The Man
Who Skied All Year
In
mid-August 1993, Ron Cram left the balmy
Snowbird parking lot, hiked 2 hours to Pipeline
Bowl just beyond the Snowbird area boundary and
skied down, marking his 42nd consecutive week
of skiing. He would go on to ski 52 weeks in a
row--in Utah.
Cram, a 37-year-old
medical products sales rep from Sandy, Utah,
began his streak in late October, 1992, skiing
on machine-made snow on the Payday trail at
Park City. As he does most winters, he
thereafter skied every week throughout the
season. When Snowbird's lifts were still
running on Father's Day, Cram realized he
might be able to ski 52 straight weeks.
He spent the
summer months skiing Little Cottonwood Canyon's
hike-to bowls near Alta and Snowbird. Come
September, he skied the Gunsight Chute at
Alta, switched back to Pipeline Bowl and
finished his feat in October on Katherine's
Pass at Alta.
Was the skiing any
good? "Usually, there was a very hard base but
with a nice, creamy surface. Occasionally,
sun-cupped craters would form on the snow,"
Cram said, referring to the salad-bowl sized
depressions in the snow that are formed by
cycles of sun, rain, freeze and thaw.
An expert skier,
Cram made most of his turns after 4 pm,
when his workday was done, and usually
skied alone. "I'd call my ski buddies to
suggest a summer run, but when it's 95
degrees in the valley, I guess it's hard
for some people to imagine going skiing."
Cram didn't stop at
a full year; at presstime, he had skied his
73rd consecutive week. ---Bernadette
R. Starzee
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