How is it that a young man—raised in the road camps of California’s Central Valley, abandoned at age 15 by his father, deposited with his grandparents in a damp coal-mining town in central Washington by his mother, and thrust into adulthood near the end of the Great Depression—eventually came to build one of the biggest and most successful ski resorts in the country?
Dave McCoy’s work ethic, self-reliance, determination, optimism and ingenuity certainly played roles, but perhaps there was a more determinative influence.
Author Robin Morning returns with her second comprehensive work covering the history of California’s Mammoth Mountain and its protagonists with For the Love of It: The Mammoth Legacy of Roma & Dave McCoy. Note the order of Mammoth’s founders in the title, as Robin (and Dave) both attribute much of his success to his wife of 80 years, local girl Roma Carriere. In the book, Roma’s perspective is intimately shared through first-person chapters alternating with the third-person descriptions that tell Dave’s story.
The book details the lives of Dave and Roma from childhood through the completion of Chair One in 1953, marking the beginning of commercial skiing at Mammoth. While the legends of Dave’s life in the Eastern Sierra are widely known—from aqueduct repair work with the Civilian Conservation Corps, to erecting ski tows throughout the Highway 395 corridor, and his fortuitous hiring as a hydrographer (for his skiing ability)—the familiar stories blossom here in a conversational tone.
Dave met Roma in Bishop, a shy local girl who had a passion for dance but was soon converted to the rhythms of skiing. Inspired by a desire to have fun up in snow country and share that fun with others, together they built a legendary junior racing program at Mammoth while raising six racers of their own. Kids from near and far gravitated to Mammoth to enjoy Roma’s home cooking and cozy floor space while under the tutelage of Coach Dave.
Mammoth Mountain was developed not through any vision shared with would-be financiers, but through the McCoys’ remarkable resourcefulness. Dave became something of a Pied Piper on the mountain, with a diverse following of former accountants, engineers, World War II veterans and surfers abandoning their former lives to participate. Roma provided the home base where all were welcomed as family after a day of good clean fun moving tows, fixing weasels, clearing roads and skiing.
Morning grew up in Santa Monica and raced for McCoy at Mammoth, competing for the U.S. Ski Team from 1965 to 1968. The day before the opening ceremonies for the 1968 Winter Olympics at Grenoble, she broke her leg on a downhill training run. After coaching junior and master’s racers in Southern California, Mammoth, and Colorado, she became a schoolteacher and eventually found her way back to Mammoth, where she still lives. She’s the author of the ISHA Award-winning book Tracks of Passion: Eastern Sierra Skiing, Dave McCoy & Mammoth Mountain.
Morning has published her new book, For the Love of It, in part as tribute to her friend McCoy, who died in February 2020 at 104 (see Skiing History, March-April 2020). Available in softcover, 426 pages with numerous photos, signed copies available. Order online at www.blueoxpress.com. —Chris I. Lizza
Photo above: In receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Der Schneehase, editor Ivan Wagner acknowledged the book’s previous editors, going back to 1924.
The 28th annual ISHA Awards were presented during an online ceremony on November 7. Originally scheduled for March 26 in Sun Valley, the banquet was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
During the 90-minute Zoom program, awards were presented to the authors or producers of ten books, two films and a website that made significant contributions to our understanding of skiing history during calendar year 2019. All but two of the awardees logged on, from across Europe and North America, to accept their trophies.
In addition, a lifetime achievement award was presented to Der Schneehase, the annual publication of the Swiss Academic Ski Club, now in its 40th edition. Schneehase editor Ivan Wagner accepted on behalf of SAS. A special award went to the Holding family of Sun Valley, for their preservation of Sun Valley’s skiing history.
It was an interesting evening as the awardees, who comprise some of the world’s leading ski historians, discussed their winning projects. Highlights included:
Christof Thöny
• The editors of Skispuren (Ski Tracks), Rudolf Müllner and Christof Thöny, noted that skiing history is an immature academic discipline and called for more conferences involving researchers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Philipp Strobl
• Philipp Strobl, co-editor with Aneta Podkalicka of Leisure Cultures and the Making of Modern Ski Resorts, was surprised to learn through his research how interconnected skiers were a century ago around the world. Instructors travelled seasonally between hemispheres, and transported and taught skiing culture wherever they went.
Isak Lidström
• Isak Lidström, author of Heja Persson! Sámi Triumph in the Vasaloppet, described parallels between the experiences of indigenous athletes in Scandinavia and North America, in their confrontation of the stereotype of “natural” or racial-based talent.
