Volume 29, No. 6 November-December 2017

How Snowmass Was Built F Skiing to the Poles F Todd Brooker F 10th Mountain Technique

SKIING HISTORY Journal of the International Skiing History Association

Formerly Skiing Heritage

November-December 2017 | Vol. 29, No.6

Fifty-four feature-length ski films Twelve hundred articles Eleven books and more…

Warren Miller is the history of skiing.

FREEDOM FOUND MY LIFE STORY

Deep And Light - 1950 California Skis - 1951 Wandering Skis - 1952 Ski Fantasy - 1953 Symphony On Skis - 1954 Invitation To Skiing - 1955 Have Skis, Will Travel - 1956 Anyone For Skiing? - 1957 Are Your Skis on Straight? - 1958 Let’s Go Skiing - 1959 Swinging Skis - 1960 Many Moods Of Skiing - 1961 Around The World On Skis - 1962 The Sound Of Skiing - 1963 The Skiers - 1964 The Big Ski Show - 1965 Ski On The Wild Side - 1966 The Ski Scene - 1967 This Is Skiing - 1969 Sound Of Winter - 1970 Any Snow, Any Mountain - 1971 Winter People - 1972 Skiing’s Great - 1973 The Color Of Skiing - 1974 There Comes A Time - 1975 Skiing On My Mind - 1976 In Search Of Skiing - 1977

Ski A La Carte - 1978 Winter Fever - 1979 Ski People - 1980 Ski In The Sun - 1981 Snowonder - 1982 Ski Time - 1983 Ski Country - 1984 Steep And Deep - 1985 Beyond The Edge - 1986 White Winter Heat - 1987 Escape To Ski - 1988 White Magic - 1989 Extreme Winter - 1990 Born To Ski - 1991 Steeper And Deeper - 1992 Black Diamond Rush - 1993 Vertical Reality - 1994 Endless Winter - 1995 Snowriders - 1996 Snowriders 2 - 1997 Freeriders - 1998 Fifty - 1999 Ride - 2000 Cold Fusion - 2001 Storm - 2002 Journey - 2003 Impact - 2004

Available at your favorite bookseller and warrenmiller.net ISHAwww.skiinghistory.org is grateful to Warren Miller for his ongoing commitment to celebratingSeptember-October the legacy of skiing.

2017 | 13

SKIING HISTORY(formerly Skiing Heritage) is the bimonthly journal and official publication of the International Skiing History Association (ISHA) DEPARTMENTS

4 Readers Respond

How pickle buckets protected young racers; Kitzbühel origins of the Ski Wing.

Contents Vol. 29, No. 6 November-December 2017

6 Short Turns

The recent ups and downs of private ski areas; where seniors can ski free in the U.S. this season.

8 Snapshots in Time

Les Otten’s ASC goes public (1998); Thoeni’s flawless slalom (1974); machine-made ski instruction (1950).

11 Collectibles

Murray Hay was one of North America’s most prolific trail-map illustrators. BY LORI KNOWLES

FEATURES

16 Where Are They Now?

After surviving a horrific crash on the notorious Streif, Crazy Canuck downhill champion Todd Brooker went on to a successful career as a TV commentator. BY EDITH THYS MORGAN

13 Technique

20 Skiing to the Poles

28 Media Reviews

24 Snowmass: The Beginning

During World War II, instructors taught 10th Mountain Division troopers how to ski while wearing a 90-pound pack—anticipating a fundamental change to technique. BY CHARLES C. ROBERTS JR. AND SETH MASIA The first 100 years of the Chisholm Ski Club of Maine; Kimberley Schmidinger Jochl’s memoir of racing for the U.S. Ski Team and running a North Carolina ski resort.

From Fridtjof Nansen to Robert E. Peary and Roald Amundsen, skis played a critical role in early Arctic and polar exploration. BY JEFF BLUMENFELD

How America’s first real-estate-focused resort was founded 50 years ago. BY JAY COWAN COURTESY TODD BROOKER

30 News from ISHA

ISHA Awards banquet in Squaw Valley; discounts for ISHA members when Trapp Family Lodge celebrates 50 years of cross-country skiing.

32 Museum News

Updates from museums across North America.

33 Classic Ski Shops

Sturtevant’s in Washington State celebrates 40 years of selling ski gear. BY MIKE DEDERER

35 Remembering

Farewell to Gene Kotlarek, Morrie Shepard, Tori Pillinger Robinson, Norman Dyhrenfurth, Tony Furman, Bill Turnage, Fred Beckey and Byron Brown.

