Arapahoe Basin’s longest-tenured employees reflect on over 40 years at the ski area
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
For the last 40-plus years, two men have drastically helped shape the skiing and riding experience on the trails that make up Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
Working deep into the night with the ski area blanketed in the occasional glow from the moon and the stars, Dick Dreyer and Gerry Dorsey have groomed snow across the mountain so that when sunlight peaks over the spiny crag of East Wall, guests will be met with a fresh and fast layer of corduroy.
Dreyer and Dorsey began working at A-Basin only a few years apart, with Dreyer being the first to join the then small crew of employees in 1978 and Dorsey following in 1980. Now, after a combined 90 seasons of grooming, A-Basin’s longest-serving employees have decided to call it a career.
Both men started their tenure at A-Basin by quickly picking up the art of operating a snowcat and perfecting their craft.
“We slammed into a lot of rocks,” Dreyer said. “We learned where every rock was that was big enough to stop a cat, and there were a lot of them.”
Support Local Journalism
Back when they first began operating snowcats, the process was much more tedious and involved than it is today with state-of-the-art machines.
“A long time ago we used to drive Tuckers. They were very limited in terms of what we could climb and go down,” Dreyer said. “They didn’t have the footprint that the new cats have now. We had to figure out where to climb the mountain to get where you want to be. We had to also do everything twice. Everything took twice as long and it took twice as many people to do it.”
As time sailed by, snowcats saw huge, technological advancements making it easier for operators to create new grooming patterns across the mountain and create a high-quality product for turn-hungry guests.
Snowcats are not the only thing that has changed. Although A-basin can at times still feel quite small compared to other ski areas, Dreyer says the ski area has grown significantly since he first stepped foot on the mountain.
“The biggest change up here was the amount of money that Dundee Resort Development put into it,” Dreyer said. “We started seeing new buildings and new lifts. We saw the direction they were going and fixing the place up.”
In the early days of their career, A-Basin was much smaller than it is now with the base area only featuring an A-frame lodge and a first aid room.
“It is way different than it used to be,” Dreyer said. “With the new facilities, I think it brings more people on a steady basis. There have been a lot of changes throughout the years and for the most part for the better.”
Outside of changes at A-Basin, Dorsey has been astonished at how fast Summit County has grown over the last couple of decades.
“There are more and more people,” Dorsey said. “It is just getting crazier and crazier. It is kind of obvious.”
While perched high atop the base of the ski area, Dreyer and Dorsey have also managed to see things that not many other people in the world get the opportunity to experience while actively working.
One night in particular, Dreyer was lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis cast across the sky that surrounds A-Basin. In a time before mobile phones, Dreyer instead captured the experience by taking in the beautiful array of colors all across the sky and fully savoring the fleeting moment.
“It started getting real red in the north and we kind of just watched it cross the sky,” Dreyer said. “It was all above the East Wall if you can imagine that scene. Every color of the rainbow, it was the wildest thing I have ever seen to this day.”
On another grooming shift, Dorsey came upon Dreyer’s snowcat completely engulfed in flames. Thinking that his dear friend was still in the cab of the machine with fire billowing on each side, Dorsey immediately pounced and began maneuvering his snowcat to put out the flames.
“It was an electrical problem that caused it to catch on fire and as I recall, it was really windy that night,” Dorsey said. “I came down for fuel and was coming back up and saw a big glow. His cat was just engulfed in flames and the way the wind was blowing, I thought he was still in the cab. I was pushing snow in the cab to try to put it out, thinking he was still in there. Fortunately, he had gotten out.”
The pair of men also fondly remember making friends with the ski area’s skulk of foxes. On many occasions, Dorsey’s wife, Bunny Terrill, would even often pack chicken drumsticks for Dorsey to offer to the foxes as a late-night snack.
“The foxes were fun,” Dorsey said. “We went through five generations of them. They were always waiting for us. We would throw them chicken and they would carry that chicken all over the mountain to show us what they had. They were proud of it.”
Beyond making memories and shaping the skiing at A-basin, the two men are also grateful for the fellowship of friends they made while working at the ski area throughout the years.
“Back then we knew all the guys,” Dorsey said. “It was different. Scott (Buell), Dick and I have known each other for a long time. We drank together, went to bars, all that good stuff. It was a smaller group of people.”
Now officially retired, Dreyer and Dorsey plan to enjoy life without work by engaging in their passions. Dreyer will make a move to Laramie, Wyoming, for more fishing and time with family while Dorsey will enjoy traveling as well as working on his collection of sports cars and sailboats.
“It’s something I am going to have to learn to do, how to be retired,” Dreyer said. “I have been working since I was 8 years old. It just seemed normal. I have been retired for about a month now and still really haven’t figured it out.”
