Before helicopters, skiers fashioned rope tows and used a highway switchback across the Canada border to get their turns, long-time residents recounted at a recent membership meeting of the Haines Ski and Hike Club.
Bruce Gilbert, who came to Haines in 1965, said he was surprised that skiing wasn’t common here. “We didn’t understand how people lived here with winter for six months without enjoying the snow.”
Gilbert and others organized a ski club that had 60-70 members, he said. “In the days before TV, people took to it.”
Erwin Hertz said he’d ski down Young Road with his young children in his arms. If he crashed, he’d toss the child into a snow bank.
“We all just started on our own. Then everybody got bigger, and we had to get more serious stuff,” Hertz said.
Rope tows were set up on Piedad, Tower and Young roads, they said. One permanent one attempted at a logged slope called “Ski Hill” near Mosquito Lake failed, Hertz said. “They tried to do it in a low snow year, and (the snow) didn’t cover up the stumps.”
Hertz said he looked into starting a commercial lift here, but was dissuaded by the cost of insurance.
Lee Heinmiller said a Young Road rope tow was “the hit of the town.” “You could use your sled, toboggan or anything you wanted, and you didn’t have to walk back up the hill.”
Over time, the former highway switchback at 48 Mile Haines Highway became the spot. Adults escorting children would visit with pipeline station workers who lived at the Rainy Hollow pipeline pump station, while one parent in a car would be designated to shuttle skiers from the bottom of the run back to the top.
Dr. Stan Jones was an important member of the club, tending to skiers injured in an era when ski bindings were sometimes still rudimentary, Hertz and Gilbert said.
When Eaglecrest ski area opened in Juneau, that became a popular destination for skiers, Hertz said. “When Eaglecrest got going, it was amazing to go to a real ski club. We’d ski until we couldn’t stand up.”
A ski club was revived as a Nordic skiing organization in the mid-1980s. It recently raised money, including a grant, to buy a Ginsu groomer, capable of setting Nordic and skate ski trails.
Ski Club president John Hirsh said Nordic skiing has “huge potential” here, and that the club is interested in recruiting new members and new ideas.