COOLANTARCTICA.COM

20

www.skiinghistory.org

16 ON THE COVER

This untitled poster was created circa 1953 by Polish illustrator Marian Stachurski (1931–1980). Image courtesy Classic Posters, Eric Kellenberger (Blonay, Switzerland). Website: www. classic-posters.com. Sales: stores.ebay. com/postercollection

Written permission from the editor is required to reproduce, in any manner, the contents of Skiing History, either in full or in part.

November-December 2017 |

3

SKIING HISTORY

READERS RESPOND

EDITOR Kathleen James

Pickle-Bucket Body Armor

ART DIRECTOR Edna Baker ISHA WEBSITE EDITOR Seth Masia EDITORIAL BOARD John Fry, Seth Masia John Allen, John Caldwell, Jeremy Davis, Paul Hooge, Patrick Lang, Jeff Leich, Doug Pfeiffer, Bob Soden, Ingrid Wicken FOUNDING EDITORS Morten Lund, Glenn Parkinson

L

oved Jeff Blumenfeld’s piece on “Bygone Ski Gizmos” and the credit given to Richard Allen and his treasure trove of ski artifacts (Skiing History, September-October 2017). As was noted in John Fry’s article on slalom poles in the same issue, the Break-A-Way pole changed how slalom skiers skied gates, which then necessitated special body armor. This led to the invention of my own bygone gizmo.

As a children’s coach during the 1980s and early 1990s, I was always trying to save parents (including myself ) money on gear. By the 1980s, a racer’s gear bag kept getting larger and heavier because of the armor and specialized helmets for each event.

As an archaeologist, I collected empty pickle buckets from a local McDonald’s to store soil samples. One day it dawned on me that I might be able to re-purpose the buckets into body armor for the kids. With a couple of saws, a commercial heat gun and a roll of elastic, I was ready to proceed.

When I gave my own kids their new custom-made body armor they said, “Dad, no! This isn’t cool!” Apparently, the armor still looked like plastic buckets. Not to be deterred, I stopped by a friend’s ski shop and filled a bag with free stickers. The homemade body armor then became cool, and their friends wanted to wear it.

PUBLISHED BY THE

To preserve skiing history and to increase awareness of the sport’s heritage ISHA FOUNDER Mason Beekley, 1927–2001

Richard Allen, Skip Beitzel, Jeff Blumenfeld, Michael Calderone, Art Currier, Dick Cutler, Chris Diamond, Luzi Hitz (Switzerland), Mike Hundert, David Ingemie, Chan Morgan, Rick Moulton, Wilbur Rice, Charles Sanders, Bob Soden (Canada) PRESIDENTIAL CIRCLE Bob Beattie, Christin Cooper, Billy Kidd, Jean-Claude Killy, Bode Miller, Warren Miller, Doug Pfeiffer, Penny Pitou, Nancy Greene Raine ARTICLES, READER LETTERS, AND ISHA MEMBER SERVICES Kathleen James International Skiing History Association P.O. Box 1064 Manchester Center, VT 05255 Phone: (802) 366-1158 E-mail: kathleen@skiinghistory.org CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS Peter Kirkpatrick: (541) 488-1933 peterkirk@pknorthwest.com

Skiing History (USPS No. 16-201, ISSN: 23293659) is published bimonthly by the International Skiing History Association, P.O. Box 1064, Manchester Center, VT 05255. Phone: (802) 366-1158 E-mail: kathleen@skiinghistory.org Periodicals postage paid at Manchester Center, VT and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to ISHA, P.O. Box 1064, Manchester Center, VT 05255 Skiing History / Copyright © 2017 ISHA is a 501(c)(3) public charity. EIN: 06-1347398

4 | November-December 2017

Paul Hooge Crested Butte, Colorado

ORIGIN OF THE SKI WING

WINSTON AND PATTI MORRIS / MT. MANSFIELD SKI CLUB

ISHA BOARD OF DIRECTORS John Fry, Chairman Seth Masia, President Wini Jones, Vice President Bob Orbacz, Treasurer Einar Sunde, Secretary

It was interesting to see the photo of Stein Eriksen using Ski Wings at Snowmass in 1968 (“Bygone Gizmos”). Several years ago, the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club received a collection of photos and artifacts from the family of Winston and Patti Morris. Among the photos was this one, apparently taken at Tuckerman Ravine in New Hampshire in the late 1930s. Perhaps an earlier photo of Ski Wings in action?

Taken at Tuckerman Ravine in the late 1930s, this photo shows a skier using an early version of “ski wings.”

