Events

Spence Eccles and Alan Engen at the 2019 Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame ceremony. Eccles won the 2019 Crystal Award for his decades of leadership and support for the Engen Museum.

The Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame, located at the Alf Engen Ski Museum in Park City, Utah, inducted three new honored members at its annual banquet on September 25, 2019.

As part owner and vice president of marketing at Park City Resort, Badami staged the first alpine World Cup race in Utah in 1985. For the next four years, Park City kicked off the season’s World Cup circuit with the “America’s Opening” races — a critical component in the state’s successful bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. He died in a helicopter accident near the Park City base area in 1989.

Darrell “Pinky” Robison moved from Peoria, Illinois to Salt Lake City at age 12 and fell in love with skiing.

Less than a decade later, he won the Harriman Cup at Sun Valley in 1951, the Snow Cup at Alta in 1953 and the slalom in the Pan American Games in Bariloche, Argentina in 1954. The pinnacle of his career came in 1952 when the U.S. Olympian finished 22nd in slalom at the Oslo Games. 

Erik Schlopy amassed one of the longest and most successful careers in U.S. ski racing history. He is a two-time Junior Olympic champion, a seven-time U.S. national champion, and three-time U.S. Olympian. He was named to six FIS World Championship teams, capturing a bronze medal in giant slalom in 2003.

Schlopy is the only ski racer in history to successfully go from World Cup skiing to the Pro Tour and back to World Cup ski racing. In his first pro season, Schlopy was the 1995 Serengeti Rookie of the Year

Gramshammer Day in Vail

Hundreds of people packed the Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Colorado on September 20, 2019 to celebrate the life of Pepi Gramshammer, the Austrian ski racer who became the town’s leading and legendary innkeeper. In 1962 he helped to found the fledgling resort’s ski school and, with wife Sheika, in 1964 opened the Austrian-style Gasthof Gramshammer. (Gramshammer died on August 17, 2019; see the September-October 2019 issue of Skiing History or read online at skiinghistory.org/lives). Colorado Gov. Jared Polis presented Sheika and family members with a citation declaring September 20 as “Pepi Gramshammer Day” in perpetuity statewide.

ISHA will honor the Swiss Academic Ski Club and the year’s best ski-history books, films and websites in Sun Valley.

The International Skiing History Association (ISHA) will present more than a dozen awards at its 27th annual banquet, to be held March 26 in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The Swiss Academic Ski Club (SAS) will be honored with ISHA’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 90 years of promoting and preserving the history of the sport. Founded in 1924, its wide-ranging mission includes leading the Swiss alpine and nordic university teams, organizing races and events and publishing Der Schneehase, a highly regarded ski-history compendium. SAS Schneehase president Ivan Wagner will travel to Sun Valley from Zurich to accept the award, which focuses on SAS accomplishments in documenting ski history through 39 deeply researched and illustrated editions of Schneehase since 1924. Schneehase president Ivan Wagner will travel from Zurich to accept the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of SAS.

Tickets are on sale now for the ISHA Awards! All ticket holders are eligible for discounted lodging and lift tickets during Skiing History Week in Sun Valley. The jam-packed March 25–28 schedule includes parties, on-mountain events (retro ski day, first tracks, guided tour), history lectures and films, the ISHA Awards (Thursday, March 26) and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame induction ceremony (Saturday, March 28). For details, go to skiinghistory.org/events.

The evening kicks off at 5:30 pm with a cocktail reception in the Limelight Room at the Sun Valley Inn. Award winners will be on hand to sign and sell books and DVDs. All are welcome; cash bar. The banquet begins at 7 pm for ticket holders only. It’s a lively evening as ISHA Awards chair Rick Moulton and president Seth Masia present entertaining historic video clips and authors offer snippets of insight into their research.

At the banquet, ISHA will also present its Stewardship Award to the Holding family for their decades-long commitment to preserving the history of the Sun Valley ski resort, which they purchased in 1977.

Established in 1993, the ISHA Awards are presented every year to creators of outstanding ski history books, films and DVDs, websites, museum exhibits and other works of creative media. The winners of this year’s ISHA Awards are:

ULLR AWARD

Presented for a single outstanding contribution or several contributions to skiing’s overall historical record in published book form.

Skis in the Art of War by K.B.E.E. Eimeleus. Translation and commentary by William D. Frank, with additional commentary by E. John B. Allen

Skispuren: Internationale Konferenz zur Geschichte des Wintersports (Ski Tracks: International Conference on the History of Winter Sports) by Rudolf Müllner und Christof Thöny, editors. For a review, see the September-October 2019 issue of Skiing History.