• Jeremy Davis, author of Lost Ski Areas of the Berkshires, noted that since founding his New England Lost Ski Areas Project (nelsap.org) in 1998 he has documented more than 700 closed ski areas—including Roger Picard’s Thunderbolt rope tow, which ran on Mt. Greylock for just three weeks in 1958.
Chris Diamond
• Chris Diamond, author of Ski Inc. 2020, explained that no business publication has covered the astonishing success of rapidly consolidating ski resort operations over the past five years. His co-author Andy Bigford remarked that, counterintuitively, consolidation has been a boon for consumers, and that multi-resort mega-passes appear to be helping people to ski during the COVID-19 epidemic.
• Jeff Conroy and Patrick Creadon, producers of Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story, recounted the experience of interviewing 92-year-old Warren Miller at his home, just eight months before he died. Warren told his entire life story in nine hours over the course of three days —while some of the skiers who starred in his films visited for a final reunion.
• Patrick Thorne, creator of DrySlopeNews.com, recalled learning to ski on a dry slope in 1970 before heading to the Alps on a school holiday.
• Ivan Wagner, editor of Der Schneehase, acknowledged the five editors who have produced 40 volumes since 1924: Walter Amstutz, Arnold Kaech, Kaspar Wolf, Raoul Imseng and Martin Hodler.
To watch the 90-minute program, and read about the award-winning works, use the links at skiinghistory.org/events.
Postponed: Skiing History Week 2021
Due to the ongoing spike in COVID-19 cases, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame will postpone its 2021 induction banquet and related events, originally scheduled for April 7 to 11, 2021, at Snowmass, Colorado. Revised plans were in development at press time.
ISHA will modify plans for its 29th Annual ISHA Awards banquet, originally scheduled for April 8 at Snowmass. ISHA will announce new dates for the 2021 awards before the end of this year.
The Hall of Fame and ISHA plan to hold their 2022 banquets in Sun Valley and return to Snowmass in 2023.
Joe Jay Jalbert Joins ISHA Board
Joe Jay Jalbert was unimously elected to the ISHA Board of Directors at our November online meeting.
Jalbert began skiing at age five in Mullan, Idaho and dominated PNSA racing as a four-time Junior Nationals Team member. While studying at the University of Washington on an academic scholarship, he was recruited to ski and captained the UW ski team. He raced internationally prior to the debut of the World Cup and narrowly missed a spot on the 1968 Olympic team.
Jalbert landed a role as ski double for Robert Redford in the 1969 classic film Downhill Racer, and learned to shoot film by carrying a camera down the Lauberhorn course. He won his first Emmy for cinematography in 1971, for a CBS network feature from Sun Valley with Jean-Claude Killy and Peggy Fleming. In 1972 he launched Jalbert Productions International, and now has more than 800 productions to his credit.
In 1975, he won the first of 16 category titles at the International Ski Film Festival, taking best of show a year later with Just a Matter of Time, a documentary on the classic 1976 Olympic downhill matchup at Innsbruck between Franz Klammer and Bernhard Russi. That film would springboard Jalbert Productions into the global spotlight, starting a series of four IOC Olympic and 13 FIS World Championship official films. He distributed his films through broadcast syndication, a field in which he remains an industry leader. For over 20 years, Jalbert produced official films for the U.S. Ski Team.
Jalbert has won more than 30 international film awards. In 2002 he was honored as the FIS Journalist of the Year, and in 2007 received ISHA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
2020 Fundraising Drive: Help Us Meet Our Goal!
ISHA’s annual year-end fundraising drive kicked off on October 1, and by Thanksgiving individual donations were running about 10 percent ahead of the previous record pace during the 2019 campaign.
This is gratifying. In October we told ISHA’s members that, due the economic impact of COVID-19, we forecast roughly a 20 percent drop in the revenues we need to support publication of Skiing History magazine, the website skiinghistory.org, the annual ISHA Awards program and other programs in support of our nonprofit mission. We asked that members contribute early rather than wait for the end of the tax year, and you responded. Thank you!
Nonetheless, ISHA will run an operating deficit in 2020 and we have dipped into investment reserves to meet current expenses. We need a strong finish to meet our goal. If you’ve already sent in a gift, thank you! If you have not, please do so before December 31. ISHA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and contributions are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers.
To give, please donate online at skiinghistory.org/donate or use the envelope bound into this issue.
