Tribute to Chris Polk

Ian Christopher is a snowboard instructor at Buttermilk and he sent an email saying he wanted to share a photograph from Thursday afternoon, the day his fellow instructor Chris Polk had a fatal collision with a tree on the Columbine trail at Buttermilk while snowboarding. Just hours after the accident, Christopher said he and a group of fellow instructors collected many of the neckties that Polk used to wear under his snowboard instructor uniform as a mark of professionalism and for style points. The instructors all placed ties in the branches of the small tree island just to the right of tower 11 on the Summit Express lift where the accident happened. In the photo, Christopher is placing the last of the ties that afternoon while the rest of the Buttermilk crew sits in silence remembering their friend and co-worker. It seemed an appropriate and very soulful gesture from a tight-knit crew who were no doubt shaken by the loss of a bright light in their midst.