Unique and Unknown: The Story of Biathlon in the United States by Arthur Stegen. For a review, see the November-December 2019 issue of Skiing History.

Leisure Cultures and the Making of Modern Ski Resorts, edited by Phillipp Strobl and Aneta Podkalicka. For a review, see the May-June 2019 issue of Skiing History.

SKADE AWARD

Presented for an outstanding work on regional ski history, or for an outstanding work published in book form that is focused in part on ski history.

Heja Persson!: Samisk triumf i Vasaloppet (Sami Triumph in the Vasaloppet) by Isak Lidstrom

Lost Ski Areas of the Berkshires by Jeremy Davis

Honorable Mention: Snowboarding in Southern Vermont: From Burton to the U.S. Open by Brian L. Knight

BALDUR AWARD

A new category of awards presented for books that have not been written as ski histories, but possess valuable historical content.

Ski Inc. 2020 by Chris Diamond with Andy Bigford. For a review, see the November-December 2019 issue of Skiing History.

Alpine Cooking: Recipes and Stories from Europe’s Grand Mountaintops by Meredith Erikson

The Man behind the Maps: Legendary Ski Artist James Niehues by Jason Blevins, with illustrations by Jim Niehues. For a review, see page 30 of this issue.

FILM AWARD

Presented for an outstanding contribution to the historical record of skiing in photographic or film/digital form

North Country, produced by Anthony R. Lahout, written and directed by Nick Martini

Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story by Patrick Creadon and Christine O’Malley

Honorable Mention: Abandoned by Lio DelPiccolo, Sara Beam Robbins and Grant Robbins. For a review, see the September-October 2019 issue of Skiing History.

CYBER AWARD

Presented for creating a website that contributes substantially to the preservation, distribution and expansion of skiing’s historical record

DrySlopeNews.com by Patrick Thorne

Honorable Mention: From Chimney Corner: An Illustrated History of Slovenian Skiing by Aleš Guček.

MEMBER PROFILE: Klaus Obermeyer

Klaus Obermeyer, who celebrated his 100th birthday on December 2, 2019, embodies skiing’s history in the 20th century. Klaus was raised in Oberstaufen, Bavaria, hard up against the Austrian border and a jumping site since 1908. At age three he nailed his best shoes to a pair of slats from a fruit crate and took himself skiing. From then on, he’s been tinkering to improve ski gear and clothing.

Klaus was seven years old, and skiing on real skis crafted by Marius Eriksen, when Rudolf Lettner patented the segmented steel edge for skis. When he arrived in St. Anton as a teenaged ski instructor, he quickly found a set of Lettner edges and taught himself enough carpentry to install the edges on his own skis. He befriended St. Anton native and Arlberg-Kandahar champion Friedl Pfeifer, who soon departed for America and eventually the 10th Mountain Division.

One of his skiing students offered Klaus an apprenticeship at Maybach, in Friedrichshafen, just 25 miles from home. The company had been founded, in 1909, to build Zeppelin engines. Klaus assembled state-of-the-art engines for trucks, planes and tanks. Then it was to Neuaubing near Munich and a job designing landing gear for Dornier aircraft (not unlike Howard Head’s career drafting parts for the Martin B-26). At night, Klaus attended engineering school for three and a half years.

Klaus rarely talks about this traumatic era. The Dornier factory in Friedrichshafen was heavily bombed, but not the factory in Neuaubing. Klaus says he was desperate to get out of Germany and tried unsuccessfully to ski into Switzerland.

In 1947 Klaus finally made it to America. There he chased down Friedl Pfeifer and began teaching skiing again. That summer he did odd jobs and painted houses. With Warren Miller, he made and sold Bavarian “kugi” ties. But his technical mind saw ways to improve cold-weather comfort for his students. The first problem was terrible leather ski boots. He improved the standard double-boot design with a comfy cushioned rubber innerboot and had it manufactured by Wagner and Rieker (about 40 miles northwest of Friedrichshafen) under his own label Garmisch. It sold for $44.95. With Pfeifer he formulated and sold a high-altitude sunblock cream. Then he imported sweaters and innovative turtlenecks, Carrera goggles and nylon windshirts.

