Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Recreation – April 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
The resurgence of cross-country skiing in the early 1970s brought telemarkers to the alpine slopes of the Monarch Resort. Although there were a few problems, it was generally a smooth process, according to Jack Watkins of Poncha Springs, the general manager then.
“Most of them would ski up the east side of Old Monarch Pass,” he recalls, “and then cut over and ski down our slopes to do their telemark turns.” Although they were taking advantage of the resort’s grooming and maintenance on the downhill trails, “we never really minded that. We kind of figured you earned a trip downhill if you went uphill under your own power.”
But some skiers wanted to ski up the slopes, “and that was a safety problem with people going against the traffic.” A couple of skiers, he remembers, “made the argument that because Monarch is on leased Forest Service land, they had the right to ski any way they wanted to on public land. But we had the special use permit, and we had the right to make some rules.”
The rules were pretty simple: No skiing uphill inside the resort, and skiers had to use safety straps so a ski would stay nearby if a binding got loose. At the time, many other downhill resorts banned cross-country gear entirely, but “telemarkers were always welcome at Monarch — especially if they bought lift tickets,” Watkins said.
They’re still quite welcome at Monarch, according to Carrie Hudson, the marketing director. “I’d estimate that at least 15% of our skiers on an average day are using telemark gear,” she said. “And on a Wednesday locals’ day, it’s closer to 50%.”
Otherwise, the demographics of tele-skiers “are about the same as the ski crowd in general,” she said. “They’re not younger or older.” The one rule change since Watkins’ time is that “skis have to have metal edges now.”
The resort doesn’t do any special marketing for “pinheads,” she said. “It’s something that just happened, and it’s a welcome development. After all,” she concluded, “I’m a pinhead myself. It’s a great way to ski.”