Max, Groswold, and Durrance (MGD) are three double-black-diamond expert chutes off of the Zuma Cornice in Montezuma Bowl, Arapahoe Basin ski area.
This is extreme terrain! It is relatively easy getting in, but once you start down the cornice the only easy way out is hiking back to the top. Drop into the chutes and you are committed. Hiking in the summer may be extremely difficult as well.
You access the Zuma Cornice from the Patrol Headquarters area at the top of the Norway lift. The chutes open up on the left as you ski down the cornice. The further down the cornice you go, the steeper and longer the chutes get.
These three runs are named after Max Dercum, Thor Groswold, and Richard (Dick) Durrance, all involved in the creation of the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. From the area web site and other sources:
In 1945-1946, the Winter Sports Committee from Denver's Chamber of Commerce hired two men to make a statewide survey of potential ski area sites: Laurance "Larry" Jump, a Dartmouth grad and 10th Mountain Division veteran, and Frederick "Sandy" Schauffler, Amherst grad and member of the 1940 Olympic ski team (Jump and Schauffler are honored in the names of two chutes further down the cornice). At the time, only Berthoud Pass qualified as a winter sports area.
After surveying, Jump and Schauffler's site recommendation was the west side of Loveland Pass. When they learned that the U.S. Forest Service considered issuing a prospectus for bids on the Arapahoe Basin site, the two pioneers recruited Olympic medalist Richard "Dick" Durrance for credibility. The three men formed Arapahoe Basin, Inc on May 14, 1946.
Larry met Max Dercum, a local resident and forestry professor from Pennsylvania, who owned several mining patents on the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area site. Larry immediately hired him to work on the mountain to utilize his forestry background.
The ski area opened for the 1946-47 season with solely a rope tow, which ran from mid-mountain to the summit (ouch, my hands!). Skiers were transported to the tow location from the base using four wheel drive vehicles. Tickets that season ran at three dollars per day.
I entered the first chute in the MGD set which didn't feature a drop from the cornice (and which had some trees to host a cache). The cache is a blue micro can attached at about eye level (depending on snow depth) to a small fir tree.
This run is rated double black diamond extreme by Arapahoe Basin. This is extreme terrain! It is relatively easy getting in, but once you start down the cornice the only easy way out is hiking back to the top. Drop into the chutes and you are committed. Hiking in the summer may be extremely difficult as well.
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A-Basin Steeps - MGD
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