2020 Ride for the Pass Archive

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos and memories of special times on independence pass for our 2020 “ride retrospective” event—the response was overwhelming!

To see the digital version of the retrospective, click here. below is a list of our “winners,” in eight categories, in no particular order.

thank you for sharing your love for independence pass with us, and stay tuned for information on the 2021 Ride!

Sentimental: (1) Lisa Markalunas, Markalunas Family, Christmas Day 1976, (2) Tim Murray, photo by Tim’s mother Erika Grob Murray of his father, Robert Bruce Murray, 1958, on Kodachrome film, Argus C3 camera.

Lisa Markalunas: “Perhaps the only time we were ever at the top of Independence Pass on Christmas Day, this photo taken ins 1976, made possible by the drought year of 1976 when the Pass did not close until sometime the following January.”

HUMOR: (1) Greg Albrecht, Mother’s Day 2017, (2) Mike Tierney, Ride 2011

Mike Tierney: “This is after Ride for The Pass was stopped at Lincoln Creek. All riders turned around and headed back down. Not the crazy Uni guy, I kept going!! Made it to about Lower Lost Man switchback, conditions were to slippery at that point.”

Scenic: (1) Erik Larson, night sky, Fall 2019, (2) Harry Teague, rain over Independence Ridge

Artistic: (1) Jimmy Hunting, bike on snow, May 6, 2020, (2) Amy Biedleman, Midway tarn & painting, 2018

Nature: (1) Ann Larson, bighorn sheep, October 23, 2018, (2) Summer Richards, fox, April 27, 2020

Ann Larson: “I was heading to New Mexico on a birding trip on October 23, 2018, An unexpected snowstorm the night before had left the road icy and slick and I didn’t have my snow tires on the Subaru. With white knuckles, I began descending the top of the Pass when I nearly ran into a small herd of bighorn sheep. As I waited for them to desert the pavement for the hillside, I was able to grab my camera and get a shot. I was also able to relax my grip on the steering wheel, take a deep breath and continue my travels in a better frame of mind. Ah, the wonders of nature.”

Most memorable: (1) Erika Corbin & Linda Loeschen, Ride 2016, (2) Mark Sink & friends, 1970-something

Erika Corbin: “Ride for the Pass has so many special memories for me. I'm not the most consistent, maybe riding one year and then not riding for the next two (or three). There are those years that I feel too out of shape, or it's too cold, or it just snowed...the many excuses we come up with to not do something. But I will never forget the ride on May 14, 2016, the ride I almost wasn't able to make. Not because I felt too fat, or out of shape, or it was too cold, but because that was the year I simply might have not been present at all....2016 was the ride of celebration!

That day's ride was a ride of movement, a ride of joy, a ride of gratitude and most importantly a ride of love. In May 2016 I was a survivor. The previous May I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, the kind of which, a large majority of people do not survive. That day's ride was a miracle of sorts. A miracle that there was an army of super fun, super psyched, super nice people ready to make their annual pilgrimage up that mountain. Well that's not really a miracle, that's just this valley! But the real miracle was not only was I feeling so grateful to be alive and physically able to ride Independence Pass, but to top it all off, I was able to ride Independence with my mother, the most vibrant and kick-ass woman I know! We both celebrated that ride. We celebrated the mother daughter connection, we celebrated life and health, and we celebrated her coming in first in her age group on that beautiful spring day!”

Sport: (1) Summer Richards, riders May 31, 2020, (2) Erik Skarvan, Ride 2016 start (photographer unknown)

People: (1) Anda Rojs Smalls, photo of Zala Smalls in Grottos ice caves, March 31, 2020, (2) Suzanne Jackson, near Lackawanna, June 2018

Suzanne Jackson: “To me, Independence Pass is about connections. The road connects two sides of the Continental Divide, including the towns of Aspen and Leadville. Beyond that, the landscape connects the earth to the sky. It's a place where a person feels an intimate connection with nature, from the scale of a single small flower, to the power of craggy peaks, or the splendor of a sunset. And it's a place where people create connections among themselves as they share adventures and experiences.”

Thank you for supporting the Independence Pass Foundation, and huge thanks to our 2020 Ride sponsors, who made this retrospective and our 2020 summer restoration work possible:

Alpine sponsor
Fidel Duke

Subalpine sponsors
Alpine Bank 
Jacolyn & John Bucksbaum 
Resnick Family Foundation

Montane sponsor
Ute Mountaineer

Forest sponsors
Bob Camp
Chinook Charitable Foundation 
Christie’s Int’l Realty Aspen/Snowmass
Earth-Wise Horticultural
Frias Properties
Holy Cross Energy
David Hyman & Barbara Reid
Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel 
James & Hensley Peterson 
Rockwood Charitable Trust 
Ryan Investments 

Meadow sponsors
Alpine Valley Services
Paul D’Amato & Beth Cashdan
Bill & Joyce Gruenberg
Gail & Phil Holstein
Carol Ann Kopf
Rodney & Niki Jacobs
T-Lazy-7
King Woodward