Gene and Therese Dayton – A Nordic Match Made in Heaven
Sharing the joy of winter and cross-country skiing the Gene and Therese Dayton helped craft the Breckenridge Nordic Scene
by Leigh Girvin
Sharing the joy of winter and cross-country skiing flows from the hearts of Gene and Therese Dayton. Their cup runneth over with enthusiasm for teaching beginners and those with disabilities, reveling in the love of this life-long sport, and welcoming people to their beautiful Oh Be Joyful Nordic Lodge in Breckenridge.
Hewn from massive logs that the entire family helped hand peel or turn on a lathe, the Lodge at the Breckenridge Nordic Center serves as the base area for a sprawling system of snowshoe and groomed cross-country ski trails. Dominating the view from the great room, Peak 8 looms over beginner trails just outside. Guests cozy up to the fire, enjoy food and beverages from the tavern bar, and peruse the wide variety of attractive ski wear, accessories, and equipment in the shop.
Son Josh Dayton manages the operations, providing expertise in ski and snowshoe rental and sales, ski lessons, and snowshoe and snowcat adventure tours.
Everyone at BNC offers a higher level of attentiveness. Gene gives “no ski” intros to the never-evers. Long before newbies get on snow, Gene spends time helping guests feel comfortable with pole strap adjustments and ski equipment. Arising from a fall is easier when you learn Gene’s “turtle” technique.
The Lodge building on Shock Hill near the base of Peak 8 is a dream come true for Gene and Therese Dayton.
In the early 1960s, when a young adult, Gene began scouting Colorado for a place to create cross-country skiing programs for people with disabilities and at-risk youth. “Skiing is freedom,” he said.
As a teen in DeKalb, Illinois, Gene learned the power of water therapy. Teaching swim lessons to disabled kids at the community pool, operated by his dad, gave them freedom of movement. Later, Gene’s older brother Chuck introduced Gene to downhill skiing and he was hooked.
Gene’s Colorado search landed him in Breckenridge, and by 1969 he created his first Nordic facility out of an old 16’x16’ squared-log Retort House, where the miners would melt gold out of rock ore.
Not long after, alpine skiing took off at Peak 9 in Breckenridge. The Nordic Center was offered an in-town location at The Maggie with flatter terrain, perfect for cross-country skiing. Gene started the Breckenridge Ski Touring and Mountaineering School, offering backcountry skiing with overnight stays in an igloo.
Throughout the 1970s, Gene expanded his Nordic ski programs, getting grants to work with Outward Bound schools, court-adjudicated youth, and people with cognitive, vision and physical disabilities. He led canoe trips in Minnesota, and instructed at-risk teens how to teach Nordic and guide blind skiers. “It was a highlight for me to see these kids accept responsibility for someone else.”
As if he wasn’t busy enough, Gene served as the first Telemark Ski School Director at Breckenridge, was a PSIA examiner, and raised a family with his first wife Nancy. And he founded the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center with volunteers. Today the BOEC is one of the largest providers of outdoor year-round recreation for people with disabilities.
By the late-1970s the Ski Area needed more ground for alpine skiing, and the Dayton family moved their operations yet again, this time to Shock Hill. The Oh Be Joyful Lodge operated from a former ski patrol chalet that Gene moved down from Peak 8.
In 1984 Nancy passed suddenly of heart failure, soon after the birth of their third child, Josh. Gene carried on with the help of the community. “I didn’t cook a meal for a year,” he remembered.
A few months later, in 1985, Therese’s love for “Ski for Light,” a Norwegian-originated international program, brought her to Summit County to teach skiing to blind and visually impaired people. Seeing the Nordic chalet on Shock Hill that first night, she recalls saying: “This place is cool but I needs a lot of work.”
“It was a match made in heaven,” Therese explained. “I understood Gene’s vision and I’m the logistics, the on-the-ground administrator.” They married in June 1987.
As real estate development pressure surrounded them requiring another move a short distance, the new Nordic log rose with generous support from the community and Town of Breckenridge. Skiers and snowshoers wind through spruce forests, meadows and wetlands on trail easements using old flume and mining roads. The White River National Forest permit expansion onto Upper Peak 7 opened another 1,400 acres of interconnected cross-country ski and snowshoe trails.
Today the Nordic Lodge hosts day skiers and evening events, happy hours with live music, and non-profit fundraisers. Countless disabled skiers learn the freedom of movement on snow at the facility.
Gene had no idea that he would create a family legacy when he began his Nordic nirvana 55 years ago. Many of those recycled buildings that started his Nordic dream remain part of the Nordic Center operation. The miners’ Retort House is now the Hallelujah Hut, a destination warming shelter in the Peak 7 area. Staff have become family. Their children follow in the business.
The Daytons hope to continue their Nordic legacy for another fifty-plus years with a seamless trail system for outdoor recreation.
They both agree: “We are so blessed.”
For Information on the Breckenridge Nordic Center: www.breckenridgenordic.com
As Seen in Breckenridge Magazine Issue 7
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