Lou Dawson has had a storied, outdoors-oriented life; much of it adventure-filled and exciting but also with great challenges.
A pioneer of ski mountaineering and alpine touring (AT) in this country, Dawson is probably best known as the first person to ski all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains (fourteeners) — a feat for which he was inducted into the Colorado Ski (now Snowsports) Hall of Fame. Prior to his skiing exploits, however, Dawson was a high-level climber, with hundreds of ascents in Colorado, Utah and the Yosemite Valley.
The Dawson house hints at this lifestyle: the mailbox on its steel post in the shape of the trickster Kokopelli, the fence gate made of old skis, the vintage ski-lift chair serving now as a porch swing.
The Sopris Sun met with Dawson in his home’s great room – brightly lit on a sunny winter day by a bank of south-facing windows, Mount Sopris visible through the tree branches. The walls are covered with his mother’s bright, cheery paintings and photos of family members and various alpine activities.
Mounted in a rack on another wall are four vintage skis, the second one down curiously bent and broken. Those skis, as it happens, tell much of Dawson’s life story and represent many of the themes in his upcoming memoir, “Avalanche Dreams,” as does a somewhat serendipitous romance with the woman who would become his wife.

The skis
Sopris Sun: Let’s start with the top ski, the old wooden one. What’s its significance?
Lou Dawson: That was the type used by the ski troops in World War II. In August of 1943, my father arrived at Camp Hale and began training with what would become the 10th Mountain Division. But he didn’t last too long and ended up deserting. Whatever happened, he was really motivated to have these outdoorsy experiences and definitely passed that on to me.
Sun: And the third one down, the Dynastar Yeti?
LD: I started skiing the fourteeners around 1977-78. I had never thought of the goal of skiing all of them at that point. But there were peaks such as Castle Peak and Mount Massive and Mount Elbert that were very attractive as ski peaks. So, when I got into ski mountaineering, I was hitting those peaks and finding that they had some really compelling skiing.
A friend of mine visited in the spring of 1987 to ski some fourteeners. We skied 12 and had this great trip. When we got back, he said, “Gosh, you should just ski all of them.” It just clicked in my brain; maybe finally I’d have a good mountaineering goal.
The Yetis worked really well on hardened spring snow that had thawed and refrozen – so there was no avalanche danger. [They] would be safe, so you wouldn’t slide sideways. I don’t know how many peaks I skied on them, but [I] acquired and went through six pairs.
Sun: How about the bottom ski?
LD: In 1973, a group of us wanted to climb Denali (in those days called Mount McKinley) and use skis up there. We decided, though, not to ski from the summit. [But] the huge disappointment was when we got to the summit, it was very skiable. So [not skiing it] always stuck in my craw.
In 2010, I went back there with a bunch of really good ski mountaineers, and my 20-year-old son went along. So, I had this special life experience of climbing Denali and skiing off the top with my son that would be hard to repeat in a thousand years. That ski was one I used on the trip.
Sun: And that last one? It looks pretty awful.
LD: In 1978-82, [some friends and I] were doing all these long treks through the Elk Mountains in winter, and I got pretty cocky about what I could end up doing. There was a tradition in town that individuals would “poach” Highland Bowl, then closed to the public. In February of 1982, going for it with a friend of mine, I triggered a large powder avalanche on the face of the bowl that nearly killed me. That ski was one I was wearing at the time.
The romance
Sun: One of the major themes in the book is family and relationships. You talk of challenging relationships with your family, sustaining them with women and then about meeting Lisa, who became your wife.
LD: I always sensed things were out of balance, even when I was in my 20s, because I was young enough and full of piss and vinegar. When you’re in that mode and you’re so strong and competent, you don’t think as much about balancing your life with relationships and a future family.
A lot of the time when I was doing these sports and good at them, on a different level, I was also confused. I couldn’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. After the avalanche, I was really open to finding a life partner. Then I go to the mailbox one day, and there’s a letter from my future wife.
Sun: Lisa, in 1984 you were living in California and wrote Lou a letter. What prompted you to do that?
Lisa: On the wall of one of my dearest friends was this Christmas card she had gotten from Lou where he was ice climbing. I had never seen anything like that and asked her what it was about. She said, “You should write him a letter. You’ll never meet anyone like him.” It was over a year before I took the dare and wrote him. Lou wrote back these wonderful letters about living in the Colorado mountains. It was a very nice courtship
Sun: After five months you came out here for a visit; what did you think?
Lisa: After getting off the plane, as soon as I looked into Lou’s smiling blue eyes, I knew he was the one. When I [later] moved out here, I definitely had the intention of marrying Lou. We’ve had such a nice life together; it’s really amazing.

Gear and writing
Sun: Lou, what motivated you to write a memoir?
LD: I had a lot of writing experience: my former website, WildSnow.com, published one narrative history book [“Wild Snow”] and a pile of guidebooks [all on ski mountaineering and backcountry skiing]. I’d always been motivated to write as a creative outlet, simple as that. The other part is the desire to share that creativity.
Sun: How did you get involved with gear reviews?
LD: Ever since I was interested in climbing and ski mountaineering, I’ve been around gear innovators. And I’ve always been into modifying stuff. When I was first getting into ski mountaineering, a guy making [AT] bindings gave me bindings to go out and test. I was operating at a pretty high level of ski mountaineering. The people who had interesting gear knew that I was a good guy to give it to and have me use it. Because I liked writing and gear, it became natural for me to start writing reviews on WildSnow.com.
Sun: Any future projects?
LD: I’m planning to publish a revised and updated “Wild Snow,” currently out of print.

Tune into Everything Under The Sun on KDNK Community Access Radio Thursday, Feb. 22 at 4pm for a live interview with Lou Dawson.
“Avalanche Dreams” will be available for purchase soon on Amazon.