Many members have asked how to give in memory of the late John Fry. Simply write his name on the memo line on your check, or if donating online, check the In Memory box and enter John Fry. Questions? Call our office: 802.375.1105.
John Fry Tribute Video: Now online
ISHA has produced a 10-minute biographical video honoring the late John Fry, longtime president and chairman of ISHA, editor of SKI Magazine, founding editor of Snow Country and honored member of the U.S. and Canadian Halls of Fame. Produced by Rick Moulton, the video features a 2006 interview with Fry, with plenty of archival photos. See the video at tinyurl.com/JohnFry.
Eight snowsport pioneers were elected to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 in October. Due to the pandemic, plans for an induction ceremony are pending.
Bobbie Burns began designing and producing skis for K2 in the 1960s, eventually creating the skis that Marilyn Cochran used in 1969 to become the first American to win an alpine World Cup discipline title (GS, 1969). In 1974, Burns launched his own company and began making The Ski, one of the most famous freestyle skis of the era. Nicknamed “The Snow Goose” for his loose style in the bumps, Burns was an iconic founder of hot-dog freestyle.
Brian Fairbank, chairman of the Fairbank Group (Bromley, Cranmore, Jiminy Peak), is a pioneer in resort sustainability. He installed a wind turbine at Jiminy and then added solar, making Jiminy the first U.S. resort to be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. In 2008, NSAA recognized his effort with its Golden Eagle award.
Holly Flanders was one of the most dominant U.S. downhill racers of her era. In 1982, she was second in the women’s World Cup standings, the highest DH ranking for any American woman in more than a decade. From 1987 to 2016, she ran a popular series of women’s ski-instruction workshops at Park City, Wolf Mountain and Canyons in Utah.
Alison Owen was a dominant nordic racer in the late 1970s, becoming the first American to win a FIS cross country World Cup race in 1978, a U.S. women’s mark that stood for 33 years. A year later, she finished second at the prestigious Holmenkollen 10K in Oslo. The eight-time U.S. champion retired in 1981 and became a coach in Sun Valley.
Howard Peterson was a longtime influential leader with the U.S. Ski Team and a pivotal voice in bringing the Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City in 2002. As secretary general of USSA in the late 1980s, Peterson pushed the U.S. Olympic Committee to select a candidate city based on its willingness to develop legacy facilities and training venues that could be used long after the Games. A Maine native, he also co-founded the National Ski Touring Association (now the Cross-Country Ski Areas Association. He died in May 2020.
Kristean Porter was a world champion and two-time overall World Cup title holder as a U.S. freestyle skier in the mid-1990s, excelling in aerials, ballet and moguls. She made her World Cup debut in 1989 and scored her first podium within a month. A year later, she picked up the first of four World Championship medals, taking bronze in aerials.
Hank Tauber raced for Middlebury College and then joined the U.S. Ski Team as a coach in 1967, rising through the ranks to U.S. alpine ski team director, a position he held from 1974 to 1979. Under his leadership, U.S. racers won eight Olympic and World Championship medals. From 1980 to 1984, he was president of Marker USA. He then acquired the worldwide Marker International and was chairman and CEO until 1998. In 1988 Tauber was elected a vice president, executive board and council member of FIS and served in that position until 2002. He was a founding trustee of the Switzerland-based Marc Hodler Foundation and was named an honorary lifetime member of FIS in 2002. In 1982 he received the Julius Blegen Award, U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s highest award for outstanding contribution to the sport of skiing.
Seth Wescott was a back-to-back Olympic champion, winning gold in snowboard cross in 2006 (Torino) and 2010 (Vancouver). In his career he won four X Games medals (one gold) and four World Championship medals (one gold). He also won the fabled Mount Baker Banked Slalom in 2019 and 2020, and co-owns Winterstick.
Oslo Olympians Honored in Oz
Snow Australia, the national governing body for competitive snow sports, has announced the first recipients of its Snow Australia Medal. The new award will celebrate the careers of athletes who represent the country at the highest level of the sport.
Bob Arnott and his fellow 1952 Winter Olympians were the first
Australians to receive the Snow Australia Medal. After competing in all three alpine events at Oslo, he went on to an active
career as a FIS official.
The Oslo Olympics marked only the second time that Australia had sent a team to the Winter Games. Alpine and cross-country skiing were the sole snow-sport events on the Olympic program and the Aussies were amateurs with limited resources. They had to fit their training around work commitments, and for some the activities overlapped: Haslingden was a sheep rancher in Cooma, and wrangling herds was key to his workout regimen. Plus, few Australian ski areas had lifts in the early 1950s. Trudging up the slopes was a great way to stay fit, but not the best preparation for world-class competition.
