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Part I : Jim Snobble — early development of Snowmass Resort

Aspen Historical Society
Snowcat tour operations on the Hoaglund Ranch in January 1967, taken by Bob Krueger.
Aspen Historical Society/Bob Krueger Collection

From an oral history on the early development of the Snowmass Resort, Jim Snobble recounted how he had been a part-time ski school instructor running a lodge called the Nugget when it was sold, leaving him with just a ski school supervisor job. He was worried about what he would do when he rode the lift one day with Art Pfister who told him they might be looking for some “management depth” and to go talk with Darcy (DRC Brown). He did and a week later got a call saying, “You’re done with ski school — go to Snowmass and start studying Snowmass.” Snobble was put in charge of a team to look at the mountain and decide about feasibility. He went straight away to working at Snowmass, running two powder cat tours with a couple of guides in the early 1960s when there was nothing much except the old Hoaglund Ranch house (aka Anderson Ranch) and barn, the Faraway Ranch log cabin owned by Loey Ringquist and some hay meadows. Bill Janss had been buying up property and was interested in trying to develop the mountain, but wanted to do a joint venture with the Aspen Skiing Company — Janss would develop the base area and commercial properties while the SkiCo would develop the lift facilities, runs and skiing operations.