High Country: Needing nostalgia
An homage to Aspen’s OG ski bum babes
High Country
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"After dropping out of college, Sandy Sollitt, 22, attended a clinic for ski instructors and earned a coveted position in the Snowmass ski school. She comes from Chicago and has skied since she was 7."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Tubing is a popular sport at Snowmass Mountain. The women pile into old truck tubes and race down a 40-yard course. The slope is iced to give additional sped and there are hay bales at the bottom."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Carolyn Zinke, 25, came to Aspen from Wisconsin four years ago with a teaching degree. She waited on tables until she perfected her ski technique enough to get a job as an instructor on Buttermilk Mountain."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Jeeps provide both transportation and sport in Aspen. Even in 20° weather they are used without tops. This 1946 Army vehicle belongs to Sue Smedstad, who drives a covey of her friends to the slopes."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Entrepreneur Leslie Smith, 25, started the Birdog Trading Co. by herself when she found jobs were scarce. She sells Indian relics, jewelry, rugs; her sales are booming."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"A one room apartment shared by four women and looking like the ultimate sorority room is typical of the crowded conditions under which many of the women must live."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"After a day on the slopes Lyn Carlson, 24, likes to swim in a comfortably heated outdoor pool. She left Louisville four years ago and now works as a doorwoman at the aprés ski spot called the Gallery."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Mary Duffey is 31 and hardly looks it. She has traveled in Europe, worked in New York and ski-bummed in Vermont. Four years ago she settled permanently in Aspen, where she does promotional work."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Queen of this year’s Wintersköl Festival, Gail Ramsey left a television job in Wisconsin to sing in an Aspen nightclub. The singing group disbanded so she tends bar and waits tables for $25 a day."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"After dropping out of college, Sandy Sollitt, 22, attended a clinic for ski instructors and earned a coveted position in the Snowmass ski school. She comes from Chicago and has skied since she was 7."
John Dominis/LIFE
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"Tubing is a popular sport at Snowmass Mountain. The women pile into old truck tubes and race down a 40-yard course. The slope is iced to give additional sped and there are hay bales at the bottom."
John Dominis/LIFE
Who’s getting high and heading down the deepest depths of the internet by now? One of the most fun rabbit holes to hide out in during these long days is vintage Aspen, which thanks to the private Facebook group “Friends of Aspen from the 1960’s and 70’s,” there’s a coronavirus- uptick of content to help escape the reality that is 2020.
Culling through posts from the long list of locals that came before us, a true virtual sense of community comes through on-screen with old friends and acquaintances checking in on each other, retelling wild stories from the good old days, sharing snapshots from family photo albums, and directing members to archive articles and film footage.
My favorite find so far is from the March 5, 1971 issue of LIFE magazine — a feature spread introducing the world to “Aspen’s New Kind of Ski Bum” (girls! gasp!). Photographed by John Dominis, these women pioneered the path to living life at its highest and inspired future generations of us that “we can do anything guys do.”
According to Aspen Journalism’s “Aspen’s Skiing History” timeline, “surfer bums” discovered Aspen between 1960 and 1968 and in 1965, the Denver Post dubbed the all- male transplants as “ski-niks.” LIFE reported that by 1971, six out of ten of the 900 new annual arrivals were women. One of the earliest cannabis kerfuffles on-mountain also went down that same winter season LIFE was on-assignment in high country.
Aspen Journalism’s entry for 1971 reads, “The first-ever ‘Hot-Dog Contest’ dominated the Ridge of Bell under the Bell Mountain lift on March 1, 1971 where the only rule was to go top to bottom as spectacularly as possible. On a razor-blue day 2,000 irreverent spectators watched 89 local competitors rip. Ski instructor Sid Erickson won by popping ‘Sealander’s Rock’ at the top skier’s left of the steep Ridge, before flying over all the bumps in three turns, performing a never-before-seen stunt of luck and skill. A wet T-shirt contest followed at the Red Onion night club. D.R.C. Brown rode over the extravaganza. After smelling marijuana, he later declared there would ‘never be another hot-dog contest on a Ski Corp mountain.’”
The spring tradition endured and is now held in April, known as the “Bell Mountain Buck-Off.” This season would have marked its 49th year and since we’re all sitting at home, let’s look forward to the 50th in 2021 and plan to pay homage to the debauchery of decades past. And here’s to Aspen’s OG ski bum babes, may we all live as free (and be as cool) as them someday soon.
For more throwback photos, vintage videos and nostalgic news stories, I’ve rounded up a few more of my favorite links for you here:
- LIFE magazine’s “A Very Nice Kind of Ski Bum” (1971)
- Coors “Taste the High Country” Commercial (1979)
- Bo Bedford’s “Aspen, People, Places, and Dogs” (early 1970’s)
- McDonald’s Commercial (early 1970’s)
- John Denver’s “Dancing with the Mountains” (1980)
- Riunite Classic Commercial (1985)
- Malcolm Ruthven’s Winter Photo Gallery (1962-63)
- Ron Hoffman’s “DOCUMERICA” (1974)
- The New York Times’ “Aspen: The Call of the Wild” (1990)
- Aspen Journalism’s “Aspen’s skiing history: an evolving timeline” (2017)
- Daniel Kelly Brown’s “Classic Aspen” (1960’s & 1970’s)
- The Denver Post’s “As Snowmass turns 50, a look back at the ski bums who started it all” (2017)
Special thanks to David C. Wood (author of “Sanctuaries in the Snow” and frequent Facebook poster) for the inspiration!
Katie Shapiro wishes she lived in Aspen in 1971. She can be reached at katie@katieshapiromedia.com and followed on Twitter @bykatieshapiro.
