The Story of
Snowbird
Ted Johnson and Dick Bass built a recreation legacy
S
nowbird’s millionaire oil tycoon and financier Dick Bass is an outdoor icon. Bass jet-setted the world’s highest peaks, summiting seven of them in his fifties. Bass not only set world records, he also started a trend that other aging, adventurous multi-millionaires would follow. John Krakauer’s famous Everest expedition novel, Into Thin Air, demonstrated how — for better and for worse — big money was chasing after big peaks. A bronze statue of Bass rests at the base of Peruvian Gulch depicting his life at altitude. While Snowbird would have never come to fruition without Bass’ fortune, the vision for a ski resort in the Peruvi-
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an Gulch and Gad Valley pre-dated the oil tycoon’s discovery of white gold in the Wasatch. No less influential in the establishment of one of the world’s-greatest ski resorts was Bass’ visionary co-founder Ted Johnson. In essence, you could say that Johnson founded Snowbird, but Bass funded it. When Johnson conceived the idea of opening a ski resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon in the mid-1960s, he was manager of the Alta Lodge. He met Dick Bass at a party in Colorado in 1969, and Bass paid a visit a week later, partnering with Johnson to build his dream resort in the Peruvian Gulch and Gad Valley watersheds just over
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SNOWBIRD RESORT
By David E. Jensen