1955 was a breakthrough year. Klaus adapted the down parka (marketed to hunters since 1935 by Eddie Bauer) for skiers, using water- and windproof nylon fabric, and patented the first “flow” material for ski boots (“It was auto grease,” he confided in 1982). In 1967 he set up a production line to manufacture Bob Smith’s double-lens goggle, imported Sanmarco ski boots beginning in 1972, and introduced the first two-prong ski brake, long before major binding companies picked up the idea. Meanwhile, sales of colorful, comfortable skiwear designs by wife Nome grew, becoming the premier American skiwear brand by the early ‘70s.

Klaus still comes to the office daily, still skis, swims and rides his horses. “I really love Skiing History,” he says. “It’s so nice to have a publication that talks about the development of skiing, how it started and grew in America and worldwide. I love to read it, and to see pictures of my old friends!” —Seth Masia

Send It to a Friend

The best way to recruit a new ISHA member is to show them a copy of Skiing History. This is important because, as a nonprofit, we rely on on membership dues and donations to publish our colorful bimonthly journal, continually expand our website as a global resource for skiers and researchers, and present our annual awards.

Here’s an easy way to help us out: If you know someone who’s a likely prospect, we’ll send them a free one-time copy of Skiing History. Submit your request online at https://skiinghistory.org/send-friend-trial-membership. We’ll take it from there!

SKI LIFE

from SKIING / OCTOBER 1966

This article first ran in the January-February issue of Skiing History.

Skiing History Days at Squaw Valley, California, March 21–25, 2018

MANCHESTER CENTER, VT (Feb. 12, 2018) – The International Skiing History Association (ISHA), the nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport’s heritage, will honor seven historians at its 26th annual awards ceremony during Skiing History Days at Squaw Valley, California, March 21-25, 2018.

The Mar. 23 awards banquet will be held in conjunction with the NASTAR 50th anniversary celebration and national championships expected to attract hundreds of the country’s best recreational racers for a week of parties, skiing and racing at the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. The ISHA Awards banquet is open to the public; tickets are available at www.skiinghistory.org/events.

Leading Chinese ski historian Shan Zhaojian, considered the father of modern skiing in China,

will be honored at the banquet with a Lifetime Achievement Award; he has led a long campaign to see the remote Altai Mountains of China, between Mongolia and Kazakhstan, be recognized as the possible birthplace of skiing more than 10,000 years ago. The Chinese delegation will stage a demonstration of ancient Altai skiing on the afternoon of March 23, accompanied by Sierra longboard racers from the Plumas Ski Club.

The awards banquet will also include a special NASTAR 50th anniversary presentation.

First established in 1993, the ISHA Awards honor the year’s best creative works of ski history, including books, films, websites and other media projects. The 2017 winners are:

• ISHA’s Ullr Award will be presented to Philip Palmedo, author of Roland Palmedo: A Life of Adventure and Enterprise (Peter E. Randall, 2018); and Peter Shelton, for his book, Tracks in the Snow: Stories From a Life on Skis (Western Eye Press, 2017).

• ISHA’s Skade Award will be presented to Stan Cohen for his book, From TV Mountain/Snow Park to Missoula/Montana Snowbowl: 62 Years of Skiing in Missoula (Pictorial Histories, 2017); to John Lundin for Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass (The History Press, 2017); and to Ingrid Wicken for 50 Years of Flight: Ski Jumping in California 1900-1950 (Vasa Press, 2017).

• The Cyber Award, honoring the best website of the year, goes to Pierre Dumas, creator of

Repertoire des Sites de Ski du Quebec (Historical Directory of Quebec Ski Areas) (Laurentian Ski Museum).

“The winners are the past year's top creators of new ski historical work in books, film and websites," says John Fry, ISHA board chairman. "They share with us a passion for engaging the public in the sport's colorful history.”

Highlights of Skiing History Days for registered ISHA participants include the NASTAR Team Race, a cocktail party at the home of longtime ISHA members Eddy and Osvaldo Ancinas, guided mountain tours with an inspection of the 1960 Olympic race courses, and the ISHA Awards banquet on March 23. The banquet will be held in the Olympic Village Dining Hall, where the athletes ate during the 1960 Games.

For more information and to purchase banquet tickets, view www.skiinghistory.org/events or call 802 366 1158.

About ISHA

The International Skiing History Association (ISHA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport’s heritage. It is recognized worldwide as an important resource for comprehensive, accurate information on the history of ski resorts, personalities, equipment, technique and events. ISHA’s 1,500 members – including resort and industry leaders, World Cup and Olympic racers, leading authors and historians, and passionate skiers from two dozen nations – share a love of the sport and its rich past. Six times a year, the association publishes a bimonthly magazine called Skiing History.

For more information, including details on membership, view www.skiinghistory.org.

