Mountain Man

CHARLIE STURGIS HELPED PARK CITY EVOLVE FROM SINGLETRACK ZERO TO HERO

- Nicole Formosa

Charlie Sturgis is in the middle of a time-honored ski-town locals’ tradition when I reach him on a Sunday morning in late November—the shoulder-season desert pilgrimage. The 67-year-old veteran climber was in St. George, Utah, spending three days on the ropes before snow blanketed Park City, where he leads Mountain Trails Foundation, the nonprofit he co-founded in 1992. Sturgis has been there nearly every step of the way as Park City has transformed from a singletrack wasteland into one of the trail-richest towns in the country, but he fell into advocacy—and riding—inadvertently. He got his first bike, a Specialized Stumpjumper, in 1983 when the backcountry ski shop where he was working picked up the line.

“At first I was like, ‘mountain biking doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.’ If I’m mountain running and something goes wrong, I can bend over and tie my shoes and call it good. Dragging 35 pounds of parts around really didn’t have a lot of appeal at the time.”