Last Tuesday I had the distinct pleasure of hiking the Argentine North Trail with Kent Drummond. As a 5 year old Kent rode the original rope tow at A-Basin during the 1946-47 ski season. He has memories of riding up the lift between his father's legs. His Dad was Fuzzy Drummond, a close friend of the Jumps and an early member of the Arapahoe Basin, Inc Board of Directors. Fuzzy passed on in the early 60's just as Larry Jump was replacing the original Upper Mountain Single Chair with a double chair. Those of you that skied here in the 60's and 70's remember the Drummond Lift (Norway's predecessor), named after Fuzzy.
Kent skied and worked here throughout his youth. In his first job, Larry paid him $.25/hour to thread and crimp skiers' lift tickets to their clothing. I had a wonderful time listening to his adventures here. He told me about staying in the old DU Faculty Club and nights in the A-Basin Lodge when the pass was closed. He reminisced about the T-100 Poma out of the base area and the T-50 Poma that ran up Radical to the Top of Pali. He lost his front teeth as a teenager when one of the Pomas snapped back at him. We talked about the old Lower Mountain trail names; Molly Hogan (Ramrod), Davis Cutoff (High Noon), Loafer (Sundance), The Brook Trail (North Fork), and Lark (Wrangler). After attending Colorado College and a stint with the Army in Vietnam, Kent came back to Colorado and was an A-Basin patroller for most of the 70's.
Tuesday was really a treasure for me. The contributions and impacts Kent and his father, Fuzzy, made to Arapahoe Basin were extraoridnary. A lot of good people have been doing a lot of good things at The Basin for a very long time now.
