Why Colorado College? » After Colorado College « Admission Home
Tor Christopherson ’05: A Sense of Place
Skiing at Turnagain Pass - Photo by Leif Mjos“If I didn't have to work, I'd be out somewhere in the backcountry, skiing right now,” says Tor Christopherson ’05. Outside the café, the sidewalk is barely visible amid a swirling snowstorm. Seventeen inches will pile on parts of Anchorage by the end of the day.
In an age when many Americans see returning home as a sign of failure, and Colorado College grads are applying for work in cities like New York, Seattle, and Chicago, Christopherson has settled in back where he grew up, in Anchorage, Alaska. “It's not the cultural center of the world,” he says. However, Anchorage has a sense of community like the one Christopherson enjoyed at CC, and its outdoor activities are unparalleled. Christopherson skis six days a week, both Nordic and tele, on top of his 40 hour a week job. He recently finished 6th in a relay race with his brother, Rune Christopherson ’01, and his father, John.
Building the cabin - Photo by John Christopherson “If I want to ski in the winter, I can do it after work. If I want to hike in the summer, it’s a 15-minute drive. And my whole family is here,” he says. “We have this really amazing cabin.” By ‘have,’ Christopherson means he and his brother built it.
His family owned land in Hope, a small town south of Anchorage. His extended family converged there in the summer. “It was just something we needed to do. We loved that place so much, we just needed to put some blood and sweat into it,” he said. Warmer climates in Alaska have extended the breeding season of spruce bark beetles, and an infestation gave Tor and Rune a ready supply of dead lumber. The family owned a share in a local sawmill, where they milled the logs.
“We had time. We were at a unique point in our lives,” says Christopherson. At the time, both brothers worked seasonally in the fishing industry. The month-long fishing season, starting late June, divided the summer. 
At the sawmill - Photo by John Christopherson This made sense, he says: “We had two blocks. We knew about crunching work into four-week increments.” They consulted books and a carpenter grandfather, then used the summer light to work 9 a.m.-10 p.m. every day. He had never worked so hard. “It's one of the bigger achievements in my life,” he says. “We did not buy one piece of lumber.”
“It's kind of amazing that two brothers can stand each other these three summers and not flake out on each other.”
Christopherson says that CC's culture helped draw him to Anchorage. He shares a downtown apartment with some friends and others live on the same block. It reminds him of the off-campus lifestyle at CC. A bio major, he is an environmental consultant, preventing oil spills and assembling spill response plans. He also values his role in the community. “Being a part of Alaska, which is what I'm all about, is playing a monster role in my life here,” he says. Anchorage is a developing city, and Christopherson wants to ensure that it develops in a direction that improves it.