On Anniversaries and Community

from Eaglecrest to Folkfest

What was the name of the first designated ski area in Juneau?

What year did chairlift access skiing begin on Douglas Island?

Ski jump competitions were held on which street in Douglas?

No pressure, but these were just a few of the questions in the first annual Pittman’s Pub Eaglecrest Trivia contest. Three apres’ sessions were held in the waning weeks of the season. Teams gathered around tables in a quonset tent/bar and competed for their names engraved on, who knew-a WWF-inspired belt emblazoned with our community ski area logo.

Eaglecrest closed last month but the snow and sun stayed on, enticing hikers on skis and boards. Mercifully this year, the last weekend of ski season somehow did not coincide with the closing days of folk festival, which marked its 49th annual gathering of banjos. I did not miss choosing between toasting the end of lift season in the EC parking lot or witnessing our friend Dylan Proudfoot and his dad’s killer traditional Appalachian bluegrass set.

These community institutions have in common that they raise generations of passionate folkies and skiers. Of course many of us consider ourselves both. Dylan is both the treasurer of the Folk Fest board and a devoted Eaglecrest skier.

Next year the Alaska Folk Festival will join Eaglecrest in reaching the half century mark. This year our public radio stations are celebrating their 50th anniversary. Wearing my volunteer DJ hat, I joined a panel of fellow music lovers reminiscing on what we consider the most fun public service in town. Along with former colleague Jamie Waste, I also had the somber role of reading aloud the names of seventy-two souls affiliated with the K3 stations in memoriam. Voicing those names on this live broadcast of A Juneau Afternoon filled me with gratitude for their contributions.

If you want a public radio station, or a ski area, or a folk festival in a remote community with limited resources, you need to form a DIY team and make it happen. The mid-1970’s was full of busy bees doing just that.

It all came together for me the first night of this year’s folk festival. A quartet in their thirties sang about the neighbors upstairs making love as their ever proud parents looked on from the front row. In a later set, a member of that quartet stood between her parents singing in perfect harmony. Frankie, Odin and Aldyn are also skiers committed to sustaining a thriving nordic ski community.

What have become community institutions like the Juneau Nordic Ski Club, The Juneau Symphony, public media and the ski area are what bind us together-in good ways. But they need volunteers to thrive. Eaglecrest was short on staff in the final days of this season. Volunteers around since Eaglecrest’s first days made sure skiers and boarders exited the chairlift safely.

In that community do-it-yourself spirit, a peer of my grown kids, another Dylan, Dylan Stuart, created the trivia contest. People who have been around a decade or three knew some answers (go figure). Our son was a member of the winning team of the first two (out of three) sessions, the Grubstake Tricksters. But guess who won the last session? A few of my lady friends and I known as the Elegant Skinners. The battle of the generations is on for next season!

Speaking of generations, we are the thrilled grandparents of new twin boys! My lower back hurt just watching their dad haul them up the East side in a bike trailer with a ski attachment on a recent sunny Sunday. It was the first time Felix and Wally Bausler met the West Bowl and Mt. Ben Stewart on the horizon. And the stunning views we’ve seen countless times but seem new every time. Then their mom snow plowed them down to the base lodge safely, her former Juneau Ski Club teammate and fellow new mom Julia sideslipping on tail rope. Grandpa and I skied alongside, amazed, thankful, and looking forward to grand twins boogying down the mountain on their own before we know it.

Thanks for reading my newsletter. Feel free to spread the word with a like, comment or share. I’ll check in again before next season. In the meantime, here are the answers to those trivia questions.

Evergreen Bowl

1976

Cordova Street