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Friends, family members and colleagues of Jeff Brausch who gathered Friday afternoon for a private memorial at Vail’s Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater received a delightful surprise.
Chris Dillmann/cdillmann@vaildaily.com
Vail’s Sitzmark Lodge keeps its doors open all year, even through quiet spells in the spring and fall. That changed in a big way just about one year ago.
Following the March 14 shutdown of Vail Resorts’ North American ski areas and a virtual shutdown of the state’s lodging industry, the Sitzmark closed for two-and-a-half months, starting right in one of Vail’s busiest months.
“It was really hard,” Sitzmark General Manager Jeanne Fritch said. Coming back has been hard, too.
Even before the shutdown, Fritch made the hard decision to stop the hotel’s weekly wine party for guests. Continental breakfasts, usually a time for guests to chat before starting a ski day, turned into grab-and-go bags. Furniture disappeared from the lobby, and cleaning protocols were quickly ramped up.
Special to the Daily
James Deighan, left, and Jeff Brausch, right, of Highline Sports and Entertainment, pose with Stephen Marley, who was playing a concert in Vail.
Special to the Daily
Jeffery Charles Brausch encapsulated the word “family.” The Highline Family lost its founding father last week. His family, Kelli, Keaton, Kiana and Kamryn, have lost their father. The Vail Valley has lost a true pioneer and friend.
In 1995 Jeff, along with Kelli and her brother Scott McCormick, set out to start a sports marketing business in and around the mogul skiing world. A few other characters along the way joined the team: Rod Higgins, Adam Baker, Herb Heneman and myself, weaving our way around a brand new type of business, just as though we were navigating the bumps of the infamous Chair 10 Highline mogul run, the bump-run after which the company was aptly named.
Daily file photo
Editor’s note: Ready for 2020 to be over? Yeah, us too but not before highlighting some of the bright spots in a year unlike any other. Instead of doing a typical look back at the news of 2020, we’re focusing on the stories that showcased the indomitable spirit of our mountain community during a difficult time.
For most of its history, the Vail Valley has focused on thinking big. That changed in 2020.
With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting everything from restaurant occupancy to how many people can sit in a gondola car or lift chair, people promoting events have had to scale back their thinking.