Celebrate Winter An Olympian’s Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing
By John Morton
A Middlebury College graduate and Vietnam War veteran, John Morton participated in seven Olympics, twice as an athlete for the U.S. Biathlon Team. He served as chief of course for Biathlon events at the Salt Lake City Olympics, and for 11 years was head coach for the Dartmouth College Ski Team. In 1989 he founded Morton Trails, designing cross-country trail systems.
Much of this book is taken from Morty’s radio broadcasts for Vermont Public Radio. The chapters cover a range of topics, elucidating the history of American Nordic skiing in the 1970s and ’80s. Celebrate Winter is an encyclopedia of sorts. Morty writes of his adventures coaching and acting as a team leader at Olympic Games and World Championships. Much of this stuff is hilarious, including “Victory in the Sauna” and “The Joys of Roller Skiing,” while other chapters convey key aspects of cross-country, such as the “The Art and Magic of Waxing Cross-Country Skis.”
Morty is at his best when he waxes philosophical. Few authors describe so well the benefits of international competition. He writes about his friendship with the top Russian biathlete, Alexander Tikhonov. Morty raised money from his athletes to buy a U.S. rifle (of all things!) for his Russian friend. I, too, was very friendly with the Russians on their XC and Nordic combined teams, and even helped them out with some waxing needs. I’m sure we were both criticized by our conservative friends, but Morty covers the idea of friendship among athletes from different countries.
It’s a wonder that U.S. skiers ever moved ahead in the results during these years. “Nordies” had no full-time paid staff. Coaches were assigned as needed at the Olympics or the World Championships, given a plane ticket and sent on their way. Most of the money went to Alpine. I was the cross-country coach for the U.S. Ski Team during this period, and I can corroborate or even expand on Morty’s text.
This is a must-read for skiers of any sort. And you can find out what Morty has been doing all this time. –John Caldwell
Celebrate Winter: An Olympian’s Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing, by John Morton. Independently published. 6 x 9 inches, 260 pages. Paperback $14.95 (Kindle edition $2.99).
By Lowell Skoog
Written in the Snows Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest
By Lowell Skoog
Written in the Snows is a comprehensive history of skiing—mainly of ski mountaineering—in the Northwest. Well-researched and sustained by a gripping narrative, the book takes the reader on an exhilarating ride as the backcountry skiing reaches ever higher elevations and levels of difficulties to the point where even the best practitioners are forced to recognize their limits.
Surmounted by Mt. Rainier, the high peaks of the Cascades trapped every drop of moisture brought by prevailing winds off the Gulf of Alaska. The profound snowfall was impassable in winter, until, in 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed Stampede Pass. The Great Northern crossed Stevens Pass in 1893, and the Milwaukee Railroad crossed Snoqualmie Pass in 1909. Seattle-area skiers, rich with Scandinavian immigrants, quickly pioneered ski trails branching off the rail lines, building small hotels and ski cabins in promising high meadows. In 1906, 151 women and men chartered The Mountaineers. The club has organized outings, winter and summer, ever since and served as a locus for jumping tournaments, racing, and exploratory expeditions.
Lowell Skoog, an ardent practitioner of high-altitude, self-propelled skiing, brings dozens of key events to vivid life, going so far as to replicate, on his own and with friends, some of the pioneering routes and early races. He explains how skiing has been shaped by larger social trends, including immigration, the Great Depression, war, economic growth, conservation and the media, and recounts the adventures of local characters like Milnor Roberts, Olga Bolstad, Hans Otto Giese, Bill Maxwell, Gretchen Kunigk, Don Fraser and John Woodward.
There are excellent photo illustrations throughout and a useful appendix covering ski mountaineering highlights, plus a very useful glossary, valuable listings of references and resources, and a superb index.
As a skier, climber, writer and photographer, Skoog has been a keen observer of Northwest mountaineering since the 1970s. He is the creator of the Alpenglow Gallery and founder of the Northwest Mountaineering Journal, websites that celebrate local mountain culture, and he was a key member of the team that launched the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum. Skoog is the chairman of The Mountaineers History and Library committee. He lives in Seattle.
