David and Renie Gorsuch: former U.S. Alpine ski team couple have spent a half-century selling high-end clothes, furnishings and specialty items to mountain resort visitors.

• Author: Caley, Nora

The 1960 Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, Calif., were exceptional events for David Gorsuch and Renie Cox.

Neither member of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team won a medal - Gorsuch came in 14th place in both men's downhill and giant slalom, while Cox came in ninth in women's slalom - but it was in training and racing that the couple met each other.

After the Olympics they married, settled in Colorado, opened a ski shop, and began a 50-plus year personal and business adventure.

"As we look back, the ski racing years and our experiences have influenced what our lives, our family and our stores have become," Renie Gorsuch says.

The couple opened Gorsuch Lid. in Gunnison in 1962. They wanted the store to be not only a place to pick up skis and equipment, but also a retailer of fashion, home furnishings and other mountain-related items. "Gorsuch embraced both the sport of skiing and the mountain lifestyle and sold countless people on the beauty of Colorado's ski country," Renie says.

Four years later, the couple decided to move to Vail, a new resort that had also opened in 1962. It turned out to be a good move, as Vail visitors were the demographic that buy cashmere sweaters, apres coats, chinchilla cuff gloves, and home furnishings such as antler armchairs, pewter sail and pepper shakers shaped liked bears, and quartz votive candlehoders. Over the years, the Gorsuches expanded the business and opened stores in Aspen. Keystone and Beaver Creek.

The stores have had to adapt to changing times. Customers wanted to communicate with Gorsuch Ltd. long after their vacations ended, so in 1976, the company printed its first catalog and mailed 25.000 copies. Catalog sales performed well, and 35 years later. Gorsuch mails more than 3 million catalogs.

The ease in which they adapted to catalog sales may have helped Gorsuch...