Skiing at Berthoud Pass - expert - Colorado's oldest ski area is now, for the third time, extinct. The Cipriani family decided to close the lifts back in 2001. I know the reasons first hand, because I held a pass there for the last two seasons of operation. Many weekdays I literally shared the entire mountain with just three or four other people. Nowadays it is completely deserted (although FOBP, friends of Berthoud pass, keeps a close eye on federal development) and there is no avalanche control on the mountain. Visitors have become accustomed to the control work, and, as of press time, it has led to Colorado's only tragedy of the 05-06 ski season. There is no place in Colorado that snow experts estimate gathers more annual snowfall in the state and those who are trained and prepared are very glad that the lifts no longer turn, myself included. I like the area because the chairlifts that once served it can be hiked in less than twenty minutes and the descent usually triples the hike and results in a car ride (shuttled or hitched) back up to the top. Some of my best skiing memories are of moonlight turns at Berthoud pass. Also, I'll never forget the time I was almost killed at three a.m. a thousand feet above the resort by a moon bathed avalanche (note: there is no better time to drink a guiness than a dark, early morning hour when one's life is barely spared in the moonlit mountains!). Joey Smallwood