This is the author’s second ISHA Award. He won the 2010 ISHA Cyber Award for alpenglow.org. –Seth Masia
Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest, by Lowell Skoog. Mountaineers Books, 7 x 9 inches, 336 pages. Paperback $29.95 (Kindle edition $14.99)
Dan Egan & Eric Wilbur
Thirty Years in a White Haze Dan Egan’s Story of Worldwide Adventure and the Evolution of Extreme Skiing
By Dan Egan & Eric Wilbur
Dan Egan’s autobiography is a colorful inside look at the evolution of “extreme” skiing into what we now call big-mountain free-skiing. Dan was a multi-talented athlete with a good business head. Emerging from a large, devout yet unruly Catholic family, he found success in skiing, soccer and sailing. But sports, and the related party scenes, interfered with academics. It took a sporadically heroic effort of self-discipline to complete a college degree in marketing.
After joining his older brother John as a star of Eric Perlman and Warren Miller films, Egan’s talent for marketing enabled him to line up lucrative sponsorships. He seized on emerging VCR technology to become a video-distribution mogul as president of Egan Entertainment Network. Twenty-five years later, after digital technology made VCR distribution obsolete, Dan had to reinvent himself. He went on to careers in ski resort management and marketing; coaching skiing; soccer and sailing; journalism; and consulting on a wide range of video and sponsorship projects in skiing and sailing.
Sibling rivalry was brought to a crisis in 1990, after Dan survived a fatal 38-hour storm high on 18,500-foot Mt. Elbrus in the Russian Caucasus. The brothers went on to collaborate on many more projects, including their X-Treme ski clinics held across North America, and in Chamonix, Val d’Isère and other European destinations. Dan and John Egan were elected to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2016.
Co-author Eric Wilbur is a journalist who has been covering the New England sports, travel and skiing scenes for nearly three decades. His written work has appeared in the Boston Globe, New England Ski Journal, Boston.com, Boston Metro, and various other publications. He fell in love with skiing at an early age, a dedication to the sport that only increased upon moving to Vermont during his college years. He lives with his wife and three children in the Boston area. This is his first book. –SM
Thirty Years in a White Haze: Dan Egan’s Story of Worldwide Adventure and the Evolution of Extreme Skiing, by Dan Egan & Eric Wilbur. Degan Media, Inc., 6 x 9”, 418 pages, paperback. $39.95 (Kindle edition $9.99)
By John Lundin
Ski Jumping in Washington State A Nordic Tradition
By John W. Lundin
Ski jumping, once Washington’s most popular winter sport, was introduced by Norwegian immigrants in the early 20th century. In the Pacific Northwest, competitive jumping began at Rossland, British Columbia, in 1898. The sport migrated to Spokane’s Browne’s Mountain in 1913 and Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill in 1916, moved to midsummer tournaments on Mount Rainier in 1917 and expanded statewide as new ski clubs formed. Washington tournaments attracted the world’s best jumpers—Birger and Sigmund Ruud, Alf Engen, Sigurd Ulland and Reidar Andersen, among others. In 1941, Torger Tokle set two national distance records there in just three weeks. Regional ski areas hosted national and international championships as well as Olympic tryouts, entertaining spectators until Leavenworth’s last tournament in 1978.
Big-hill ski jumping in the Northwest suffered a major blow when the Milwaukee Road Ski Bowl at Hyak burned down in 1949 and was not rebuilt. By the 1970s, public interest had faded and the Northwest’s historic facilities were all dismantled. Leavenworth’s really big jump was the last to go. Unsustainable maintenance and insurance costs contributed to the demise.
Seattle-based lawyer, historian and award-winning author John W. Lundin re-creates the excitement of this nearly forgotten ski jumping heritage. The book was written in conjunction with an exhibit put together by the National Nordic Museum and the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum. This is the author’s third ISHA Skade Award: He was honored in 2018 for Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass and in 2021 for Skiing Sun Valley: From the Union Pacific to the Holdings. –SM
Ski Jumping in Washington State: A Nordic Tradition by John W. Lundin, History Press, 226 pages. $32.99 hardbound, $23.99 softcover.