For the 1952 Olympians, travelling to the Games involved a long and expensive six-week ship voyage. And when they finally raced, Australian athletes could not match their talented rivals from Europe. Austrian skiers dominated the alpine races and Scandinavian racers swept the podiums in cross country.
Bob Arnott later recalled the downhill, a challenging race run on very little snow, as the highlight of his Games. “I started off behind the Greek, there were probably one-minute intervals,” he said. “The Greek” was two-time Olympian Alexandros Vouxinos, who left the start hut just before Arnott, wearing bib 87.
“The start of the race was fairly straightforward: The Greek disappeared, and I was sent off,” Arnott continued. “Then we came to a traverse. It was fairly steep, and the Greek had fallen down the hill, and so I passed him. Then the same thing happened to me: I fell down the hill and he passed me. Then I got up and managed to pass him again with a schuss.” Arnott eventually crossed the line almost two minutes ahead of Vouxinos, who finished dead last.
Arnott, who died in 2016, is remembered not only for his racing career, but also for his 27-year-long tenure within the FIS. As a FIS official, he left a significant legacy in the classification system he conceived with American FIS delegate Bob Beattie: The “Bob Rule” is still at the core of the FIS points system used to rank skiers around the world today.
Over the next year, the Snow Australia medal will be presented to all athletes across alpine, cross-country, freestyle, snowboard, park and pipe, and Paralympic disciplines who during their careers have (1) finished in the top three at FIS World Cup or World Championship level, and/or (2) represented Australia at the Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games. Learn more at https://www.snow.org.au/legacy/medal/.
How is it that a young man—raised in the road camps of California’s Central Valley, abandoned at age 15 by his father, deposited with his grandparents in a damp coal-mining town in central Washington by his mother, and thrust into adulthood near the end of the Great Depression—eventually came to build one of the biggest and most successful ski resorts in the country?
Dave McCoy’s work ethic, self-reliance, determination, optimism and ingenuity certainly played roles, but perhaps there was a more determinative influence.
Author Robin Morning returns with her second comprehensive work covering the history of California’s Mammoth Mountain and its protagonists with For the Love of It: The Mammoth Legacy of Roma & Dave McCoy. Note the order of Mammoth’s founders in the title, as Robin (and Dave) both attribute much of his success to his wife of 80 years, local girl Roma Carriere. In the book, Roma’s perspective is intimately shared through first-person chapters alternating with the third-person descriptions that tell Dave’s story.
The book details the lives of Dave and Roma from childhood through the completion of Chair One in 1955, marking the beginning of commercial skiing at Mammoth. While the legends of Dave’s life in the Eastern Sierra are widely known—from aqueduct repair work with the Civilian Conservation Corps, to erecting ski tows throughout the Highway 395 corridor, and his fortuitous hiring as a hydrographer (for his skiing ability)—the familiar stories blossom here in a conversational tone.
Dave and Roma McCoy in Virginia City, Nevada in 1938.
Dave met Roma in Bishop, a shy local girl who had a passion for dance but was soon converted to the rhythms of skiing. Inspired by a desire to have fun up in snow country and share that fun with others, together they built a legendary junior racing program at Mammoth while raising six racers of their own. Kids from near and far gravitated to Mammoth to enjoy Roma’s home cooking and cozy floor space while under the tutelage of Coach Dave.
Mammoth Mountain was developed not through any vision shared with would-be financiers, but through the McCoys’ remarkable resourcefulness. Dave became something of a Pied Piper on the mountain, with a diverse following of former accountants, engineers, World War II veterans and surfers abandoning their former lives to participate. Roma provided the home base where all were welcomed as family after a day of good clean fun moving tows, fixing weasels, clearing roads and skiing.
Morning grew up in Santa Monica and raced for McCoy at Mammoth, competing for the U.S. Ski Team from 1965 to 1968. The day before the opening ceremonies for the 1968 Winter Olympics at Grenoble, she broke her leg on a downhill training run. After coaching junior and master’s racers in Southern California, Mammoth, and Colorado, she became a schoolteacher and eventually found her way back to Mammoth, where she still lives. She’s the author of the ISHA Award-winning book Tracks of Passion: Eastern Sierra Skiing, Dave McCoy & Mammoth Mountain.
