Booth’s Passion Becomes Legend

BEND, Ore. —  Central Oregon may not have any national monuments to visit or an international art scene to brag about, but it does have the king of all ski bums.

Loran Booth spent nearly 180 days on the slopes last year, well earning his title after 64 years of skiing.

Now 80, Booth not only skis, but snowboards and builds his own skis.

He first discovered the sport in 1934 while on an outing with a church group. It was a day’s outing that turned into a life’s passion.

Of course, when he started out the sport wasn’t quite as refined.

“One guy had a pair of wooden skis with a leather toe strap that anyone could use,” Booth recalled about his first ski experience, when he and a few friends took turns making runs on the less-than-ideal planks.

“You couldn’t turn on them--all we did was slide, but it got better and better,” he said.

Those skis became a work-in-progress, drawing him into the sport. “I put inner tube straps around the bindings and my heel to keep my foot in the straps,” he said. “Eventually I put release bindings and everything on those skis for my wife to learn on. She liked that.”

In 1960, Booth served on the Olympic Ski Patrol when the games were held in Squaw Valley, Calif.

He and his wife discovered central Oregon soon after.

Booth worked as a patrolman at Mount Bachelor, where he stayed for 14 years -- a paid ski bum.

In the late 1970s, Booth, along with Al Warren, a patrolman at Hoodoo Ski Area, built a pair of short skis out of Formica.

What he dubbed a “ballet ski” has become the “hot new thing” on the hill with the catchy title of “ski blades.”

The pair also developed the Snowsnake. This single ski is modeled after a water ski, a sport both men enjoyed. Ridden with one foot in front of the other, the Snowsnake uses a standard binding for the front foot, with a slip-in binding for the back foot.

The current Snowsnake was created out of state-of-the-art materials, only five inches wide and between 170 and 180 centimeters long.

Booth said he started building the ski as a challenge.

“What else could we do? That’s how everything develops. ‘How can we improve it?’ That’s the basic thing of invention,” he said.

Since then, Booth has developed Snowsnakes for skiers with disabilities.

He has built more than 100 Snowsnakes over the years, each one a custom order -- sold only after the prospective buyer learned to ski on the Snowsnake with personal instruction from Booth.

“Monetarily, it hasn’t been worthwhile, but the experiences I’ve had and the friends I’ve developed -- they’re really priceless.”

Booth no longer makes his Snowsnake, although interest in the specialized ski continues. Just last week, someone called him and offered to buy any remaining demonstration models--sight unseen.

These days, Booth is more interested in using skis than building them. Forced to slow down since heart bypass surgery in August, he now only skis every weekday morning on the bunny hill--a compromise he made with his cardiologist who knew full well Booth would never be able to stay off the hill until after Christmas.

Planning to ski “until they bury me in the ground,” he also makes an occasional run with his own Snowsnake, which he keeps in his car just in case.

In the meantime, he works on retaining his title within the Shred Legends, a local veteran skiers group, as the oldest snowboarder at Mount Bachelor.

“I’m almost 81,” Booth said. “I don’t want to work anymore, I just want to play.”