Ties That Bind: The Origin Story of Sport Obermeyer
When I saw the photo of Friedl Pfeifer, Walter Paepcke, Herbert Bayer and Gary Cooper in the November-December issue all wearing my Koogie pom-pom ties (“Heavy Lifting: Aspen Under Construction,”) I thought I would tell the story.
As a young boy in Bavaria in the early 20’s, skiing was a formal sport. People wore shirts and ties and wool overcoats. The tie for skiing was called the ‘koogie pom–pom’. Koogie in the Bavarian dialect is the German word for Kugel which means ball. The ties were made of yarn. I remember men would come to our house wearing the Koogie tie on their way to go skiing. I asked my mother to make one for me, which she did. Then my friends wanted one, too. So my mother taught me how to make them.
I arrived in Aspen in 1947 to teach for Friedl Pfeifer. The following spring, as there was no work in Aspen, I bought a Ford car for $350 and headed back to Sun Valley. I bought some yarn in Hailey and made some samples of the koogie pom-pom ties. Pete Lane’s Ski Shop ordered three dozen. The retail price was $1.75 each. I gave him a 10 percent cash discount because I had spent all my money on yarn. He paid me in silver dollars. A few days later he ordered 6 dozen more!
Averell Harriman gave some to the employees.
In Aspen in the fall of 1947, there were just seven instructors. Because the ski business was often slow, I played chess with Walter Paepcke, sometimes all night. Gary Cooper liked coming to Aspen. One day he said to me, “Klaus, I hear you started a business selling pom-pom ties. Maybe it would help your business if I wore one.”
“I would be happy to give you one Gary,” I said.
“No, I will pay retail” he insisted.
That was the first Sport Obermeyer product and the beginning of our company.
Klaus Obermeyer
Aspen, Colorado
Cover Story
The cover of the magazine’s November-December 2020 issue shows my old ski school director Luggi Foeger, who I worked for from 1947-1952 at Badger Pass Ski Area in Yosemite, California. The cover, from a photograph, shows him making a turn at Ostrander, near Badger Pass. It was a favorite place to show students the perfect position while making a turn. You came down a fairly steep hill and near the bottom there was a drop off so the skier had to move his upper half of his body forward to keep proper balance. So it showed him quite forward in his turn. This was vogue at the time. Several ski instructors and me were working on a film in 1950 or 51 and the filmmaker chose that spot.
Jim McConkey
Denman Island, British Columbia
Skiing with Stein
When the November-December 2021 issue arrived, the first thing I saw was the Jantzen ad on the back cover with Stein Eriksen’s photo and the history of Stein and his brother Marius’s sweaters knitted by their mother.
I was reminded of that memorable time in April 1989, when I traveled with Stein to Norway, as a writer for SKI. Other journalists and I skied with Stein in Hemsedal, and it was there that Stein gave me a red, white and blue sweater knitted by his mother. I also met his brother Marius.
I dared not wear the gifted sweater, because it seemed too precious. A couple of years ago, however, I gave it to a relative. An avid skier, she loves it and wears it with pride.
Laurel Lippert
Truckee, California
Legacy of the Kokanee Camps
Regarding the story about the birth of the Canadian National Ski Team (January-February issue): The Canadian Ski Team program at Notre Dame University beginning in 1964 was a success but the academic calendar was a bad fit with the World Cup tour (1967), so the program ended in 1969. It did inspire the creation of high-school level ski academies across North America.
Many of the program’s athletes became successful professionals. We learned resilience and determination by overcoming injuries or defeat. We forged a lifelong bond of friendship. That was a gift over and above all the medals and success stories.
I would like to honor Emily Ringham-Beauchamp, who kept the Nelson group in contact for years by organizing reunions and gatherings. She annually hosted an event to support the Ernie Gare athletic scholarships, named to honor one of program’s founders. For the 50th ski team reunion in 2005, she organized a nostalgic trip up to Kokanee glacier to visit the beautiful new Alpine Club cabin and check out our carved names on the walls of the old Kokanee cabin. Emily passed away in 2018, before our most recent reunion.
Eva Kuchar, PhD
Pointe-Clair, Quebec
Correction
In “Aspen Under Construction” (November-December 2021 issue), an editorial error misstated the name of Greg
Poschman’s Swiss-born grandfather, who designed some of the Lift 1 components. His name was Paul Purchard, and he was an engineer and patent attorney. We regret the error.
