What is ‘The Chairlift’?

Skiing is incessantly focused on the sickest people, the biggest tricks, the best gear, and the overall extremes of the sport (and for good reason). Sure that’s sweet, but it doesn’t portray the genuine value skiing provides.

Sometimes the best conversations come from a chairlift, whether that’s with close friends or complete strangers. Encompassing that idea, the purpose of The Chairlift is not to go beyond the popular focus, but beneath it, to the people, communities, events, and issues that underpin the true nature of skiing. I hope to shed a bit of light on the glossed-over ideology of skiing and to show who and what skiing is really about — and hell, that may as well be you or me.

Background

My name is Chris Hampson, and I am a student-journalist at Colorado College. While I can’t chuck massive cliffs or huck backflips, I make my pass worth it and get my days in. After spending some time meeting people across the Rocky Mountain region, I thought about how I would define skiing in the Rockies, and this newsletter is an exploration of that idea.