2 Names Colorado Resort Workers Have for Tourists

When I was living in the mountains, I learned a couple of names that people have for tourists.

They aren't necessarily complimentary, but there you are. While tourism is one of the strongest economic forces in Colorado, sometimes, after people from other states and countries have stretched the patience of those serving them a little thin, creativity and maliciousness combine to form new words.

1. Gapers

Gapers are people who walk around with their jaws hanging open, mouth agape, in awe of the sights they are seeing in the Rocky Mountains. While it isn't necessarily a term of endearment, it doesn't have to be a rip either. This is a word I heard used by people who live and work in the Summit County area.

According to UrbanDictionary.com

A gaper is a skiier or snowboarder who is completely clueless. Usually distiungished by their bright colored clothes and a gaper gap, the gap between goggles and a helment/hat. Gapers also do the "Gaper Tuck" which is an attempt at being a ski racer by tucking, however, it is done incorrectly with the poles sticking straight up like thunderbolts and lighting, very very frightning! Gapers also sit at the bottom of jumps and try and go big off table tops in the park.

There is even a special day when all the locals dress up as gapers, and act like idiots at the resorts. It's not very attractive behavior, and also is a form of biting the hand that feeds them, but they do it. It's called 'Gaper Day', and you'll see a lot of people in one piece suits and 80's hair wigs. Somehow that's how some lifties see the people that visit them.

While gaper is not really a compliment, it still isn't necessarily always a bad thing. Back when I first moved to Summit, I was a gaper, because I would find myself gazing at the mountains, mouth open in awe. I still am, in fact, a gaper and a local at the same time.

2. Torons

Similar to gaper, but used more widely in the Vail Valley, "toron" is, once again, not a term of endearment. Combine the words 'tourist' and 'moron' and what do you have? Toron.

I don't dig this term. The real irony is when servers, lifties, instructors and others in the tourism industry use it with biting snarkiness. That's insulting the hand that feeds. Those same people that get in the way on the slopes because they can't rip like the Coloradans that live at the base of the mountain are the reason why those heads can live at the base of the mountain.

I also don't dig when someone who is not from Colorado moves here for a short time and starts bringing others down because they are from out of town. There is nothing wrong with being from out of town. There is nothing wrong with skiing and riding like you are from Texas.

Toron always has a bad connotation. Gaper, on the other hand, does indicate that a person is not from Colorado, but when you get down to it, it's just a description of someone who is in awe of what they are seeing. So, it's not always a rip. It doesn't rhyme with moron. If anyone is exhibiting tourist like behavior, and I need a name for them, I lean toward gaper instead of toron.

Have you heard any other references to tourists to Colorado?