ISHA Awards
The best works of skiing history published during 2021.
Awards Banquet March 24, 2022
Lifetime Achievement Award
Jeff Leich, executive director, New England Ski Museum, for Research, Writing and Museum Stewardship
Ullr Book Awards
Celebrate Winter: An Olympian’s Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing by John Morton (Independently published)
30 Years in a White Haze: Dan Egan’s Story of Worldwide Adventure and the Evolution of Extreme Skiing by Dan Egan & Eric Wilbur (Degan Media)
Skiing: In the Eye of the Artist by E. John B. Allen (Egoth)
To Heaven’s Heights: An Anthology of Skiing in Literature, compiled by Ingrid Christophersen, MBE (Unicorn)
Skade Book Awards
Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast: 50 Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in New England and New York by David Goodman (Appalachian Mountain Club Books).
Ski Jumping in Washington State: A Nordic Tradition by John W. Lundin (Arcadia Publishing)
Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest by Lowell Skoog (Mountaineers Books)
Harris Hill Ski Jump: The First 100 Years by Kevin O’Conner and the 100th Anniversary Book Committee (Harris Hill Ski Jump Inc.)
Mount Assiniboine, The Story by Chic Scott (Assiniboine Publishing) – John Fry Award for Excellence
Baldur Book Award
Way Out West: The Skiing Years by Paul G. Ryan (Cape Cod Cinema)
Film Awards
Spider Lives. Executive Producers: Christin Cooper, Mike Hundert, Mark Taché, Edith Thys Morgan, Hayden Scott
120 Years Ski Club Arlberg. Blue Danube Media: Alessandra Ravanelli and Hadmar Charlie Mayer, Markus Knaus
In Pursuit of Soul. A TGR Film. Director: Jeremy Grant. Producer: Drew Holt
Dear Rider: The Jake Burton Story. An HBO Documentary. Director: Fernando Villena. Producer: Ben Bryan. For Burton: Abby Young, Mike Cox.
Honorable Mentions
La Grande Histoire du Ski (film)
Skiing in New Mexico by Daniel Gibson and Jay Blackwood
“What were you thinking in the starting gate?” If you’re annoyed every time you hear a reporter ask this of a skiing champion, read Lindsey Vonn’s memoir, Rise. It answers the question definitively.
The title has a double meaning. More confessional than autobiography, Rise recounts not only Vonn’s ascent to the top of the ski-racing food chain, but her career-long challenge to surmount depression, social anxiety and six or eight potentially career-ending surgeries. It records her psychological growth from a stubbornly determined nine-year-old to a sobered, self-aware 36-year-old.
Vonn has always been a mystery to her admirers. She appears to possess an obsessive-compulsive work ethic along with incredible physical courage. Rise reveals that the source of the work ethic is an overwhelming impulse to honor the sacrifices her family had made on behalf of her career—and a generalized compulsion to please people. On top of that, she lacks the instinct for self-preservation—a psychological quirk that led to skiing on the edge of the possible, especially when hurt. Time and again Vonn defied injuries to knees and self-esteem, and set a new standard of competition. She often had the support of people who loved her but just as often fell victim to the isolation of clinical depression—an imbalance of brain chemistry that seems to be her only physical flaw.
Rise doesn’t pretend to be a record of 434 starts, 148 podiums and 85 wins in World Cup, World Championship and Olympic events. Vonn recounts only the races she regards as turning points. There’s some nut-and-bolts stuff, too: her choice of men’s skis, finding speed in the fall line and the processes of rehab. Perhaps there’s another book to be written, with gate-by-gate accounts of her greatest races. But this one is a doozy. —Seth Masia
Rise, by Lindsey Vonn. Dey Street Books (2022), hardcover, 336 pages, $28.99 (Kindle edition $14.99)
Skade Award: New England’s Backcountry Trails
In The Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast: 50 Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in New England and New York, David Goodman has created a comprehensive and timely guidebook for the renaissance of backcountry skiing. The book covers the premier ski tours in New Hampshire (detailing 21 of them), Maine (5), Vermont (18), New York (5) and Massachusetts (1). What impressed ISHA—and is key for the preservation of skiing’s roots—is Goodman’s inclusion of each locality’s skiing history.
