A ‘story of audacious dreams’
Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort turns 70
Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort celebrated 70 years last month.
Founded in 1952 by Lloyd and Olive Bolander, Sipapu is the oldest ski area in Northern New Mexico — but not the oldest in the state. That distinction goes to Sandia Ski Peak Area, which got its start in 1936.
However, if you extend Sipapu’s history to when the Agua Piedra Ski Club — a cohort of Taos, Las Vegas and Peñasco skiers — created a ski hill in 1937 near where the current Sipapu Resort is today,
and then take into account how the Sandia Peak Ski Area has been closed the past couple of years due to a lack of snow and resources, then Sipapu has a claim on being the oldest continuously-running and operational ski area in the state.
That was a detail that James Coleman, who bought Sipapu in 2000 from the Bolanders, pointed out on top of chair 1, during the 70th Anniversary party of Sipapu on Saturday (Jan. 28). Coleman also owns Pajarito Mountain Ski Area along with Purgatory Resort, Hesperus Ski Area, Arizona Snowbowl, Elk Ridge Ski Area and Nordic
Valley through the Mountain Capital Partners company.
Locals also filled out a large room underneath the Riverside Café to have a fireside chat with the Bolander family, as well as the current leadership, and take in the sights of a photo gallery that featured many archived images. One of those images is an old black and white poster that reads “¡Si! Sipapu! Affordable Mountain Resort.” Still to this date, Sipapu highlights its affordability front and center.
After the anniversary party, Sue Bolander was passing out one of her signature cakes that she decorated with 70 snowflakes, and Coleman made sure to save the snowflake that had the year 2000 on it.
Lou Romero, who used to work for Sipapu in the 60s, mentioned that he appreciated how the Bolanders hired locals and treated him like family. During the party, Romero shared a story on Olive Bolander making an impact on
his life.
“One day, getting close to 1963, Olive said to me, ‘Louis, you must go to college. And if you don’t — believe me, you can’t come back here and work anymore unless you go back to college.’ And so I did. So, she’s responsible for me finishing college,” Romero said.
The history of the annual cardboard derby, whereby leprechauns and other fantastically-dressed competitors have been known to slide down Sipapu’s slopes in a cardboard rig, was explained by Mountain Manager John Paul Bradley.
“When I got down here, I said, that hill looks just like Dutch Henry [a tubing hill in Leadville]. We should do a cardboard derby here. It took a year or two of convincing and signing some paperwork for the insurance companies. Eventually they agreed that they insure anything for the right cost. And we’ve been doing it now for 18 years, or something like that.”
An employee named Aaron Shakur shared his story about discovering a hefty rock far up on a tree branch on one of the ski runs. “When I looked up — way up, way up — you could see what appears to be a 30- to 40-pound rock. Big rock stuck in the tree, clearly visible, plain sight.”
Bradley provided the context. “On Sassafras [a green ski run that snakes through the middle of Sipapu] just after you come under the lift — we call that point Rocky Point. That cliff band came out farther, but to get to the trail there, Bruce got to play with some dynamite ... So if you’re right on Rocky Point, right on the turn there, ponderosa, 30 feet up, 30-pounder up there in the tree.”
Bruce Bolander revealed the story behind the naming of a blue run named Downfall. “So Downfall originally had a second name to it,” he said. “It was called Bruce’s Downfall and, I guess for publishing reasons in the long term, we eventually shortened it to Downfall.”
Marketing director Christiana Hudson asked a few provocative questions to the Bolander family in order to get some interesting stories from the past.
Olive Bolander provided a zinger when Hudson asked about the time that Lloyd and Olive first met, “Was it love at first sight?”
“I doubt it,” Olive Bolander said. “So I heard rumors that you hired hippies from Woodstock to come work here,” Hudson said to Bruce Bolander.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say we hired hippies but we did hire people that were from the Woodstock era,” he responded.
Toward the end of the party, Coleman shared some thoughts on Sipapu’s history. Coleman described it as a “story of audacious dreams.”
“I’m not sure most people realize just how pioneering they (Lloyd and Olive) were with this. They saw this little farm down here and said ‘Hey, we’re gonna turn this into a ski resort.’”
“It was really an audacious thing to put this out here and make this happen and bring this joy to all these people that live here and people that came over from Texas and other parts of the country,” said Coleman.
Bruce Bolander made some appreciative remarks to the crowd and to Coleman to conclude the party.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have grown up here and had a good life, and have a lot of the faces here in the room have been a part of my life, and so it’s been really good to have you guys around,” he said. “James [Coleman] has been in our lives at the right time. It’s been good and we have a lot more years going forward. Thank you guys.”