Hidden in plain sight: Local skiing rewards the hardy

On a brilliant sunny weekend in mid-May, a group of skiers from Helena, Boulder and Butte set out from the Elkhorn ghost town northeast of Boulder on touring skis: They wound their way up around the abandoned Louise and C&D mine sites, cruised uphill along an old roadbed bordered by boulders until, eventually, they reached the tree line. The group skied fresh powder down what they called Alice Basin to the Iron Mine site, climbed back up to the summit of Elkhorn Peak, skied down to the mine again and then carved their way down the road back to Elkhorn and headed to the Boulder Hot Springs.

That was in 1945—the group of skiers who recounted the trip in that year’s American Ski Annual included a women’s national champion ski racer and the parents of longtime Boulder resident Sam Samson, himself now 82—but every winter, hardy skiers from around Jefferson County and beyond still make the trek to Elkhorn to grind along the 4-mile route that rises nearly 3,000 vertical feet to the summit of Elkhorn Peak. The reward, if they’re lucky: Weather and snow conditions could align to provide vast expanses of untracked powder or soft spring skiing, and views that extend more than 70 miles in some directions.

Despite its many mountains and usually snowy winters, there aren’t any ski lifts or downhill ski areas in Jefferson County. Ski runs served by rope tows existed near Elkhorn and on the Boulder Hill in the late 1930s and early 1940s (story, page 3), but they closed after the U.S. entered World War Two in the 1941–42 winter. A ski area operated near Pipestone Pass in the far southwest corner of the county from 1959 to ’74, and since then there’s been no lift-served skiing in Jefferson County.