The Presidential Alpinist: Gerald Ford

What started out as an ode to Presidential ski style (or perhaps lack thereof), quickly turned into a celebration of perhaps the best-dressed skier to ever come out of the White House…President Gerald Ford.

Born in Nebraska, but raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Gerald R. Ford was always an athlete. A high-school football star, he would go on to graduate and become an All-American center on the Michigan team. After receiving his undergraduate degree, Ford left Michigan to accept a job coaching Football and Wrestling at Yale, and began skiing in New England in 1939 while attending Yale Law School.

After law school, and a stint in the US Navy during WWII, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948. Then Congressman Ford’s first visit to Vail was a family trip in 1968, but it didn’t take long to fall in love with the place.

He bought a home there shortly thereafter (the secret service wasn’t thrilled with the condo’s level of security) and continued to make regular visits to ski and golf. With knees better equipped for the cruisers than the bumps, Ford stuck to groomers, but was still known as an aggressive and confident skier, often trailed by skiing security agents.

He served as the 38th President of the United States from August, 1974 to January, 1977, and thereafter began to spend more time in Vail with his family, building a house right under the Strawberry Park Chairlift, and eventually retiring from skiing in 1984 due to knee problems.

The Ford family celebrating Christmas in Vail

Ford was known as a friendly neighbor, and an active participant with a number of Vail charities. In 1982 he created the Ford Cup, a ski race which would later become the American Ski Classic. He fundraised to build the Ford Amphitheater, and Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, the world’s highest botanical garden. President Ford was also pivotal to bringing the World Alpine Ski Championships to Vail, twice in a decade.

Mountain royalty, Gerald Ford hosted fellow Presidents and heads of state in his Vail home until later in his life. Even after doctors urged him not to travel to Vail, the President went out of his way to return to the place he loved, and had a very hard time giving up. In fact, the house went on the market in 2006, and just hours after the sale was finalized, President Ford passed away. A symbolic farewell to Colorado.