Morning has published her new book, For the Love of It, in part as tribute to her friend McCoy, who died in February 2020 at 104 (see Skiing History, March-April 2020). Available in softcover, 426 pages with numerous photos, signed copies available. Order online at www.blueoxexpress.com.—Chris I. Lizza
Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story
Ski Bum is a 90-minute review of the late Warren Miller’s extraordinary career, told through archival footage and one final interview with Warren himself.
For decades, the ski season didn’t really begin until the latest spectacular film was released by Warren Miller Productions, filled with balletic, slow-motion mountain footage of death-defying ski and snowboard stunts. Director Patrick Creadon’s Ski Bum—titled after the moniker the Seattle-area legend often used for himself—celebrates the life and art of one of the most prolific sports-documentary pioneers.
Credited with more than 750 sports films, Miller started as a surfer in his native Hollywood before moving to the Pacific Northwest to practically invent the winter-sports film genre. As Creadon’s homage shows, Miller’s simple 8mm movies from the 1950s snowballed into a 50-year commercial-film career that set the standard for audacious stunts. But success did not come without hardship; Miller used to promote his films on exhausting 100-city road tours, which took a toll on his family life and finances.
Based on a 2018 interview the then-92-year-old Miller gave shortly before his death at his Orcas Island home, Ski Bum explores the techniques used by the veteran filmmaker, who also served as cinematographer, editor, producer—and often live narrator—of his films. Using interviews with daredevil skiers, never-before-seen outtakes, and home movies, Ski Bum is a must-see for any ripper or shredder forever in search of the gnarliest powder.
Creadon is a director and cinematographer born in 1967 in Riverside, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1989 with a BA in International Relations. Creadon is married to his collaborator, producer Christine O’Malley. They co-founded their full-scale media production company, O’Malley Creadon Productions, which is based in Los Angeles and focuses on nonfiction storytelling.
The Berkshires of Massachusetts have long been known as a winter sports paradise. Forty-four ski areas popped up across the region from the 1930s to the 1970s. The legendary Thunderbolt Ski Trail put the Berkshires on the map for challenging terrain, while major resorts like Brodie Mountain sparked the popularity of night skiing with lighted trails. All-inclusive areas—like Oak n’ Spruce, Eastover and Jug End—brought thousands of new skiers into the sport between the 1940s and 1970s. Meanwhile, snow trains made it fun and easy for metro-area skiers to plan weekend ski excursions.
But despite the surge of interest in skiing in Berkshire County, the majority of these ski areas would not last. Early areas closed permanently during World War II, followed by lift relocations and the shutdown of the snow trains. In the 1970s and 1980s, the pace of closures increased due to competition from larger areas to the north, gasoline shortages, a dearth of natural snow, and a lack of volunteers at community ski centers. Over the last few decades, these once-storied places faded away and were nearly forgotten. Trails became forests once again, base lodges rotted into the ground, and lifts rusted away.
In Lost Ski Areas of the Berkshires, author Jeremy Davis has brought these lost locales back to life, chronicling their rich histories and contributions to the ski industry.
Each former ski area, no matter how small or brief in operation, is chronicled, along with 75 historical photographs and trail maps, and the stories of those who skied them. For those who wish to explore these areas and see their ruins, a hiking guide is included for publicly accessible locations. The seven still-surviving ski areas have their own chapter.
Jeremy Davis is the founder of the New England and North East Lost Ski Areas Project (www.nelsap.org) and has written five books on lost ski areas. He serves on the Skiing History editorial review board and the board of directors of the New England Ski Museum. He is a senior meteorologist and operations manager at Weather Routing Inc., forecasting for the marine industry.
Lost Ski Areas of the Berkshires by Jeremy Davis. 240 pages. The History Press. $21.99 softcover, Kindle edition available. Winner: 2019 ISHA Skade Award.
DrySlopeNews.com
Patrick Thorne, creator of dryslopenews.com
Artificial slopes, using carpet or matting in place of snow, bring skiing to areas without reliable natural snowfall. Skiers have used them for over a century, but the earliest artificial surfaces manufactured specifically for skiing date from the 1950s. Since then, more than 1,000 have been built in 50-plus countries worldwide. The slopes come in many different shapes and sizes, with several companies involved in their manufacturing over the past 70 years, so no two are ever the same.
Dry ski slopes are essential for teaching millions of people to ski or snowboard. They can take the basic skills acquired on artificial slopes and then ski at conventional resorts around the world. Indeed, claims ski writer Patrick Thorne, dryland slopes have been a major factor in the success of the global ski industry. Many established dry slopes have strong community support, enabling children and people with special needs to learn to ski or board as well as practice regularly. They’ve also bred some of the world’s best skiers and snowboarders who’ve gone on to World Cup and Olympic glory.
