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MY WORK
High Elevation Construction on Colorado Mines Peak


Colorado Mines Peak. Arapaho National Forest, Colorado. 
Starting Elevation: 11,315 feet | Highest Elevation: 12,493 feet 

Maybe not the tallest peak in Colorado
Overlooking Berthoud Pass at its base and the Fraser Valley below, Colorado Mines Peak may be a small mountain by Colorado standards, but if you're building a communications complex at its summit, it seems like a giant winding its way up to the heavens. 

One of a series of microwave repeater, communication relay stations built to carry telephone signals over the rugged Rocky Mountains for Mountain Bell, the facility built atop this peak had all of the challenges associated with high elevation construction and more.  

Located west of Denver and east of nearby Winter Park on U.S. Highway 40, Berthoud Pass traverses the continental divide and is known as one of the most notoriously difficult passes in Colorado for motorists, based on its height as well as the large number of switchbacks on the southern side. The mountain above was home to the Berthoud Pass Ski resort which boasted to having the first double chairlift in the state (maybe in the country) built in 1947, and over 425" of snow each year, some of the most in Colorado. With many of its runs cut by avalanches, the destination was a favorite to local backcountry skiers due to its abundance of steep and challenging terrain and plentiful snow. 

 
Berthoud Pass base and Resort face (click to enlarge)

Constructing this project required that men, equipment and materials would be moved daily up and down the mountain by track vehicles over a road first cut to avoid the delicate terrain of the ski area. Beginning in the warm spring months, foundations would be constructed atop the summit and then filled with concrete hoisted by helicopter in buckets filled by concrete trucks waiting at the base of the small Berthoud Pass parking area below. As the building of the communication equipment building progressed, the helicopters would return later to lift the steel tower components, sensitive microwave dishes and internal operating equipment for installation and erection later in the project schedule.

Winter weather can come early in the high country
A shortened, spring-to-winter season at this elevation would find the builders and engineers scrambling to complete the project before the heavy snows and winter weather ahead. Still to complete was the erection of the steel towers, installation of the critical microwave dishes and connection with the all-important communications switchgear within the building envelope.

As winter quickly approached, the cold from the wind on the men outside and erecting the steel tower would only allow them to work in shifts of mere minutes before retreating to the warming hut below. Up and then down again from the cold steel they would climb like rotating shifts of hockey players on and then off the ice. Days would seem like weeks as they braved the cold to complete their tasks.

Following great human efforts, the project would be completed on schedule and consumers could now be better connected through their telephone communications. 

Little would they ever know of the efforts invested to enable their seemingly simple phone calls.  

After several failed attempts to keep the Berthoud Pass resort operations alive, in March, 2003, Berthoud Pass operators announced that their last-ditch, powder cat operations would be no longer and ski lifts would be removed before summers end. The Forest Service opted to tear down the resort's lodge during the spring of 2005. Currently, all that remains at the ski area are chairlift tower foundations and trails.

Surviving also are the communications facilities atop the summit of Colorado Mines Peak and the consumer's telephone connections over the rugged Rockies


Want to know more?
Just call me!  (714) 508-8982, or email:  zipyaj@gmail.com


This page is dedicated to Mr. Gordon Wilson "GW" Starbuck of Lakewood, Colorado. GW was the general contractor for this project. He was a leader of brave men who would follow him through the spring mud to the winter's frozen heights above to complete this project, and many others, on time and on budget. I am proud to have called him Sir, Boss and Friend. GW is survived by his loving wife Betty, son Jim, daughters Helen, Audrey and Lori, and his grandchildren.




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