I first crossed paths with Russ LaChapelle within the fall of 2010; although, like many individuals all in favour of New York ski historical past, I’d encountered him years earlier by means of his quirky, deeply private web site.
Jam-packed with details about vanished rope tows, forgotten slopes, and half-erased ski desires, it was clearly the work of somebody who cared extra about getting the story proper than making it look polished or simply navigable (as a lot as was potential with web expertise again then).
After we lastly related on the cellphone, I defined the pitch I’d made to Harvey, editor of the nascent NYSkiBlog.
I proposed a wide-ranging interview concerning the origins of Russ’s ardour for Empire State snowboarding and a function about Bearpen Mountain, a spot about which I knew little or no.
The primary piece went effective.
I interviewed Russ for 90 minutes, throughout which we bonded about rising up within the snowy suburbs of Syracuse: he in Liverpool and I in Camillus. Whereas the tales concerning the lift-served survivors have been attention-grabbing sufficient, it was the ski areas that lived after which disappeared quietly that intrigued me – areas undone by unreliable snow, poor financing, outsized ambitions, unsuitable terrain, awful areas, surging fuel costs, skyrocketing insurance coverage premiums, or any variety of different forces. He beloved sharing what he discovered with individuals who have been genuinely curious.
More often than not, it felt much less like doing an interview and extra like sitting in on an prolonged, passionate monologue – the sort the place you principally simply attempt to sustain and solely request the occasional clarification. Again then, I transcribed the recording made on my micro-cassette recorder, copyedited it for readability and circulate, acquired Russ’s approval, and we posted it.
The Bearpen Article
Little did I do know what awaited me once I approached the middle of Russ’s fascination with New York State snowboarding. By the point we talked in January 2011, Russ had a long time of historical past wrapped up on this misplaced ski space: timelines, land disputes, nefarious native characters, and the various ambitions that after surrounded it. It felt like he’d already walked each path, actually and figuratively. However what mattered most to him wasn’t trivia. He understood why Bearpen mattered: a glimpse into how uncooked and experimental snowboarding in New York as soon as was, and the way it might need altered the trajectory of snowboarding within the Northeast if circumstances had damaged in a different way.
We each determined that the story can be finest served by holding one other interview, however this time I’d take his ideas and create a extra chronological narrative out of the mounds of Bearpen spaghetti he was throwing on the wall (me!). Russ was continuously connecting dots, viewing issues in attention-grabbing methods, and correcting the document the place obligatory – and he did right my document. I have to’ve gone by means of a dozen drafts, a few of which acquired very tart suggestions.
Russ wasn’t nostalgic about misplaced ski areas.
He cared about accuracy. He cared about what occurs when historical past will get simplified or misremembered. He was at all times fascinated by how these locations are used or not used now and the way understanding their previous shapes how we regard them.
It took 5 extra years earlier than we lastly met in particular person, mountain climbing Bearpen in 2015 with a bunch that included the founders of the ski space, the Lane brothers. Russ was precisely who I anticipated him to be: considerate, beneficiant together with his data, and brazenly admiring of the lads who willed the place into being. Strolling with him made it clear that this mountain wasn’t only a topic or a analysis matter; it was a love affair constructed over time.
Russ not too long ago handed away.
Due to him, many people look in a different way at New York’s ski historical past. We discover previous cuts within the woods, foundations with no buildings on high of them, light signage, rusting elevate infrastructure, and surprise what was once there. We perceive that snowboarding in New York didn’t simply occur on the locations that survived; it occurred all over the place folks have been prepared to haul rope tows uphill and dream huge. The mountains he cared about are nonetheless there, and each time somebody pauses on a grown-in Catskills mountainside or a Central New York molehill and wonders what was once there, Russ is a part of that second.