The website DrySlopeNews.com includes an extensive directory of existing and former dry slope operations, with a timeline history going back to the Vienna Schneepalast of 1927. The site is the brainchild of Thorne, who learned to ski on a dry slope as a youngster in the late 1970s.
Thorne has covered skiing from his base in the United Kingdom for more than 30 years and has recently joined ISHA as a contributor to Skiing History and skiinghistory.org. He operates the news site InTheSnow.com and a sister site, indoorsnownews.com, covering the snowdome universe. DrySlopeNews.com won a 2019 ISHA Cyber Award. —Seth Masia
North Country
In Littleton, New Hampshire, near Cannon Mountain, Lahout’s Country Clothing and Ski Shop has done business at the same location since 1920. Fourteen-year-old Herbert Lahout emigrated from Syria in 1898, and became a railroad laborer. He married his wife Anne in 1919 and the couple sold groceries from a horse-drawn wagon. The following year they moved the business into Littleton’s Old Grange Hall, and lived upstairs. Herb died in 1934 and, in the depths of the Depression, Anne was left to run the store with her kids Gladys, 14, and Joe, 12.
Joe learned to ski, and the sport became his lifelong passion. After returning from service in the South Pacific during World War II, he added skis to the store’s inventory of hardware, dry goods, beer and groceries. Under the management of Joe’s three sons, and now of his grandson Anthony, Lahout’s developed into a full-service ski and outdoor store, with six locations in Littleton and Lincoln, half an hour south.
Joe died in 2016, on his 94th birthday. The 21-minute film North Country tells the family’s story, with plenty of vintage ski footage from the Franconia Notch region. Lahout’s became integral to the history of skiing in New Hampshire. It’s a story of tough people thriving in a harsh climate—people who ventured out into the wider world but returned to the store to support their parents and grandparents.
Director Nick Martini runs Stept Productions, making commercials for brands like Toyota, Oakley, Columbia, The North Face and Under Armour. He grew up in the Boston area, skiing in New Hampshire. After earning his MBA, executive producer Anthony Lahout worked in finance before taking marketing jobs at Smith Sport Optics and Spyder Skiwear. He returned to Littleton in 2015 to take over the family business. So far, the film has been shown at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, Banff Film Festival, and the Kendall Mountain Festival in the United Kingdom. The next step: Finding partners to bring the film to the public. —Seth Masia
North Country, produced by Anthony Lahout, written and
directed by Nick Martini. Winner: 2019 ISHA Film Award. Learn more at steptstudios.com.
Edie Thys Morgan’s excellent profile of Glen Plake (“Evolution of Rebel,” May-June 2020) perfectly captured the person I call the “World’s Most Recognized Skier.” I’ve always been proud to call Glen and his wife, Kimberly, friends. I admire his enthusiasm for all things ski—especially the roots of freestyle—and the way he connects with all kinds, and all ages, of skiers.
Over the years, Glen has appeared many times at ski shows I’ve produced. He immediately attracts a crowd—just like he does when at the many small ski areas that he and Kimberly visit on their Down Home Ski Tours. He always makes time to talk, to pose for pictures, sign posters and, in general, make everyone feel like the most important person he’s met that day! Glen Plake is the best ambassador our sport has ever had, a true “natural resource” that the World of Snow is lucky to have.
Photo above: Plake (center, blue parka) attracts fans at Mad River Glen in Vermont (above) and Black Mountain in Maine (center, plaid shirt) on his Down Home tours of small U.S. ski areas. Wallace Brodeur photo.
All Downhill For Pat Paré
I wanted to contribute a little more information about my mother, Pat Paré, who raced at the Seigniory Club with the Penguins (“Canada’s Forgotten Ski Center,” Skiing History, September-October 2020). As the story explained, in February 1939, she was 21 years old and known for her nerve. She raced out West, in Canada and the United States, at Mont Tremblant and everywhere else she could. But years later she told us, her six children, that at the time she hadn’t yet learned to ski. She just pointed herself straight down the hills, and either she crashed or got to the bottom first. That year she won the downhill at the Women’s Dominion Ski Championships at the Seigniory. She could not have won the slalom.
