Vail's David Gorsuch Passes
SIN was saddened to hear of the passing of David Gorsuch. For those not familiar with the name David Gorsuch, he was a pioneer of the ski industry. He was an accomplished ski racer, former member of the US Olympic ski team and founder of Gorsuch, LTD with his wife Renie. Gorsuch was the epitome of a hard worker and someone who created an incredible and fascinating life around skiing.
To anyone familiar with alpine fashion, the Gorsuch name will ring a bell. The eponymous alpine boutique (with 12 stores throughout the
Mountain West and a world class International catalogue business), was founded by husband and wife Renie and David Gorsuch (both Olympic downhillers) in the 1960’s. Synonymous with alpine elegance, the Gorsuch family has expanded on the original ski shop to offer a highly curated selection of alpine gear, from hard-goods to home and lifestyle.
The husband and wife team has achieved at the highest levels across the spectrum of ski sport—they competed for the US in the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics; they have been active community leaders in Vail and Beaver Creek, instrumental in attracting international events and a global clientele, since these resorts’ earliest days; Gorsuch stores in Aspen, Snowmass, Vail, Beaver Creek, and Park City provide the finest skiing retail experience and hospitality, to a worldwide customer base; Gorsuch catalogs reach 3,000,000 households across the US and abroad and inspire skiers and non-skiers with iconic photography and advocacy messages. For more than 20 years, Renie and David Gorsuch have provided children of all socio-economic backgrounds with ski equipment, so they may discover the sport; and generously supported national programs, such as the Jimmie Heuga Legacy Foundation for MS.
David Gorsuch was born September 22, 1938 in Climax, Colorado, asmall mining town perched at 11,468 feet, 12 miles north of Leadville. That year his father, Jack Gorsuch, made a deal with the mining company to build a rope tow across the road on Chalk Mountain. In late 1942 the 10th Mountain Division arrived at Camp Hale for training, and mountain troopers could drive 25 miles to ski at Chalk Mountain. David remembers skiing alongside his heros, guys like Pete Seibert and John Woodward. This was the beginning to a lifelong passion for skiing.
While attending the 1954 Junior Nationals in Jackson Hole, David met Renie Cox, and following the 1960 Winter Olympics, they got married. David started college at the University of Denver, but the couple found city life unbearable and, after his freshman year, transferred to Western State College in Gunnison. There they launched a small ski shop in an old gas station. In 1963 Gorsuch won the NCAA downhill championship and the following year placed second in slalom and third in giant slalom.
The old gas station needed a lot of work. David collected old barn board and burlap to transform the building into a ski shop. When they outgrew the place, Gorsuch Ltd. moved to the Gunnison pool hall. When David graduated in 1964, the couple bought an old house in Crested Butte. They fixed it up so it had heat and lived upstairs while the ski shop was housed downstairs. They couldn’t really afford to have two stores, so on Friday afternoon they would pack all the Gunnison inventory into a Volkswagen bus and drive it up to Crested Butte for the weekend.
David became the mountain manager at Crested Butte. The area, opened in 1960, had fallen into bankruptcy and David recalls going months without getting paid. At a ski show in Denver, David and Renie met John McBride. He had recently built the Clock Tower complex in Vail and wanted help opening a ski shop there. David and Renie didn’t have the funds at the time. Luckily, they found someone in Gunnison to purchase the Gunnison and Crested Butte stores, and were able to move to Vail on June 1, 1966.
This ski shop was known as Gorsuch Ltd. and had a reputation of whisking its customers back to another time and place. The store catalogue introduced millions of people around the nation to mountain living. The store was named Ski Retailer of the Year by Ski Industries of America in 1969 and again in 2003.
Bringing mountain elegance and a refined fashion sense to the slopes was no easy task, especially in the early days of the sport, but Gorsuch Ltd. soon became an ideal for fashion in the ski industry.
The Gorsuches were some of the early leaders that helped establish Vail as a community and the world-class destination resort it has become. David and Renie brought passion and enthusiasm to their community by helping to build a hospital, Vail Mountain School and Ski Club Vail.
Gorsuch, who was 82, passed away June 26 at his home in Vail. A celebration of his life was held Monday, July 19 at the Ford Amphitheater in Vail