# # #

Media Contact:

Jeff Blumenfeld
ISHA board member
Blumenfeld and Assoc. PR
203 326 1200, jeff@blumenfeldpr.com

Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont—the United States’ first commercial cross-country touring center—will celebrate its 50^th anniversary from January 19–26, 2018. ISHA members are invited and will be offered discounted trail passes and lodging (see details below). From the opening reception at the property’s Bierhall through a farewell breakfast, the weeklong schedule includes antique ski outings, a torchlight ski, an alumni and champions dinner, parties and several chances to ski with the von Trapp family.

The story of how the von Trapps escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria and arrived in America is immortalized in the 1965 movie The Sound of Music. After touring the United States as a family singing group, they settled in Stowe and in 1950 opened a rustic 27-room guest lodge.

As John Fry recounts in his book The Story of Modern Skiing (University Press of New England), in 1968 Baroness Maria von Trapp’s youngest child, Johannes, had a bright idea. Why couldn’t cross-country skiing, practiced informally for years on hiking trails and farmer’s fields, be made into a recreation that people would pay to do, like they paid for alpine skiing?

As it happened, the lodge possessed several hundred acres of forested upland. Johannes blazed and cut a network of trails through the woods, and then charged people to ski on them. He recruited Per Sorlie, an instructor from Norway, to teach them the technique of kicking off one ski and gliding on the other. Guests could ski to a hut in the woods, bringing lunch. 

The idea took off. Today, Trapps is one of North America’s premier nordic skiing destinations, with 37 miles of groomed trails, 62 miles of backcountry trails, snowmaking, cabins and a full-service nordic center. 

ISHA members are eligible for a 20 percent discount off the best available rate to stay at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont during its 50^th anniversary celebration week. The rate applies only to stays Sunday, January 21 through Thursday, January 25. Friday and Saturday nights are not eligible for the discount. A free day pass for skiing is included for lodge guests. ISHA members who are not staying at Trapp can purchase a day ski pass for 50% off. To book a room, call 800.826.7000 and mention the ISHA rate.

ISHA Awards Banquet at Squaw Valley, March 23, 2018

Mark your calendar

The International Skiing History Association's 26th Annual Awards Banquet will be held at Squaw Valley's Olympic Village Dining Hall, the historic mess hall for athletes at the 1960 Winter Olympics.

ISHA partners with the U.S. Ski Team's NASTAR Finals, to celebrate NASTAR's 50th Anniversary. The recreational standard racing program launched in 1967, created by SKI Magazine and its editor, John Fry.

Schedule of events

Go here for updated schedule, effective March 18

Monday, March 19 to Wednesday, March 21
NASTAR registration, training, clinics, course inspections

Wednesday, March 21
3pm ISHA registration desk open at Plumpjack

Thursday, March 22

• 10am NASTAR Team Race (ISHA to enter one or more teams)
• 3:30pm NASTAR rock concert at KT22 Base
• 6:30pm ISHA reception at home of Eddy and Osvaldo Ancinas. Racing community reunion, Olympic Museum presentation, remarks on Squaw’s impressive ski racing history

Friday, March 23

• 8am to 10am ISHA Ski Historians Colloquium, Olympic Village conference room: Breakfast service
• 10am to 3pm ISHA Mountain Tours with inspection of 1960 Olympic race courses; lunch on mountain
• 11:30am Informal lunch at Sandy's Pub, Resort at Squaw Creek
• 1:00pm Demonstration of traditional Chinese Tuvan skiing, and California longboard racing. Resort at Squaw Creek.
• 5:00pm ISHA cash bar reception, Olympic Village Dining Hall
• 6:30-9:30pm ISHA 26^th Annual Awards Banquet, Olympic Village Dining Hall. Tickets on sale now!

Saturday, March 24

• 8:30am-4pm ISHA Board Meeting, Olympic Village conference room: Coffee service
• 5-9pm NASTAR/US Ski Team awards ceremony and reception, Olympic House (NASTAR credentials required) – possible NASTAR history presentation

Sunday, March 25

10:30am-1pm Liberty Mutual NASTAR Race of Champions

Hotel reservations: 

• ISHA Headquarters: Plumpjack Inn. At the Plumpjack ask for the ISHA group rate. Call 800-323-7666 and ask for the ISHA block rate.
• Squaw Valley Village: 10% discount; three-night minimum March 21-25. Call 888-767-1907 or book online (discount applied automatically at this link).

Because more than 1,000 NASTAR participants are coming in for the Finals, rooms are in tight supply. Book early!

