Kingsbury Pitcher, ski area pioneer and beloved owner of Wolf Creek, dies at age 98
Ski resort pioneer Kingsbury Pitcher, whose family owns southwestern Colorado’s Wolf Creek ski area, died in his sleep on Dec. 29, 2017, at his home in Santa Fe. He was 98.
They called him Pitch. Born in 1919 in southern California, he spent his youthful summers in Silverton with his grandfather, Otto Mears, the “Pathfinder of the San Juans” who forged toll roads that became railroads that connected the remote villages and mining towns in southern Colorado’s rugged San Juan mountains.
Pitcher ski raced for Stanford University, where he studied business and economics. After graduating in 1941, he college he became an instructor at Friedl Pfeifer’s ski school in Sun Valley, Idaho. In the spring of 1942, enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and after serving in World War II as a pilot and training officer, he started a flight school in Santa Fe.
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Owner of Wolf Creek Pass Ski area Kingsbury Pitcher looks down mountain from one of the ski runs at Wolf Creek Pass Ski area during heavy early season snows on Nov. 12, 2000. (Photo by Shaun Stanley/The Denver Post)
Owner of Wolf Creek Pass Ski area Kingsbury Pitcher looks down mountain from one of the ski runs at Wolf Creek Pass Ski area during heavy early season snows on Nov. 12, 2000. (Photo by Shaun Stanley/The Denver Post)