My grandfather lamented the cost of her medical bills to Bill Oliver, the head of Noorduyn Aviation, asking for his help because now she wanted to learn to fly. He was sure she was going to kill herself trying. Oliver called one of his pilots into his office, an airplane mechanic from Toronto who’d been flying since he was 14 years old, and told him the daughter of a rich friend was coming in to learn to fly. “Take her up, give her a good scare, and send her home,” he said. Mom never got her license, but she got her pilot, my father.
This month ISHA launches its annual year-end fundraising campaign. Like any nonprofit, we’ll send out notices to our longtime supporters and new members alike, asking for holiday-season gifts—tax-deductible in the United States—to defray the costs of publishing our bimonthly Skiing History magazine, our website skiinghistory.org, the annual ISHA Awards, and outreach programs to recruit new members.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been a difficult year for most nonprofits and for the donors who support them. Many individuals and businesses who normally contribute to favorite causes faced straitened times beginning in March. ISHA has been more fortunate than most—over the years our loyal members have provided sufficient support, so we went into the new recession with enough cash on hand to defray operational costs through this year. We experienced interruptions in several important revenue streams. We were forced to cancel our Skiing History Week events, including the annual ISHA Awards banquet, and some of our corporate sponsors, who lost their spring-skiing revenue, have had to cut back support until business picks up again.
ISHA ran a balanced budget in 2019, thanks to individual donors (who provided 50.7 percent of ISHA revenue with gifts over and above their membership dues), and some 60 corporate sponsors who provided 21.2 percent of revenue (membership dues accounted for 19.4 percent of revenue).
We will certainly not be able to operate in the black this year, and have already dipped into reserves held in investment accounts. In a typical year about 65 percent of individual donations come to us in November and December. This year, we ask that whatever you are able to give, you give early. When gifts come in during October rather than in late December, we are more easily able to run on operational revenue.
ISHA Awards Banquet to be held at Snowmass, April 8, 2021
We are pushing ahead with plans to collaborate once again with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame to stage a series of events we call Skiing History Week. Dates this year will be April 7 to 11, at Snowmass, Colorado. ISHA plans a welcoming cocktail party and John Fry Memorial Lecture series on Wednesday, April 7, with our Awards Banquet on April 8. The Hall of Fame has scheduled its annual Induction Banquet for Saturday, April 10. Please mark your calendar and help us celebrate what we hope will mark the resumption of normal life in North American skiing.
Recruiting
ISHA would like to organize a network of local Skiing History Clubs across the country. We envision each club as a group of friends who meet occasionally for skiing and good talk about the sport and its traditions. We encourage lunches, cocktails, dinners, lectures, tall tales and outright lying (the older we get, the better we were). Longtime ISHA members, and some of our museum and retail partners, are eager to help organize events and venues. If you’d like to help build a local group, please email me. seth@skiinghistory.org.
We lost our long-time leader John Fry in January, at age 90. Three other ISHA board members have resigned this year due to health issues or time commitments elsewhere. We are down to 17 active board members, from a full complement of 23 (minimum is nine). ISHA depends critically on the committee work performed by its board of directors. If you have skills in finance, marketing, sales, communications, event planning or publishing, and would like to contribute time and expertise to ISHA’s success, please email me: seth@skiinghistory.org.
New tax benefit for charitable donations
U.S. taxpayers should be aware of a new federal law providing tax benefits when you support the causes you care about, including ISHA. Under the CARES Act, all taxpayers are eligible to deduct up to $300 of charitable giving ($600 for a married couple filing jointly), whether you itemize deductions or take the standard deduction. This is $300 you won’t have to pay taxes on, even if you don’t itemize. For those who do itemize deductions, the new law allows for cash contributions to qualified charities such as ISHA to be deducted up to 100 percent of your adjusted gross income for the 2020 calendar year.
And, if your employer matches charitable contributions, your gift to ISHA could make an even bigger impact!
The Winter Park Express ski train, which has hauled Denver skiers through the Moffat Tunnel on and off since 1940, takes another hiatus for the 2020-21 winter season.
According to a Winter Park press release dated September 30, " Amtrak has been reducing the number of seats sold on each train to enable distancing, a best-practice that will likely continue into the upcoming winter season. Amtrak and Winter Park Resort evaluated seating options on the Winter Park Express and agreed that with social distancing requirements, it was not possible to operate the train successfully this season. The resort and Amtrak thank our customers and look forward to welcoming them back again in the 2022 season."
Joe Jay Jalbert was unimously elected to the ISHA Board of Directors at our November online meeting.