For more information, see skiinghistory.org/events

Book banquet tickets now!

The 26th annual ISHA Awards banquet will be held on March 23, 2018 at Squaw Valley, California, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of NASTAR and NASTAR’s annual national championships (for more information, see page 29). Since 1993, the ISHA Awards have honored the year’s best works of ski history, including books, films, Websites, photography and museum curation and exhibits. We also present lifetime achievement awards to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the ski historical record.

ISHA’s upcoming March 2018 awards will honor works completed before the end of 2017. The deadline for submission is early December. For information, go to www.skiinghistory.org/events, call the ISHA office at 802.366.1158, or email ISHA Awards chair Rick Moulton (rick@rickmoulton.com).

ISHA director Skip Beitzel will host a reception on October 2 at Hickory & Tweed, the ski shop he has owned since 1985 in Armonk, New York. All ISHA members are invited to this come-one, come-all “friendraiser,” which aims to spread the word about ISHA and Skiing History to passionate skiers and riders in Westchester and Fairfield County.

The party kicks off at 7 p.m. with free beer, wine and light hors d’oeuvres, followed by a lively presentation on the craziest ski products of all time by ISHA director and ski industry public relations veteran Jeff Blumenfeld. Come meet ISHA directors, fellow members, and Skiing History editor Kathleen James…and bring a friend! RSVP to kathleen@skiinghistory.org. Questions? Call 802.366.1158.

ISHA members, ISHA Award honorees and nearly 1,000 of the country’s best recreational racers will gather at Squaw Valley from March 21–24 for parties, lectures, the ISHA Awards banquet, and a celebration of NASTAR’s golden anniversary.

ISHA will hold its 26th annual ISHA Awards banquet on Friday, March 23, in conjunction with NASTAR’s 50th anniversary and its annual NASTAR Finals at Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, California.

ISHA plans a multi-day program spanning March 21 to 24, including lectures and reunions celebrating Squaw Valley’s ski racing tradition, the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, and 50 years of citizen racing through NASTAR. ISHA members are invited to compete in NASTAR’s Team Race on Thursday, March 22, a fundraising event to benefit U.S. Ski Team development athletes. ISHA expects to enter at least one team. We hope to hold the awards banquet in the historic Olympic Village Dining Hall, where the athletes ate in 1960.

The National Standard Race series, created by John Fry and SKI Magazine and first sponsored by Schlitz Brewing Company, launched in 1968. The first national pacesetter was Squaw Valley’s Olympic medalist Jimmie Heuga, and the first pacesetting trials were held at Waterville Valley in December of that year.

A group of ISHA members, including several directors, will return to Squaw Valley April 13–14 to support the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame’s annual induction banquet.

“We’re delighted to partner with NASTAR for this event,” said ISHA president Seth Masia, who taught skiing at Squaw Valley from 1984 to 1993. “By moving our banquet up from April into March, we expect to find more winter-like skiing conditions. March is the best time to ski at Tahoe, with plenty of sunshine, immense snowpack and lots of new snow.  I’m eager to organize tours of the 1960 Olympic courses, with folks who were there at the time.”

First established in 1993, the annual ISHA Awards honor the year’s best ski history books, films and other creative media, as well as lifetime achievement for outstanding contributions to the sport’s heritage. For more information on the ISHA Awards, go to skiinghistory.org/events. For full information on ticket sales, lodging and more, see the upcoming September-October issue of Skiing History.

For more information on the ISHA Awards, click here.

The International Skiing History Association, the 26-year-old nonprofit that preserves the rich heritage of the sport of skiing, has named three new board members: Jeff Blumenfeld, Chris Diamond, and Mike Hundert.

The announcement was made on April 7, 2017, at ISHA’s board meeting during Skiing History Week, held in partnership with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, in Stowe, VT. These recent additions bring to 22 the total number of board members running the organization, according to ISHA president Seth Masia.

The new board members are:

Jeff Blumenfeld, based in Boulder, Colo., is president of Blumenfeld and Associates PR, a 37-year-old public relations agency specializing in outdoor recreation. He is recipient of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association 2017 Bob Gillen Memorial Award for achievements in snowsports public relations and communications.

Chris Diamond, a consultant and publisher, is the former COO and president of the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. Newly-elected into the Colorado Snowsports Museum Hall of Fame, Diamond is author of Ski Inc. (Ski Diamond Publishing, 2016), and resides in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Mike Hundert, chairman of the Bob Beattie Foundation, formerly known as the World Pro Skiing Foundation, is CEO of De Rigo REM Eyewear and resides in Snowmass Village, Colo.

