On the patio at the Powerhouse on the banks of the Animas River on Saturday afternoon were many of the Nordic skiers who put Durango in the news in the 1960s and 1970s for their cross-country competitive prowess, and successes, at multiple levels.
Those present included winners of competitions for high school age skiers in junior national events dominating for a few years; members of Fort Lewis College teams; and those competing at nationals, and three Winter Olympics, including in 1972 in Sapporo, Japan.
Locals whom we all know, Bob Griffith and older brother Ron, Alan Small, Darrel Parmenter, Mel Matis, cousin Lew Matis, Darrel Tomberlin, Mike Devecka, Ron Klatt, Ron Yeager (two time Olympian) and more.
Gary Diverson, a student at Western State in Gunnison, skied with the Durangoans, as well.
Many who were present grew up here, while others came to FLC from distant states to ski competitively (Don Hinkley, John Reynolds, Mike Scott, Larry Martin from Alaska), and because of the quality coaching (Bob Grey).
Before Purgatory’s opening in 1965, they skied and trained on Chapman Hill, on the Fort Lewis College Mesa where the south portion of the golf course is now, at the Hesperus Ski Area and at Coal Bank (from the top of the pass south along the tree line) where there was a lodge at the southern terminus alongside the highway where parents enjoyed Rose Scobie at the piano, and the bar. Weight training was in a building at the fairgrounds.
There was Alpine skiing as well, at Coal Bank and at Stoner north of Dolores, and ski jumping. But it was Nordic that was at the center.
How did this extraordinary time come about? It was Dolph Kuss, who came to Durango in 1954 to take the position of La Plata County’s recreation director. He’d been a student in Gunnison.
Kuss skied, loved skiing (one winter morning there were very visible tracks down Smelter Mountain, said to have been made by Kuss), and he immediately formed a ski team. He would coach for FLC, took teams he formed to numerous events across the country, and to three Olympics. Kuss was not present Saturday; age 93 limits activities (he turned 94 a day later, on Sunday).
And why were so many skiers at the Powerhouse on Saturday afternoon sharing memories? To remember Mike Elliott, who was the most accomplished of the group and who died on Sept. 23 at age 82 (Herald, Sep. 29, 2024).
Alan Small, who joined the ski team at age 13 and was a member of a winning junior national team, later said, “We were all tough, in good shape, but Mike had something extra, something genetic, that put him ahead of us all.”
Elliott participated in those three Winter Olympics, in one while a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Elliott led in the founding of Purgatory, was employed there, and has a run with his name on it. He would coach and consult for years afterward and was a founding member of the Durango Winter Sports Club.
Nancy and his three children, Tad, Evan and Paige, skied, with practice and training known to take place under the environment of “Camp Elliott.”
Here’s to Mile Elliott, and to Dolph Kuss, still with us, and to all the skiers who so successfully competed with Durango next to their names.
Richard G. Ballantine, Board Chair