Park & Tllford - Best bourbon for a cold day on the hill.
Lucky. We were supremely lucky. A few school friends and I managed to ski at Mammoth Mountain in the very early days. Dave McCoy had just purchased or leased the huge portion of Mammouth Mountain. He had spent a year or two clearing and preparing the first ski run. Soon there would be more. He had the vision to see a large skiing area complete with chair lifts, a club house, and store devoted to skiing gear. None of this existed yet.
We found out about this terrific new ski area from Tony Arnds who probably heard of it from his older brother Kermit. (Not positive about that.) The first trip to the mountain from La Canada, Kermit drove us in a Ford station wagon. As I recall there were at least five of us in the car - plus skis on top, together with clothes, boots and other gear on the roof. Except for Kermit, I think we were all in the 10th or 11th grade in high school - which makes it about 1953
When we first went there were no chair lifts, club house or stores. Dave and a few workers had cleared and smoothed the hill, and they had a rope-tow line going. The rope-tow line wasn't sophisticated but it did get the skiers quite far up the hill. Most of our guys were only 15 or 16 years old, and on an austerity budget. It was a big expense for us to pay for a rope tow ticket, which was about $5.00 a day.
At the same time, Dave needed people to run the line, fill the ruts, keep it clear and moving, and pick up fallen skiers. It just happened that he paid $5.00 to his tow line workers for a 3 hour shift - plus - free skiing the rest of the day. We turned it on just after dawn and it ran all day. An old and unreliable donkey engine ran the tow from the bottom of the hill. I don't remember any of our guys paying to ski.
Many folks tried to hang on with their hands, and despite heavy mittens, it wasn't long before blisters showed up. That, probably, was the most common reason they had to let go and fall in the track. Everyone behind them had to release or pile up from the rope for a time long enough that the fallen person could get out of the way. Obviously McCoy quickly learned that he needed a worker at various points from the bottom of the tow to the top. That was us and a few others.
We were to rush to a fallen person and quickly pull him or her off the track. If more than one or five people had fallen, the tow worker was to signal to the bottom to shut down the donkey engine. The other job assigned to the crew was to shovel snow back onto the track in places getting bare. The rope itself wore a path on the trail, and the people wore some more snow off as they used the tow going up. On a busy day the crew had to work hard to keep up their assigned tasks.
At the same time, Dave needed people to run the line, fill the ruts, keep it clear and moving, and pick up fallen skiers. It just happened that he paid $5.00 to his tow line workers for a 3 hour shift - plus - free skiing the rest of the day. We turned it on just after dawn and it ran all day. An old and unreliable donkey engine ran the tow from the bottom of the hill. I don't remember any of our guys paying to ski.
Many folks tried to hang on with their hands, and despite heavy mittens, it wasn't long before blisters showed up. That, probably, was the most common reason they had to let go and fall in the track. Everyone behind them had to release or pile up from the rope for a time long enough that the fallen person could get out of the way. Obviously McCoy quickly learned that he needed a worker at various points from the bottom of the tow to the top. That was us and a few others.
We were to rush to a fallen person and quickly pull him or her off the track. If more than one or five people had fallen, the tow worker was to signal to the bottom to shut down the donkey engine. The other job assigned to the crew was to shovel snow back onto the track in places getting bare. The rope itself wore a path on the trail, and the people wore some more snow off as they used the tow going up. On a busy day the crew had to work hard to keep up their assigned tasks.
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