During the same meeting at Stowe, the following board members were re-elected to three-year terms: Michael Calderone, Art Currier, John Fry, David Ingemie, Rick Moulton and Charlie Sanders.

Also, the current ISHA officers were elected to another term. They are: John Fry, Chairman; Seth Masia, President; Wini Jones, Vice President; John McMurtry, Vice President; Bob Orbacz, Treasurer; and Einar Sunde, Secretary.                 

The International Skiing History Association (ISHA) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport’s heritage. It is recognized worldwide as an important resource for comprehensive, accurate information on the history of ski resorts, personalities, equipment, technique and events. ISHA’s 1,500 members—including resort and industry leaders, World Cup and Olympic racers, leading authors and historians, and passionate skiers from two dozen nations—share a love of the sport and its rich past. Six times a year, the association publishes a bimonthly magazine called Skiing History.

For a complete list of ISHA board members and bios, click here.

Mason Beekley’s lifelong passion led to the founding of ISHA during the winter of 1990–91. Skiing History Week 2017 will mark the 25th annual awards banquet.

By Seth Masia

Mason Beekley’s great passion was skiing, skiing history, and ski books and art. A patroller and instructor in his youth, he steered his family’s business to success in a medical supply specialty (he invented a way to label X-ray images for accurate interpretation), and that success enabled him to become the leading collector of skiing-related books, art and sculpture in North America.

According to Mort Lund, writing in Skiing Heritage on the occasion of ISHA’s tenth anniversary, Beekley corresponded with a group of seven other ski-book collectors. Early in 1990, when his collection outgrew his Connecticut house, Beekley built the “Ski Aerie,” an adjacent library and museum large enough to house his collection and host meetings of his book-trading friends and other interested skiers. That group, he thought, might even become the core of a new organization that would encourage more research into skiing’s history. He proposed the name International Skiing History Association. During a ski trip to Aspen, he broached the idea to Dick Durrance, who thought it was “a hell of an idea.” 

Beekley got busy that spring. He invited three dozen well-known skiers and ski writers, from across North America and Europe, to join him as co-founders. Lund pointed out that the recorded history of the sport was “full of holes.” No one had published biographies on dozens of famous skiers, or recounted the stories of important institutions; even much of the competition history was unrecorded. At the very least, Beekley wanted ISHA to publish a quarterly newsletter as a platform for new articles on historical subjects. He recruited Glenn Parkinson’s new publication Ski News to serve as “The Official Publication of the International Skiing History Association,” and sent the first issue of the newly reincarnated newsletter out to the founders. 

On May 14, 1991, Beekley chaired a steering committee meeting at the Hanover Inn in New Hampshire, to begin formal business proceedings. The committee included Rick Moulton, Gloria Chadwick, Glenn Parkinson, Penny Pitou, Sel Hannah and Al Sise. A month later, Beekley asked the 36 founders to recruit their friends. The result was a Charter Membership of about 150 prominent skiers. ISHA was off and running. 

The first Annual Gathering convened in April, 1991, at Whistler, British Columbia. Organized by Doug Pfeiffer, the gathering included ISHA president Mason Beekley and his wife Licia, Mort Lund, Andrea Mead Lawrence, Penny Pitou, Glenn and Donna Parkinson, Kazuo Ogawa, John O’Meara, Ekkhart Ulmrich, Ginny Pfeiffer, Worthington Mixer, and Mick Hull. In April 1993, ISHA’s Second Annual Gathering, at Sugarbush, Vermont, presented the first annual ISHA Awards, to Sir Arnold Lunn and John Henry Auran, for Lifetime Achievement in Ski Journalism. In February 1994, Beekley asked Mort Lund to take over operation of the newsletter, to be renamed (at John Fry’s suggestion) Skiing Heritage (and renamed Skiing History in 2013). The eight-page newsletter became a 36-page magazine, aiming to fill those “holes” in the sport’s history. All the pieces were in place. ISHA transitioned to a dues-paying nonprofit organization, gradually growing independent of Mason Beekley’s private financial support. 

Mason Beekley died in August of 2001, after a long battle with cancer. He lived to see ISHA celebrate its tenth anniversary, with nearly 2,000 members worldwide: a vital nonprofit charitable organization with a highly-respected magazine and its own Website, skiinghistory.org. As we mark ISHA’s 25^th anniversary, this magazine serves as Beekley’s enduring gift to the sport.