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Show I Skiing in Cedar Canyon Gains Wide Popularity from Year to Year Prepared by Rainbow Canyon Ski Club We are all aware that our nation na-tion as a whole has increased its enthusiasm for recreation, owing to more leisure time and higher incomes. As in the rest of the United States this is evident in southern Utah. It Is no secret that bowling has been a grand success in our area, but perhaps it Is not of such general knowledge know-ledge that one of the other up-and-coming sports also catching on with enthusiasm is skiing. Skiing offers many advantages advantag-es to the sports enthusiast. One can enjoy fresh air, beautiful scenery, and good exercise. It is a sport which a family can all enjoy together no matter to what extent thy excell individually. . Worldwide Interest Skiing is becoming very popular pop-ular all over the world, ar.d every year more ski areas are being opened and expanded in an effort ef-fort to meet the need created by more skiers. We can all be proud that Utah offers some of the most excellent skiing in the whole world. Skiing is well established es-tablished in northern Utah, and happily it is also growing in our own area here. The history of skiing in Cedar City is long and varied. The I earliest skiers in this area were cross-country skiers, skiing to Navajo Lake and camping out in the snow for several days at a time. One of the first ski clubs was formed about 1938 and was known as the Cedar City Ski Club. This club developed the Sand-Cut area, clearing slopes and installing a rope tow. Mechanical Me-chanical difficulties were the probable cause of failure for this venture. Rope Tow In 1916-47-48 a rope' tow was built and operated by Paul Wood, Ted Webster and Reld Webster. This venture also proved unsuccessful, unsuc-cessful, owing to mechanical problems, and general lack of interest. in-terest. The years 1949-50 brought about another newly organized ski club. With the financial help of the American Legion, a tow was purchased and installed at Midway. The members of this active ski club constructed a shelter and the year was very successful. suc-cessful. Snow conditions for the following year were poor and once again interest lagged. In 1957, through the installation installa-tion of a rope tow at Hugh Perry Hill new Interest was created. It was at this time the Rainbow Canyons Ski Club was formed under the leadership of C. A. Ratte'. At the present times the club is doing an excellent Job of making it possible for everyone every-one to enjoy this wonderful sport. The express purpose of the club is to promote skiing in the southern Utah area. The club provides many advantages to skiers and persons Interested In skiing, in hopes of keeping the interest in skiing high in this area. Meetings are held each month during the skiing season. An interesting movie on skiing skiing lessons are offered to the members; also reduced rates on the tow at the ski area are offered. of-fered. This is to mention only a few of the ways the club is promoting pro-moting skiing in the area. Club Projects Some of the projects In which the club has been active in the way of promoting skiing include the following: Review of possible locations for a moderate sized ski development in the area, preliminary pre-liminary survey of a proposed ski area development in the vicinity vi-cinity of the Sand-Cut area on Cedar Mountain, acted in an advisory ad-visory capacity to the Industrial Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce regarding the development of a ski area in southern Utah, assisting in the instruction of skiing in the College Col-lege of Southern Utah physical education program. Membership In the club during the 1958-59 season numbered n!y .bot't 10. Presently a mpm bership drive is In progress and 10 memberships have been recorded. re-corded. A membership of 75 or more Is expected for the 1959 60 season. The present emphasis in the ski club Is to promote safety safe-ty and give Instruction in proper equipment. This year there has been an addition in the ski club's skiing program with the 52 registered CSU students. The students are nroresslng very rapidly. During the time they have had instructions instruc-tions many of them have devel-opea devel-opea from beginners to Intermediate Intermed-iate skiers. The ski club has wil-tlnerly wil-tlnerly furnished Instructors. The Instruction staff Is headed by Chuck Ratte' with Judy Ratte', Doris Esplln. Carl Palmer, Clayton Clay-ton Jones, Ken Lister and Karl Lagerberg as helpers. An average of 10U people have skied at the Cedar Canyon kk I area every week end this year. There has been a steady increase in-crease at the area every year since It has opened. This is very encouraging to Interested per- sons, and also Indicates the need for a larger area in the future. .tfW . II- 1-1 "..,1 1 - t u : w. . i j ..... - ...... .-"; , ' SKIING LESSONS. Charles Ratte, at right above gives instruction for the Rainbow Canyon Ski Club members in Cedar Canyon. Over 100 people are visiting the skiing ski-ing area every week. At left is the Adrian Bunting fcxnlly cf Co-dar Co-dar City. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting and their three daughters are among the family groups who enjoy the cutdocx uprt. rJ .'' n,n.-.yw- r - ri-j , . ':f. ix , AVI mvV.' - |
