Skiing in Arizona

The noble and ancient sport of skiing became the thing to do in northern Arizona last year. This year will be a banner year, as club members in Flagstaff, Prescott and Jerome are waxing their skis, waiting the snows that come to the high mountains in January. This view, taken last year, shows a skiing party skimming along toward the San Francisco Peaks.

Over one hundred miles or so north of the Valley of the Sun, Arizona is finding her own "Sun Valley," a counterpart of the now-famed Idaho winter sports paradise. In the Copper State the snow-line extends from Yarnell Hill 200 miles northward to the gorges of the mighty Colorado. When the first of the "snowduckers" from the east are beginning to filter into Phoenix and Tucson, Prescott, Flagstaff and Williams are already feeling the bracing rigors of King Winter. By the second week of October this year these towns had felt their first snow, and the northern skyline was dominated by the glistening white summits of the majestic San Francisco Peaks, highest point in the state.

Two or three years ago a pair of real skis was as difficult to find in Arizona as a Gila monster in Minnesota. But last winter, that strange insect, the ski-bug, bit the north country and bit hard. A few transplanted easterners, to whom skiing was far more natural than horseback riding, sought out the sheltered ravines and thestorm-swept slopes, trusting they might find a bit of the precious "white gold." The altitude was right and certainly the temper ature was sufficiently low to assure a few weeks of snow each year. These hardy

By C. E. Long Secretary, PRESCOTT SKI CLUB Souls had but a short search before discovering that most of the thickly timben forest slopes of this great northern regi were blanketed in snow from November late April.

Skiing came into its own in Arizona! It was found the protecting firs an ja pine provided snow slopes to answer a skier's prayer. Careful planning and s veying, diligent cutting and clearing, & simultaneously in the Prescott and Fh staff regions trails and open slopes for s ing appeared. The obstacle of increduli was overcome by actually showing the tives that a mile of thickly timbered sloj with a gradient of thirty to forty per could be navigated safely and rapidly. Wi skiers were seen to emerge, run after n with skulls and limbs intact, curiosity ga way to wonder, jeering to cheering. I few weeks sporting goods dealers wi flooded by requests for ski equipment. the middle of last winter "skiing" was every tongue in the north. Newspapers over the state started to feature stories the doings of the hickory-runner boys!

Girls, old and young. For of all the active sports in the world skiing ranks among the top, yet it is the one super-active sport that can and is mastered by old and young. Age is no barrier. Sixes and sixties appeared on our northern practice slopes. They tried it, found it fun, far greater than they had dreamed, and they promptly went "hog wild"!

Almost at once, ski clubs were formed at Prescott and Flagstaff, the former antedating the latter by but a few days. Aided by a small but active group in each town, and with the cooperation of the national forest service, both clubs were able to present impromptu snow carnivals during the winter. These were very successful. People poured upstate from the south and from California. Many of them had never seen snow before, and great was their amazement to find other humans cavorting and perspiring in the crisp, cold temperatures of Yavapai and Coconino.

The demand for instruction in this fascinating sport became acute. One harried individual, the writer, volunteered as instructor. By handling daily ski classes in Prescott, and week-end classes by shuttling back and forth between the latter city and Flagstaff, he managed to turn out the nucleus of a firmly rooted and ever-growing skiing fraternity in the Cactus State.

Boys and girls of the Prescott High School and students at the Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff were the most intensely interested novices, but it wasn't long before their mothers and dads, their brothers and sisters, their aunts and uncles harnessed themselves into the gleaming hickories for a shot at the slick slopes. Invitational meets were arranged between Prescott and Flagstaff, and each week-end saw groups whisking over our excellent north-country roads, to vie with the neighboring snowbirds.

There were about 500 natives of northern Arizona who tried skiing last winter. The tremendous impetus given this start by civic cooperation should account for at least thrice that number this winter. For in this part of the state one can find any type of skiing terrain to suit his fancy and his balance. Gentle rolling, treeless slopes, where the snow is soft and deep, beckon the timid novice or the more dignified grandsire; the twisting logging and mining roads interlacing our mountains are a lure to the more adventurous skier who likes his scenery close-up, winter as well as summer; the hell-bent skier, who demands cliff-skipping to whet his appetite, can get it and how!— from the Bradshaws of Yavapai to the towering Peaks of Coconino. Even the skier with the Scandinavian Madness (ski-jumping) is catered to at the Sheep Hill jump, east of Flagstaff. This dainty affair is guaranteed to toss Ollie Olsen anywhere from thirty feet to Eternity!

civic cooperation should account for at least thrice that number this winter. For in this part of the state one can find any type of skiing terrain to suit his fancy and his balance. Gentle rolling, treeless slopes, where the snow is soft and deep, beckon the timid novice or the more dignified grandsire; the twisting logging and mining roads interlacing our mountains are a lure to the more adventurous skier who likes his scenery close-up, winter as well as summer; the hell-bent skier, who demands cliff-skipping to whet his appetite, can get it and how!— from the Bradshaws of Yavapai to the towering Peaks of Coconino. Even the skier with the Scandinavian Madness (ski-jumping) is catered to at the Sheep Hill jump, east of Flagstaff. This dainty affair is guaranteed to toss Ollie Olsen anywhere from thirty feet to Eternity!

Thanks to the Arizona highway system, these winter wonderlands are not nearly as remote as the Idaho “Sun Valley.” U. S. Route 89 and State 79, every inch of which is now paved, are kept clear of snow and ice from the first flurries in the fall. The Phoenix motorist is but two and one half hours' pleasant drive from the new Ste. Agathe Ski area six miles south of Prescott on the White Spar. Here the local ski club and the forest service have co(Turn to Page 37) There will be plenty of action on the ski runs around Prescott this winter. Old and young are taking up the sport with enthusiasm, so much so, Arizona will be one of the big skiing states of the west. Perfect snow, perfect ski weather and perfect runs make northern Arizona a natural ski paradise. Incidentally, a couple of hours south from the Prescott ski-run is sun bathing in the Valley of the Sun.