Ads from the Past: Wengen, 1938
In the years between the World Wars, the sporting skier wanted to spend January in Switzerland. Wengen ran this ad in the 1937 edition of the British Ski Year Book, promising a week of Alpine racing thrills. The Duke of Kent race, launched in 1937, was Sir Arnold Lunn’s creation, open to “townsmen” who lived in big cities and skied fewer than 60 days a year (think of it as the ancestor of NASTAR). It was won in 1938 by Hubert Rossel of Lucerne and the Swiss Academic Ski Club. The ninth running of the Lauberhorn followed a week later and was won by local hero Heinz von Allmen. In between, and across the valley in Mürren, came the British Ski Championships, won that year by R.E. “Jimmy” Gardner and Isobel Roe—they each won the slalom, “straight” (downhill) and combined trophies. Prince George, Duke of Kent, was the brother of King George VI; he served in both the Royal Navy and Air Force and died at the controls of a flying boat in 1942.
Coming Up In Future Issues
- Edie Thys Morgan catches up with 1960 Swiss Olympic giant slalom gold medalist Yvonne Rüegg.
- Making Tracks in South America: How skiing boomed in Argentina and Chile.
- Billion-Dollar Blunder? Steven Threndyle digs into the ill-fated Garibaldi at Squamish resort in British Columbia.
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