Suzy Chaffee: Snowdancers have much to do with recent blessing of precip

Former Olympian, a.k.a. Suzy Chapstick, says Vail may do well to pay it forward

January 10, 2012, 9:23 am

The Vail Business Journal

By Tara Flanagan

Eddy and Betty Box and Southern Ute dancers perform a Gratitude Snowdance and blessing of the athletes to open Vail’s 2010 World Cup, hosted by Vail Academy.

VAIL, Colo.—There was a collective sigh of relief through Colorado’s central mountains Sunday morning as the day broke into a robin’s-egg-blue sky and a blanket of priceless snow swathed the earth and trees.

The storm broke a spell that had been Vail’s driest in 30 years, dumping eight inches at Vail, nine at Beaver Creek, seven at Breckenridge and six inches at Steamboat. Some forecasts call for more snow mid-week.

True, sooner or later, it’s going to snow. But with the ski season moving toward mid-January and with that, the holiday and winter break reservations running their course, it was perhaps time to summon help on a level beyond “sooner or later.” And in the meantime, Vail did some returning to its roots.