Sigurd Rockne

Before his days of working for Colorado ski resorts, Sigurd was an accomplished ski racer winning three Norwegian Championships, starting first in the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbuhel, ranked in the FIS top 15, and was named to the Norwegian ski team for the 1956 Olympics. While he never raced due to a compound tibial fracture right before the Olympics, after recovery, he still raced. Then, Sigurd received a letter from an old teammate, Stein Eriksen, to please come work for him as a ski instructor for Aspen Highland's first year of opening. Sigurd landed in America on December 5, 1958, and was a ski instructor for Stein for three years. Sigurd, however, was famous for being one of the founders of the Breckenridge Ski Resort, which opened on December 16, 1961. He was intimately involved with laying out where the runs would be and the lifts to service them. He was an early ambassador and promoter of Breckenridge. Sigurd undoubtedly contributed to the early growth of skiing in Colorado and helped create and run one of our state's most popular world-class resorts, even to this day.