Anne Groebner

When you sit down and talk to an avid skier, you can see their eyes light up and each question sparks one memory after another. And, if you talk to ski shop owners, the memories actually quadruple. I sat down and talked with the former owners of the two oldest ski shops in Pinetop to see if they would share their memories of skiing at Big Cienega and then Sunrise Park Resort. What I walked away with is a great history of a sport that has not only brought excitement and great passion to their lives but changed their lives dramatically.

“My father worked as a volunteer ski patrol at Snowbowl in Flagstaff until they shut down the program,” says Krissie Almour former owner of Krissie’s Ski and Board. When Sunrise opened and needed ski patrollers, her dad, Wally Alcumbrac, went to work for them and loved it. Alcumbrac was a ski jumper and had tried out for the Olympics. “I remember my mom telling me that she picked him up from the hospital with concussions a few times.” 

When Sunrise first started, there was only Sunrise Peak and it had three trails: Spruce Ridge, to the west; Crown Dancer, to the east and Lupe, which ran under the chairlift. “Spruce Ridge was a skinny little trail and so was Crown Dancer,” remembers Almour, “so we kids would ski the logging road because it would switch back and forth down the mountain.” 

Over the years, they started widening the runs. “They had the old double chairlift,” says Bob Derosier (former owner of Skier’s Edge), “Chairlift Number One that went to the top with an unloading ramp at Midway that you could both unload and load on.”

Big Cienega was the place to ski in the White Mountains before Sunrise opened (winter of 1969). It was located south by the Railroad Grade Trail between Sunrise and Greer. “I never skied Big Cienega,” says Derosier. “My parents weren’t big on skiing. They thought it was something rich people did.” When Sunrise opened, Derosier bought a set of poles, a pair of boots and three skis for $35 from the Big Cienega Ski Rental Shop. “I needed three skis because I had to take parts off of one of them to make a pair.” He says. He painted them black so no one would know that they were rental skis. “That would have been embarrassing.” He survived that year on those skis and spent every weekend skiing and even some week-days when he was supposed to be in school. Both he and Krissie were ski patrollers — an opportunity Sunrise offered kids back then which included free skiing.

Each year, Sunrise would cut more runs and make more improvements. They kept expanding and went through a couple of managers until they hired Ron Malfara. “He was a big Canadian guy,” Derosier told me. “He came to Sunrise as a ski patroller from Colorado, became mountain manager and then left for Idaho and ran a small ski hill there for a couple of years. Then he came back as general manager in 1979.” Derosier told me Malfara had a great passion for skiing and especially racing. In the early Eighties, Malfara instigated the expansion of Sunrise and Apache Peak and Cyclone were added. “It went from a one-mountain ski area to a three-mountain ski resort and in 1985, they opened the lodge up on Apache.” Derosier told me they would hire helicopters to fly customers up to the top of Apache so they could dine in the fancy restaurant and then they would fly them back down. “If you didn’t want to fly,” he says, “you could ride up in “Miss Piggy,” which was a Tucker Snowcat that they customized to look like a bus which could seat several people.

The hotel was built in 1969 but burned down before it was finished so it was built a second time and didn’t open until around 1973 or ‘74 — about the same time that they paved the road from Payson to Show Low. 

“Sunrise was the catalyst that got everything going,” says Derosier. “Before that, everything used to shut down in the winter.” It all changed in the 80s when they started pulling in over 10,000 skiers per day/weekend on the mountain. The town started attracting more businesses like chain hotels, restaurants and ski shops. 

“We all worked at Sunrise as ski patrol volunteers,” says Almour. “We hung around it all of our lives. We would start in the morning and work until the ‘sweep’at the end of the day, you know, when the lifts shut down and you have to ski all the runs to make sure everyone is off the mountain.” Ski Patrollers started out as junior patrol and then graduated to standard, then senior and then pro. Because of the large crowds, pro patrol would park cars, work in the ski rental shop or…even flip burgers. 

Krissie’s husband, Jeff Almour, ended up in the rental shop at times and realized that he could rent out skis in the morning; people give him money and then they bring them back at the end of the day. Then he’d wax and clean them and get them ready for the next day. So, Almour took $400 to Sunrise and bought all of the junk skis behind the Pinedale lift; threw them in his buddy’s truck and drove them down to Pinetop. There he created about 100 sets of rental skis and started his ski rental shop — around 1980. 

Once his parents realized that he was making more money than they were at Whispering Pines Resort, they owned at the time, they built the building where Krissie’s Ski and Board is now; called it Action Ski and opened shops at Apache Peak and Mesa as well. Krissie and Jeff were married in 1995 and left the business for a while but then bought back in and ran the shop at Apache Peak. Eventually, Sunrise took over Apache Peak and the Almours took over the Pinetop shop and Jeff’s brother ran the shop in Mesa. 

Bob Derosier got in the ski rental business in 1990, when he and his wife Pat bought half of Skier’s Edge from Paul Allan, who owned Whispering Pines at the time. They bought him out in 1995. Skiing diverted Bob’s career choice at an early age. “College wasn’t an option because it interfered with skiing,” he says. As a young adult, he could never get enough skiing. He and Jeff Almour used to ski Mount Baldy (second highest mountain in Arizona) in July. “Baldy is a long ridge,” says Derosier, “and we would ski the length of it.” One year, they were sitting on top of Baldy in shorts and ski boots when some horseback riders, bundled up in heavy coats, hats and gloves, rode up on them. “It was a culture shock for them,” says Derosier. “We just said ‘hello’ and then they rode away.” Bob also remembers that a couple of years, Malfara opened up Sunrise on Memorial Day and let them ski from the top of Sunrise Peak to Midway.

Sunrise played a major role in the growth of the small communities of the White Mountains. It opened up a lot of opportunity for some of the locals; it brought a lot of money from out of town and it changed the careers of ski-driven people. “Skiing is such a solitary sport but it’s great for families too,” says Krissie. “It’s a tradition. With the snow season that we are having this year, we have seen a lot of newbies introduced to the sport of skiing and snowboarding. More than I have seen in a long time.” It’s a great time to learn. There is great snow and reasonably priced tickets. 

“These new skiers are having great success,” says Krissie. Her dream is to keep the love of skiing going. “It’s something I have been a part of all my life and I have met some incredible people,” she says. She also mentioned that riding the chairlift with your kids provides a great opportunity to talk because their phones don’t work up there. Krissie loves to see young kids learning to ski. “They come back to return the skis and the parents say: ‘They learned to ski today’ and you take in the skis and you can see them just passed out in their carseats — They have expended every ounce of energy on the day…and to me, it’s another future skier.”

Thanks to Krissie Almour, former owner of Krissie’s Ski and Board and Bob (and Pat) Derosier former owners of Skier’s Edge. Both shops are still located in Pinetop but have new owners. 

Krissie Ski and Board is now owned by Kelly & Eric Estill, who carry on the great tradition.