Tales from Purgatory
Purg looks back on 44 years as Durango’s ‘home mountain’

by Brandon Mathis

Not that long ago, Purgatory was only an idea. In the early 1960s, two ski enthusiasts, Midwestern oil man Ray Duncan and Forest Service employee Chet Anderson, would road trip from Durango to Crested Butte for some “real” skiing. (There was no Telluride Ski Resort back then, and Wolf Creek was only in the tow rope stage, sited across the highway from its current location). On one of those trips, Ray and Chet got to talking.

Why not build a ski area near Durango? Local skiers were relegated to grabbing rope tows tugged by loud engines spitting grease and exhaust, north of town or at Chapman Hill, or hiking terrain off the highway near Coal Bank and Molas. Duncan and Anderson were onto something.

“Chet Anderson really helped develop the mountain, lay out the trails, then cut them,” said Jim “Hoody” Hards, Durango Mountain Resort vice-president of base operations. “Ray Duncan was behind the business end of getting the area developed – Forest Service approvals, permits and purchasing some land holdings that are now the base area."

Hards, or Hoody as he is known, began his 35-year career at Purgatory in 1976, 10 years after Purgatory’s 1966 opening and the same year Chair 4 was installed. That winter of 1976 still makes him shrug. “It was probably the worst winter I have ever experienced,” he said. “It didn’t snow until Jan. 4, and we closed in the middle of February and that was it. Those were some lean years. We didn’t have any snowmaking – none of the resorts had it. You didn’t really need it because it always snowed so hard in Colorado.”

Luckily, lean years were not the norm for Purg. The San Juan Mountains have had their share of incredible snow years, both before and after the winter of 1976.

According to Mike McCormack, vice-president of mountain operations, snowmaking became an obvious backup for keeping things going. “Ray and Chet realized the importance of snowmaking, and it started as a supplement to high-traffic areas,” he said. “It has now evolved to cover 250 acres, close to a third of the mountain.” McCormack is in his 29th year at the mountain and recalls some of the high times. “Winters of ’78-79, ’79-80 – very big years, close to 500 inches,” he said. “The following year – drought. So snowmaking came in.”

Snowmaking has come a long way since those early years. “The guns themselves have evolved,” McCormack said. “We have the ability to pump 3,000 gallons of water a minute, and push 12,000 cubic feet a minute of air up the hill.”

But snowmaking is only one of the many ways southern Colorado’s sunny ski resort has changed over the years. Skier numbers have risen from25,000 annually to approaching 400,000 per season. Massive waves of development have expanded the base area, adding real estate, shopping, dinning and other servicessouthern Colorado’s sunny ski resort has changed over the years. Skier numbers have risen from25,000 annually to approaching 400,000 per season. Massive waves of development have expanded the base area, adding real estate, shopping, dinning and other services.

In the early years, before the familiar village center with its tower was constructed, the base area was the Day Lodge – the building that housed Purgy’s up until a few years ago. Purgatory Ski Patrol had a small shack some yards away. A pub at the very bottom of the hill, near what is now the Columbine Area, was a popular spot once the Day Lodge closed for the night. Tickets, rental equipment, day care, 50-cent hamburgers, homemade pecan pie and cheap beer flowed through the Day Lodge. Before being reclaimed by the mountain, Farquahrts/Pizza Mia occupied the Day Lodge through the ’80s and much of the ’90s, and that was the real après place to go. “That was really, truly the locals hangout for all those years. And it was really the only place,” said Hoody. “The old Best Western Inn had the Elk Run on the highway, which also survived many wild evenings.”

Chris “Zeke” Zeller has been patrolling Purgatory’s slopes for 35 years. Now supervisor, Zeller noted that the Purgatory Patrol has come a long way. “We fought for years to increase the medical skills of patrol,” he said. “Once, we were the laughing stock of La Plata County, and now we are the cutting edge.”

Zeke, along with the other elder statesmen of Purgatory, loves his job and speaks highly of the call of duties. “It’s the best job on the mountain, a very unique profession,” he said. “We’re lawyers, police officers, accident investigators, first aiders, parents, counselors. You have to be all those things to be a good ski patroller. It’s very challenging, and we love a challenge.”

Zeke has hauled more than 2,000 injured skiers off the mountain during his storied career. “I’ll be walking through the base area and hear ‘Zeke! Zeke!,’” he said. “It’ll be a gentleman from the Sun Belt who will say, ‘You hauled me off this mountain 10 years ago. Glad to see you’re still here.’”

Zeke gives high marks to his entire crew of patrollers. “We have a very skilled and experienced staff and there is no substitute for experience. Everyone in the county, from ER nurses to flight patrol wants to be on my patrol. Our requirements are higher than the industry standards.”

Speaking of experience, more than 60 percent of Purgatory’s lift maintenance staff has been on board for 15 years or more. When the lifts go down, the ski area stops in its tracks. So the mechanics and engineers that have the knowhow to fix things are the true heroes behind the scenes. “It’s part of why I am still here,” says Lift Maintenance Manager Dickie Jones, a 28-year veteran. “There’s nothing more fun than taking a hundred-thousand pounds on a high rope and making it do what you want it to. It takes a unique group of individuals to get along and watch each other, and if something goes wrong, it takes the best group of guys to get it fixed.”

Purgatory is and has always been about people, McCormack said. “This is a tight knit group,” he said. “When Christmas comes around, we don’t go anywhere. This is our business, it’s what we do. There’s a lot of emotions together, good and bad. Watching us as 18-year-olds, to having our own kids work here. It’s a family type thing.”

McCormack was set on a career in aircraft mechanics when he took a seasonal position at Purgatory. “I got around the lifts and the moving parts of the ski industry and said ‘Nope, this is the place for me.’”

With the ’10-11 season under way, and big plans in the future, things are looking bright at DMR. The master plan, complete with terrain expansions, additional lifts and more, has been initiated with the addition of McCormack’s Maze last year and the Ambassador’s Glade this year.

“It’s like we spend most of the year preparing for five months of operation,” said Hoody. “There’s guest service, keeping lifts running, ski patrol handling wrecks, food and beverage, and then it all goes away in April. What it takes in the off-season to get it prepared is a challenge. There’s always something breaking, there’s always something to fix. There’s always a challenge, and that’s the way we like it.” •