Each of the 50 numbered tours begins with an overview, followed by trail statistics (elevations, distances, difficulty and how-to-get-there hints). An Appalachian Mountain Club topographical map for each region is included that’s overlaid with the color-coded ski trails, followed by the skiing history of that region. The tours are described in elegant and informative detail, most often accompanied by a beautiful color photograph of a skier or snowboarder enjoying a key feature of the route.
The layout and writing are engaging, and the author’s love for his sport is evident on every page: from the technicalities of Tuckerman’s Ravine to the beauty of Acadia National Park to the preservation challenges and deep powder on Big Jay. Even backcountry skiers who are not from the East will want to ski some of these tours after reading the book, and those who have let their backcountry involvement lapse will likely be enticed back. Backcountry skiing still represents the elemental roots of our sport, with its telemark turns, skins and untracked snow.
Goodman thought his first book, published in 1988, would sell 100 copies (95 of them to his friends). Four iterations later, and as Covid drives skiers away from crowds and into the backcountry, this edition seems to be the right book, at the right time. Goodman knows what he’s doing and he knows how to do it well. —Bob Soden
The Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast: 50 Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in New England and New York, by David Goodman. From the Appalachian Mountain Club publishers (2020), softcover, 312 pages, $21.95
Ullr Award: 36 Artists
Skiing In the Eye of the Artist, the latest book from E. John B. Allen, the author of Skiing History’s Ski Art column (see page 9), is a gem. In a pocket-sized format, it gathers 43 paintings, posters and drawings from 36 19th- and 20th-century artists (plus a bonus cover). The selected images are charming, ranging from nationalistic to satirical, promotional to contemplative. Landscapes, magazine illustrations, cartoons and fine art are represented, from Scandinavia, the Alps, the Balkans and North America. The lively artist biographies facing each color plate constitute a short course in the history of ski art.
Allen is a retired professor of history and a member of the Skiing History editorial board. He has written for this magazine since time immemorial, and this book is his fourth to win an ISHA award. In addition, in 2009 Allen received ISHA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
I received Eye of the Artist as a Christmas gift and gobbled it right up. It would fit in a stocking. —Seth Masia
Skiing in the Eye of the Artist by E. John B. Allen. Egoth Verlag, hardbound, 86 pages, 8 x 5 inches, $18.41
Skade Award: Harris Hill Jump
Harris Hill Ski Jump: The First 100 Years provides a faithful and detailed account of the origins and history of this iconic ski jump in Brattleboro, Vermont. A storied venue, now an Olympic sized, 90-meter ski jump—and the only one in New England—Harris Hill has hosted 18 U.S. national and regional championships since its inauguration.
The book is the product of a nonprofit group effort, the 100th Anniversary Committee: Mel Martin (creative director), Kevin O’Connor (writer), Dana Sprague (historian), Lynn Barrett, Pat Howell, Sally Seymour, Heidi Humphrey (designer) and Kelly Fletcher (photo editor).
Fred Harris, founder of the Dartmouth Outing Club in 1910, launched the Brattleboro Outing Club in 1922 and immediately led a fund-raising drive to build the jump. With $2,200 and a few helpers, Harris built the initial structure. He also designed the first Winged Ski Trophy, crafted by Cartier. The hill was officially named after its creator in 1951.
Though the jump was upgraded and extended continuously over the years, in 2005 the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association decreed the antiquated wooden tower unsafe for competitions. A new community funding effort was launched to raise the estimated $1 million required to restore it. By 2007 the town had raised only $250,000; then the Morton Foundation of New York sailed in to the rescue with a check for $130,000 and assurances that more would be available when required. The re-engineered jump opened on Valentine’s Day in 2009, at a final cost of $600,000.
Many ski jumping luminaries have taken flight in Brattleboro over the years, including Birger Ruud, Torger and Art Tokle, Art Devlin and Hugh Barber. Harris Hill has been open to women jumpers since 1948; the Olympics would not follow suit until 2014.
