Mike Hamman is the wizard behind the temperamental spring boxes of Fergi’s Doppelmayr T-bar. These kinds of rural operations require equal parts volunteer effort and DIY MacGyver-ing. Locals like Hamman keep the T spinning with a mix of ingenuity and grit. Fergi’s hippie pow-farming commune may not feel at home at a podunk hill in a traditionally conservative corner of the West, but it’s a narrative Fergi embraces with equal parts en-thusiasm and irony. Bumper stickers and T-shirts emblazoned with “Fergi: Peace on Earth” reference Fergi’s conspicuous peace sign trail design. The hill’s other motto is slightly more colorful: “Ski Fergi: Where Two Inches Feels Like Six.” I shared an early T bump with another volunteer, Mike Hamman. He keeps the original 1960s Doppelmayr running, his grease-stained jacket and wool pile pants a reprieve from the breathable Gore-Tex and 800-fill down puffies I saw the week prior in Tahoe. Later we visited his shop, strewn with spring boxes and parts for resurrecting the diesel generator. The radio squawked something about the T-bar. “It’s a tem-porary fix. It’ll last a few days, get us through the holidays.” The local kids were on winter break and the hill was expected to get busier. Next door, Charlie’s rental shop was crammed with nostalgic mementos of Eagle Cap Ski Club and Fergi’s joint history. An enormous cream-colored Akbash lounged in the rare floor space between the woodstove and stacks of skis. Charlie’s long hair dropped out of a faded baseball cap. His weathered look was accentuated by scraggly whiskers, youth-ful eyes and a grandfatherly smile. I watched him set up a full rental for less cost than a burger at most resorts. At Fergi, profit isn’t the point. “When I grew up in the Portland area, skiing was kind of an elitist thing,” Charlie told me. “So, I didn’t start skiing myself until my early 30s when I came here and got involved with this and these people. It was fun—it was something that the whole community was doing as opposed to just the rich kids.” Behind the dog I could make out a thank you note taped to his desk signed by dozens of local youth. “For some low-income families, it’s still pretty hard to ski, but we do a lot,” Charlie continued. “[The ski club] has programs where we bring up busloads of kids that basically get to ski for free. We help them learn, let them ride the rope tow, give them stuff to ski on. People probably can’t afford to ski anywhere else, but they can ski here.” Five years ago, Fergi’s private landowners (who are also members of the club) donated the land to the Lions Club under the provision that the club would continue to manage opera-tions. “So now they own the property and we use Lions Club insurance—that’s our loophole,” Charlie said with a smirk. 036 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 14, Issue 3: Page 36