ISHA has produced a 10-minute biographical video honoring the late John Fry, longtime president and chairman of ISHA, editor of SKI Magazine, founding editor of Snow Country and honored member of the U.S. and Canadian Halls of Fame. Produced by Rick Moulton, the video features a 2006 interview with Fry, with plenty of archival photos. See the video at 
Bobbie Burns began designing and producing skis for K2 in the 1960s, eventually creating the skis that Marilyn Cochran used in 1969 to become the first American to win an alpine World Cup discipline title (GS, 1969). In 1974, Burns launched his own company and began making The Ski, one of the most famous freestyle skis of the era. Nicknamed “The Snow Goose” for his loose style in the bumps, Burns was an iconic founder of hot-dog freestyle.
Brian Fairbank, chairman of the Fairbank Group (Bromley, Cranmore, Jiminy Peak), is a pioneer in resort sustainability. He installed a wind turbine at Jiminy and then added solar, making Jiminy the first U.S. resort to be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. In 2008, NSAA recognized his effort with its Golden Eagle award.
Holly Flanders was one of the most dominant U.S. downhill racers of her era. In 1982, she was second in the women’s World Cup standings, the highest DH ranking for any American woman in more than a decade. From 1987 to 2016, she ran a popular series of women’s ski-instruction workshops at Park City, Wolf Mountain and Canyons in Utah.
Alison Owen was a dominant nordic racer in the late 1970s, becoming the first American to win a FIS cross country World Cup race in 1978, a U.S. women’s mark that stood for 33 years. A year later, she finished second at the prestigious Holmenkollen 10K in Oslo. The eight-time U.S. champion retired in 1981 and became a coach in Sun Valley.
Howard Peterson was a longtime influential leader with the U.S. Ski Team and a pivotal voice in bringing the Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City in 2002. As secretary general of USSA in the late 1980s, Peterson pushed the U.S. Olympic Committee to select a candidate city based on its willingness to develop legacy facilities and training venues that could be used long after the Games. A Maine native, he also co-founded the National Ski Touring Association (now the Cross-Country Ski Areas Association. He died in May 2020.
Kristean Porter was a world champion and two-time overall World Cup title holder as a U.S. freestyle skier in the mid-1990s, excelling in aerials, ballet and moguls. She made her World Cup debut in 1989 and scored her first podium within a month. A year later, she picked up the first of four World Championship medals, taking bronze in aerials.
Hank Tauber raced for Middlebury College and then joined the U.S. Ski Team as a coach in 1967, rising through the ranks to U.S. alpine ski team director, a position he held from 1974 to 1979. Under his leadership, U.S. racers won eight Olympic and World Championship medals. From 1980 to 1984, he was president of Marker USA. He then acquired the worldwide Marker International and was chairman and CEO until 1998. In 1988 Tauber was elected a vice president, executive board and council member of FIS and served in that position until 2002. He was a founding trustee of the Switzerland-based Marc Hodler Foundation and was named an honorary lifetime member of FIS in 2002. In 1982 he received the Julius Blegen Award, U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s highest award for outstanding contribution to the sport of skiing.
Seth Wescott was a back-to-back Olympic champion, winning gold in snowboard cross in 2006 (Torino) and 2010 (Vancouver). In his career he won four X Games medals (one gold) and four World Championship medals (one gold). He also won the fabled Mount Baker Banked Slalom in 2019 and 2020, and co-owns Winterstick.
Ski Bum is a 90-minute review of the late Warren Miller’s extraordinary career, told through archival footage and one final interview with Warren himself.
The Berkshires of Massachusetts have long been known as a winter sports paradise. Forty-four ski areas popped up across the region from the 1930s to the 1970s. The legendary Thunderbolt Ski Trail put the Berkshires on the map for challenging terrain, while major resorts like Brodie Mountain sparked the popularity of night skiing with lighted trails. All-inclusive areas—like Oak n’ Spruce, Eastover and Jug End—brought thousands of new skiers into the sport between the 1940s and 1970s. Meanwhile, snow trains made it fun and easy for metro-area skiers to plan weekend ski excursions.
In Littleton, New Hampshire, near Cannon Mountain, Lahout’s Country Clothing and Ski Shop has done business at the same location since 1920. Fourteen-year-old Herbert Lahout emigrated from Syria in 1898, and became a railroad laborer. He married his wife Anne in 1919 and the couple sold groceries from a horse-drawn wagon. The following year they moved the business into Littleton’s Old Grange Hall, and lived upstairs. Herb died in 1934 and, in the depths of the Depression, Anne was left to run the store with her kids Gladys, 14, and Joe, 12.