This book is lavishly illustrated with archival images and documents (thanks in part to the collaboration of Jeff Leich at the New England Ski Museum) and more current color photographs. It also catalogues the winners over the jump’s 100-year run, the names of those who retired six of the winged trophies and a detailed timeline. —Bob Soden
Harris Hill Ski Jump: The First 100 Years by the 100th Anniversary Committee. Harris Hill Ski Jump, Inc. (2021), softcover, 120 pages, $28.95
In 1958, Stein Eriksen was at the height of his fame, and had just moved to Snowmass as director of skiing. For years, he and his older brother Marius popularized a red-white-blue sweater pattern, knitted by their mother Birgit and designed by Unn Søiland, called the Marius sweater. Patterns were distributed by the wool-producer Sandnes Uldvarefabrik. Then Jantzen came calling. Founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1910, the knitwear company made sweaters, but the main product was swimwear. Much of Jantzen’s national advertising was cheesecake (or beefcake) featuring swimmers glistening with water, but the sportswear ads featured top pro athletes looking dapper off the court. The Eriksen sweater campaign, with this action shot, was a change of pace. You can still buy Marius-pattern sweaters from Dale of Norway, and find vintage Jantzen sweaters on eBay. The ad ran in the November 1958 issue of SKI Magazine. –Seth Masia
Coming Up in Future Issues
History of Dynamic A tiny factory in Sillans, France, built skis to order for French racers. That’s how the VR17 happened. And with Le Trappeur right next door, racers got their boots made on the same visit.
Prehistory of Heliskiing Founding guides awaited the evolution of reliable helicopters, and then had to train more guides.
Beijing Olympics No World Cup skiers have seen the courses. Are they too easy for world class racing? Edie Thys Morgan investigates.
To elaborate on “Better Than Wool” (March-April 2021), Polarfleece was an evolutionary product. The first polyester fiber insulations were created in the mid-1960s by compressing nonwoven Dupont Dacron and Celanese Fortrel, used in quilted outerwear. Later, nonquilted jackets used a tougher version made on a needle-punching machine. I made this stuff for the skiwear industry at our Seattle factory beginning in 1975; a competing factory made it in New England.
In 1978, 3M began manufacturing and selling Thinsulate in Asia. That disrupted North American insulation manufacture. U.S. skiwear makers had to compete with China. We needed a new U.S.-made synthetic insulation.
At Malden Mills, where I worked selling synthetic pile fabrics, we knew how to make sweatshirt fleece from cotton-polyester blends. In 1980, I asked Malden to make a blanket fleece fabric using a special Fortrel polyester fiber. This was fleece. It gave us a competitive product to the stuff made in Asia, and allowed skiwear brands to keep their sewing factories here in the U.S.A.
I need to add an environmental note: North American mills operate under strict EPA guidelines. Asian mills often poison their rivers. The more American products you buy, the cleaner the planet.
Doug Hoschek
Seattle, Washington
The Musical Origin of the Jim Dandy Ski Club
I enjoyed reading the article by Charlie Sanders, “A History of Ski Music and Song” (September-October 2021). . . . The nation’s first Black ski club, the Jim Dandy Ski Club, was formed in 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, named after the rhythm and blues song “Jim Dandy,” written by Lincoln Chase and first recorded by American singer LaVern Baker in 1956.
The song was recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and included in Rolling Stone’s Greatest Songs of All Times. The song is about a man named Jim Dandy who rescues women from improbable situations. The lyrics begin with the phrases, “Jim Dandy to the rescue” and “Go, Jim Dandy,” and go on to describe the predicament: “I was sitting on a mountain top, 30,000 feet to drop.”
The ski club, which boasts 300 to 400 members, added to the song, “Jim Dandy does the hockey stop.” Members ski to the beat of the song. I would like to see more articles in the journal that reflect the contributions made by Black skiers, including African Americans, to skiing history.
