powder to introduce Vail to all the people who would see my next movie.
Vacant lots were selling for $10,000, which included two free lifetime lift passes. I don’t have the slightest idea what one of those lots is worth today, but I made a major mistake by not buying one.
Years later in 1984, when Laurie and I met we spent some time skiing at Vail and before I knew it I bought a piece of property, built a house, got married and lived there for 12 years. We met a whole new group of friends and then when we moved on to the Yellowstone Club in Montana, we’ve been lucky to meet many more great friends.
Some of our old Vail friends skied with us recently in Montana, including a retired doctor who told me that the number of collisions between skiers has risen dramatically because of the increased number of people charging down the hill at the same time.
If you think about some of the logistics necessary to feed and service that number of people every Saturday or Sunday – that’s a lot of hamburger buns, relish, bottles of beer and Coca-Cola to be delivered to the various restaurants scattered across this massive ski resort.
That first winter of 1962, my kids went to ski school on Gold Peak riding on the short Poma lift. At the same time I was filming Bob Smith and anyone else I could get to ski for me, with my son Scott tagging along behind me kick turning and traversing.
People often ask me what was my favorite place to film?
I think my favorite place was wherever I had sunshine and powder snow on the north-facing slopes so the skiers could be backlit with the powder snow floating up behind them.
This short story about Vail is one of many resorts that started after I made my first movie at Squaw Valley in 1949-50. At that time there were fewer than 15 chairlifts in America and today you have your choice of over 400 different ski resorts only one of which is Vail.
American skiers are very fortunate.