68 years later, ski club still hauls kids to slopes: founder, 92, maps the bus routes.

• Author: Schmidt, Donna
• Position: Eskimo Ski Club

Frank Bulkley started the Eskimo Ski Club in metro Denver during the 1930s so that kids could learn to ski, perhaps learn a little independence and spend time enjoying the Rocky Mountains, specifically Winter Park. Bulkley, 92, still maps the bus routes for his club of 600 members, but otherwise is the less active patriarch of a second-generation, half-million dollar ski business that is part ancestor of the $2.5 billion Colorado ski industry.

"We used to keep Winter Park going in the 1950s," said Anne Bulkley, Frank's daughter who runs the weekly ski club with her brother Frank Bulkley III. "Now we're just small potatoes."

The Eskimo Ski Club now is a $150,000 a year family-owned business that employs 87 contract ski and snowboard instructors and more than 40 part-time bus supervisors.

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Memberships cost from $85 to $295, depending on the level of experience of the member. Membership also includes discounts at the Eskimo Ski Shop at Broadway Street and Belleview Avenue in Englewood, which is run by Frank III, and discounts on season passes at Winter Park and weekly ski or snowboard instruction.

Members pay for each bus ride as they go, and for lift tickets if they have not already bought a season pass.

"We take kids from age 9 through high school up to Winter Park each Saturday," said Anne Bulkley. Two-thirds of the club members in any given year are repeat members from the previous year, she said, proving its popularity. Members ride in luxury motor coaches equipped with TVs and DVDs and most often take ski or snowboard lessons for at least half the day. More advanced skiers are allowed to ski or snowboard with a buddy for the remaining half day.

Buses pick up members as early as 6 a.m. and return around 5 p.m. to several locations around southeast Denver. No small benefit of membership goes to parents who usually are paying the bills, as it saves them the trip up and down Interstate 70 to get their kids to the slopes.

The club's ski and snowboard instructors work specifically for Eskimo, not Winter Park. "We have instructors who have been with us since the 1960s," Anne said. "Our instructors are highly trained and certified through the Professional Ski Instructors of America. They attend an annual six-day fall seminar to sharpen their skills."

The senior Bulkley opened his first ski shop to support the equipment needs of the ski club, his daughter said, and he has been in business ever since. "Dad...