What's in a Name?

Bald Mountain has no shortage of ski runs and for that matter, no shortage of wackily-named runs. Sure, “River Run” is quite tame as is “Warm Springs” (if only that side of the mountain were actually warmer). But what’s the deal with “Flying Squirrel” or even “College”? We went back to the archives, both written and oral, and here’s what we learned.

College

No shocker here: “College” was actually named to promote collegiate visitors. To keep the tradition alive, every year the run is used for the Holding Cup, a race for teams made up of college alumni. The winning team’s school even gets a donation from Sun Valley Company.

Holiday

Sadly, it was not named after Madonna’s hit song. (Perhaps because it was named in 1956, way before her time.) The name comes from the winner of the Sun Valley employee’s trail-naming contest. Wonder if the winner got a free lifetime ski pass…

Flying Squirrel

There was a time, circa 1965, when there were actually flying squirrels coming out of the tops of trees on Baldy. Chances are the run wasn’t so popular back then. Lord knows how they finally got rid of the rodents.

Christin's Silver

Win an Olympic medal and maybe you’ll get a ski run. This particular run was named for Christin Cooper, a former Sun Valley Ski Team member who won the silver medal in 1984.

Arnold's Run

Named after the gubernator himself, a frequent visitor of Sun Valley. The better story, however, is that before Schwarzenegger claimed this run, it used to be called Flying Maid, in honor of two women from Seattle who worked as maids at Sun Valley and one day flew down the mountain to make it to work on time.

Brick's Island

Named in honor of a Sun Valley cat driver, Gary “Brick” Grant. Grant died on a machine while working trail construction at another ski area. In other words, be careful there.

Muffy's Medals

Named for four time Paralympics medal winner, Muffy Davis. A former Sun Valley Ski Team racer, Davis injured her back in an accident on Baldy in the 80s, which left her paralyzed from the waist down but didn’t stop her from owning the mountain.

Janss Pass

Want a ski run named after you? Try owning Sun Valley Company for an extended period of time and you might get lucky. This run was named after Bill Janss, head of the Janss Corporation and owner of Sun Valley in the 1960s.

Fire Trail

This run was made way before Castle Rock Fire. It was, however, an actual fire cut that the Forest Service made in order to create a firebreak between a ski run and out of bounds area. Wonder if they name the new burned areas Fire Trail 2, 3, and 4?



Then there are the unofficial names given to sites on Baldy by Ski Patrol. Sometimes this nomenclature is even more intriguing than the official tags, but you won’t see any signs – just catch the word from ski patrol talk on the radio. Mike Lloyd, the head of Ski Patrol, gave us the scoop on some of the wackiest names.

Snake Pit

The name is for a narrow gully in Lefty Bowl. When the gully fills up with snow, little the snow bumps (or snakes as snow patrol calls them) will definitely trip you up. Doesn’t sound too appealing.

Hershey Highway

Patrol uses this name for a place near Sunset Strip, which is cat track out of lower college, where the young local was buried the other day. It was named one day right before spring due to the massive amounts of muddy, slushy snow. Yummy.

Kohli’s Courler

Located at the head of Hershey Highway, this spot is named for Bob Kohli, an adaptive skier and mascot of the ski patrol, who happens to always fall there. Or, so the patrollers say.

Mikey’s Mudslide

For the one and only ski patrol director, Mike Lloyd. The poor guy got caught in a little avalanche in the lower bowls a while back and decided to give himself a spot on the mountain.


Have more interesting names to share with us? Post a comment and we’ll see what Ski Patrol (and Plum) has to say.