We caught up with Dennis one afternoon while he was tending bar at Bart & Yeti’s. He knew virtually everyone sitting at his bar, living up to his “local character” status. In between the banter with patrons we posed a few questions to Dennis about what keeps him here.
VVI: What’s one thing about the valley that never gets old for you?
DF: Vail Mountain. The back bowls, the vertical downhill, the views - this valley, there’s nothing like it. We are living in a very special place and I never take it for granted. This is a special place, and the people I have met over 43 years here are one of the reasons I am still here. I’m still active in the community - you know, helping kids with basketball programs, coaching…. The kids always want to come back, you know they are dreaming big. But there’s nothing like that mountain.
VVI: What’s your favorite hidden gem - a hike, or something you experience here that you think nobody else knows about?
DF: Deluge Lake. You keep going up over the saddle by Snow Peak, and then down to Snow Lake, and come back around to Gore Lake - there are a lot of goats up there! Gore Lake Trail is a lot easier on your legs coming down, because getting up to Deluge is the steepest hike in the valley. But that stretch by Snow Lake - I’m usually the only one there. It’s a 15 mile loop and it’s just heaven on earth. It takes me a solid 10 hours if I am moving well - I can get up and down before I have to go to work at night.
I actually had a mountain goat fall in with me up there once. He followed me up from the morning, stayed with me the whole day - there were wildfires you could see in the distance - and we went up Snow Peak together. He just kept an eye on me, like a dog. I called him Maldi (a close friend of Dennis who tragically passed a few years back). It doesn’t get more magical than that.
Dennis and one of his hiking buddies!
VVI: If you could do only one thing in the valley for the rest of your life, what would it be?
DF: Skinning up Vail Mountain - it’s kind of a new passion. Clamp into my bindings, take the skins off, change my sweaty shirt, watch the sunset, then ski down - I can do it in under an hour. I usually go up after the mountain’s closed for the sunset.
In the summer I just hike the same routes (all around, not just on Vail Mountain) - anywhere up high where the goat range is. It’s not overly technical, but the vertical is a real challenge - those trails are tough. I always let people know where I am going and what I am doing before I head out - in case somebody has to come looking for me!
But if it were just one thing forever…? I’d be hiking or skinning up high every single day - for the sunsets, the sunrises, whatever the mountains are giving that day.