Naomi Bryson
Chandler, Arizona
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Vermont’s first chairlift opened at Mt. Mansfield on November 17, 1940. Management claimed it was the longest in the world, at 6,330 feet, rising 2,033 vertical feet. It delivered 200 skiers per hour to the summit after a painfully slow (and freezing) half-hour ride. Riders on the single chair huddled under woolen blankets, with no one to talk to or cuddle with. As early as 1943, skiers complained of waiting in two-hour lift lines. Across the road on Spruce Peak, a faster double chair arrived in 1954, carrying 500 skiers per hour, but that didn’t solve the Mt. Mansfield waits. So it was big news when the Ski Capital of the East boasted about its “NEW double chairlift” in this 1961 SKI Magazine ad. The new double more than tripled capacity to the summits, and lift lines evaporated for a couple of seasons. But overcrowding returned, and in 1986 the original single chair was replaced by New England’s first high-speed quad, hauling 1,500 skiers per hour.
Coming Up in Future Issues
Whatever Happened to ruade? Remember hopping your ski tails up and sideways to start a turn? Ron LeMaster explains the “mule kick” turn.
Aspen’s 75th Anniversary Most of us know how Friedl Pfeifer and Walter Paepcke brought ski lifts to Aspen. We look at the locals who actually built the lifts and lodges.
The History of Yellowstone on Skis In the late 1880s, Army ski patrols chased poachers in America’s first national park. Add skiing mailmen and tourists, and Yellowstone quietly became a hub of skiing in the West.
Where Are They Now? He raced for Italy on the World Cup tour from 1981-89, was a teammate of Alberto Tomba and was the 1990 Rookie of the Year on the U.S. Pro Tour. We catch up with Marco Tonazzi.
PLUS
Spider’s Web More than four decades after his death, the delayed induction of Spider Sabich into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame illuminates his life.
Wayne Wong, of Vancouver, British Columbia, at age 19, took third place in the very first International Championships of Exhibition Skiing, held in March 1971 at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire (grand prize was a Corvette). In 1976, Wong endorsed the new 230-horsepower Dodge Aspen R/T—the performance version of the “compact” Aspen introduced that year. The code-name for the development program had been Aspen-Vail, and the Plymouth version was named Volaré (without the accent it means “to fly” in Italian). Wong flew on to stardom, but the Aspen/ Volaré was a lemon. By 1978, quality problems nearly bankrupted Chrysler, and incoming boss Lee Iacocca axed the Aspen in favor of the front-wheel-drive K-Car series,
introduced in 1980. —Seth Masia
In future issues:
Whatever Happened To Down/UP? Remember when instructors told us to get tall to start the turn? Is up-unweighting still a teaching tool? Ron LeMaster explains.
Where Are They Now? American racer Marco Sullivan retired after 15 years on the World Cup circuit—and a record 105 downhills. Edith Thys Morgan catches up with the speed specialist.
True Northland Fires and feuds in St. Paul: The real story behind the world’s best hickory skis.
PLUS
Listen Up! Remember singing “Super Skier” around the ski lodge fireplace? From yodeling odes to “90 Pounds of Rucksack” to the latest streaming jams, music has always been a key part of ski culture. Listen to the classics through ISHA’s multi-media reconstruction of ski-music history.
Until around 1995, ski instructors and patrollers wore stretch pants as part of the uniform. Thus it was that, in 1992, Steamboat’s 6-foot-4-inch ski-school director, Rick DeVos, and 5-foot ski patroller Carroll Peebles (now Zamzow) posed for a Roffe ad. Rick went on to run the Steamboat Winter Sports Club, and in retirement teaches skiing again. Carroll left the patrol in 2002 and ran the Hahn’s Peak Roadhouse, north of Steamboat, until this year. Sam Roffe died in 1994; his company was sold and resold several times. Resorts adopted bulkier but more durable weatherproof uniforms, and stretch pants became a high-fashion niche. –Seth Masia
Coming Up in Future Issues
Aspen’s 75th Anniversary
In 1938, Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke visited Aspen and liked what he saw. Paepcke soon began to acquire land and in 1946 incorporated the Aspen Skiing Company—for a start.
We look back at Aspen’s formative years.
Remember wedeln?
Has it been repackaged for today’s curriculum or tossed into the ski school dustbin? Ron LeMaster explains.
PLUS
The Bonne Bell Ski Team
As the Official Cosmetic of the US Ski Team, Bonne Bell sold glamour, sex appeal and athletic grace in the 1960s and ’70s. The ads said “Out there, you need us, baby,” and the models could really ski.
