Video Library
In 1951, Steve Bradley patented the XPG-1 Packer-Groomer, a 700-lb device piloted by a skier and designed to shave the tops off moguls and smooth the snow into a "groomed" skiing surface. See the full story here.
In French. Lots of great footage. The prehistory is oversimplified and incomplete, and the story of early Alpine skiing is presented out of order, implying that military skiing preceded civilian skiing. The reverse is true. Civilians began skiing for fun in the Alps, in significant numbers, around 1889-90, after the publication of Nansen's book On Skis Across Greenland. The French, Swiss and Italian mountain troops adopted skis more than a decade later. The film also claims that Hannes Schneider was responsible for locking the heel down, when that distinction belongs to Walter Amstutz and Guido Reuge. It credits Emile Allais with inventing parallel skiing; in reality, like everyone else, he learned it from Toni Seelos. Nice to see footage of Marie Marvingt, but the film credits her only with fashion innovation, ignoring her role in early ski racing and jumping for women, and the fact that she established the first ski school in France. The entire work is told from a narrow Franco-Swiss perspective, and it skips over a lot of important developments. Nonetheless this is a handsome, well-made 52-minute film and fun to watch. Just don't believe everything you hear. --Seth Masia
Ski school director Emo Henrich hired Austrian ski instructors who could oompah-pah.
Arnold Fanck's first ski film, released December 1920.
At the very height of the ski boom came this 25-minute tour of the U.S. West, with Gustavo Thoeni, Tyler Palmer, Barbara Ann Cochran, Jean Claude Killy, Herman Goellner, Stein Eriksen, Corky Fowler, Billy Kidd and a cast of thousands. A lot of great powder skiing -- on GS skis!
The official film, featuring men's and women's slalom and downhill (no GS), XC and jumping, American hockey victory over Soviets, speed and figure skating.
In 1963, Walt Disney turned Fred Iselins' 20-minute film about Susie Wirth into a 50-minute TV special, adding an avalanche and rescue for drama. The main character is Aspen, the town and mountain. For more detail see this Aspen Times article.
The full-length (74-minute) version of Arnold Fanck's seminal The White Ecstasy, a ski-chase comedy featuring Hannes Schneider, Leni Riefenstahl, Guzzi Lantschner, Walther Riml and about two dozen of Schneider's St. Anton ski school instructors. Produced in 1930-31, the film helped spark popular interest in alpine skiing across Europe. Fanck held a PhD in geology and in the late '20s pioneered filmmaking about mountaineers and mountaineering. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he at first refused to work with them but after an exile in Japan returned to Germany and joined the Nazi party in 1940. In the postwar years his films were banned by the Allied occupation and he was forced out of film-making. His work was revived for TV broadcast after 1957.
Presentation of the 2020 ISHA Awards, including comments by the authors.