Colorado Resort Installs Snowstake Designed By Indigenous Artists
Earlier this week, Winter Park Resort, Colorado, announced the creation of several on-piste art installations via a partnership with Natives Outdoors. Together, these artistic works are called There Is Snow On The Ground, which translates to heniiniini', an Arapaho phrase.
Of these installations, there's one you Winter Park skiers will be seeing a lot of this season: the resort's new snowstake designed by indigenous artists Jordan Craig and Vernan Kee.
Connor Ryan, a professional skier and member of Natives Outdoors, provided additional background on the revamped snowstake in a recent Instagram post.
The snowstake, now visible on Winter Park's webcam, has two components. First is the backdrop, a metal sculpture featuring the outlines of Longs Peak, Mount Blue Sky, Byers Peak, and Parry Peak. A river flows down the flanks of these peaks, which, per a Winter Park blog post detailing the installation, "reminds us of the snow's journey: from powder day to runoff in the Colorado River which then sustains all living things downstream."
The other three installations at Winter Park include the heniiniini', new trail signs, and historical markers.
The heniiniini' is a metal sculpture that, like the snowstake, depicts Longs Peak, Mount Blue Sky, Byers Peak, and Parry Peak alongside a flowing river. The installation "serves to remind us of the life-sustaining water kept in the snowpack we recreate on each winter," Winter Park writes. The heniiniini' sculpture was also designed by Jordan Craig and Vernan Kee and is located near Sunspot at the top of the gondola.
The trail signs and historical markers, which pay homage to the history of indigenous peoples in the area, are coming soon.
To learn more about There Is Snow On The Ground, click here.
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