Winter Park Ski Area had been open for 20 years when Dwight Miller, a development pioneer in the town of Hideaway Park, posed the question whether inexperienced skiers were getting the most from Winter Park’s terrain, or whether they might prefer a beginner-friendly hill where they could improve their skills.

Buz Koelbel, developer of Rendezvous in Winter Park, presents an original lift chair to Dwight and Jean Miller, who opened Ski Idlewild as a beginner ski area in 1960.

On Aug. 26, 2009, some 49 years after Miller opened Ski Idlewild in what is today the resort community of Rendezvous, Walter ‘Buz’ Koelbel, Jr., of Koelbel and Company presented Miller and his wife Jean with a lift chair recovered from the site. The boutique ski area where a generation of skiers, including Buz Koelbel, learned their sport is now part of Rendezvous’ 688-acre expansion area, east of the town of Winter Park. more »