Michael Leach Stowe, Vermont

In regard to the article about “Bygone Gizmos,” I would like to be precise about the Ski Wing, as this device was invented in Kitzbühel. We call it the “Thirring Mantel” (Thirring Coat), and my research and references indicate that the inventor was Professor Hans Thirring from the University of Vienna, a physicist and friend of Albert Einstein who took frequent ski vacations here.

In 1939, Thirring wrote a book about skiing Professor Hans Thirring of the University of Vienna demonstrates the use of his “Mantel.”

SKIING HISTORY

called Der Schwebelauf (The Floating Ski Run). On February 11, 1940, a “coat race” was held on the Streif course on the Hahnenkamm. As Thirring was also a specialist in aerodynamics, two members of the Kitzbühel Speed Racers—Fritz Huber Sr. (my grandfather) and Leo Gasperl—were in contact with him to develop a racing suit. Gasperl set the first speed ski world record, thanks to support by Professor Thirring.

Michael Huber President, Kitzbüheler Ski Club Professor Hans Thirring and Carl Josef Luther developed the Schwebemantel (the floating ski coat, or the “Batman Coat“ as we call it in Slovenia) in 1938. The inventors proposed this coat to make managing speed easier for recreational skiers. By stretching out the arms, skiers could reduce their speed, while they could gain speed by tucking into a deep crouch.

The coat was used by the Austrian ski racer Andres Hans Peyerl at the famous downhill race, the Grossglocknerrennen. The course included a very dangerous section that was steep and narrow. Peyerl schussed this part of the course in a Thirring coat, with his body and arms outstretched. At that time, downhill courses were set only with a start and finish line, and every racer would choose his own way of skiing down.

The coat disappeared after World War II, when downhill courses included gates to dictate the speed and safety of the racers.

Ales Gucek Ljubljana, Slovenia

Crazy Gear That Flopped F Golden Age of Cartoons F When Warren Miller Was a Ski Bum

SKIING HISTORY Journal of the International Skiing History Association

Formerly Skiing Heritage

September-October 2017 | Vol. 29, No.5

A subscription to

skiing history marks you as a true lover of the sport.

Slovenian skiers use “Batman Coats” to slow down (top photo) or to gain speed by tucking.

UC SKI-TEAM MEMORIES

The 50 Years of Flight review in the September-October 2017 issue captured my interest. I grew up hearing stories of the 1930s Berkeley and World’s Fair jumps, along with lore of the jumps in Portola, Chester and Lake Tahoe. Later, when I was head coach for the University of California Ski Team (1976–78), we had jumping as part of the schedule, with competitions on the Auburn Ski Club hill at Boreal Ridge, the 1960 Olympic hill at Squaw Valley and the trestle at Mt. Rose. One of the most famous Cal skiteam alumni was Rainer “Bumps” Baldauf, who ran the Trader Vic’s restaurant empire. My top grads included a Sorbonne professor and Nobel nominee and many educators, architects and entrepreneurs who still ski.

Bob Woodward Bend, Oregon

CORRECTING THE RECORD In a brief biography of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame inductee “Airborne” Eddie Ferguson in the September-October 2017 issue, we reported that Ferguson won the World Freestyle Championships in 1973. While Ferguson was Skiing Magazine’s “Hotdogger of the Year” in 1973, he did not win the championship. Hall of Famer John Clendenin claimed the national title that year. In the same issue, we said that Mount Ashland Ski Area is in Washington State. It is in Oregon. www.skiinghistory.org

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Simply call (802) 366-1158, place your order with a credit card, and we’ll do the rest.

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For people who love the sport of skiing.

SKIING HISTORY www.skiinghistory.org November-December 2017 |

5

SHORT TURNS

Feast and Famine Private ski areas in the era of 1 percenters.

H

ow much is uncrowded skiing worth to you?

Enough to join a private-club ski area?

That can be a risky proposition. Look at the 2008 bankruptcy of The Yellowstone Club in Montana, the failure-to-launch of Battle Mountain Resort near Vail, and the return to public access of Windham in the New York Catskills and Elk Meadows (now Eagle Point) in Utah. Just this October, the Hermitage Club, Vermont’s former Haystack Mountain, had to ask its member families to front $10,000 each to help pay off $5 million owed to local vendors and contractors. Some of the club’s non-skiing properties were headed to a tax auction in early November.

Haystack Ski Area opened in 1964, closed in 1981, reopened under new ownership and went bankrupt in 1991. Bought by Les Otten, it was folded into the American Skiing Company in 1994. As ASC devolved, Haystack was sold in 2005 to a local group and operated as a private ski area. That venture failed after the crash of 2008. Jim Barnes stepped in and bought the place, embarking on an ambitious renovation and liftsystem upgrade. The private Hermitage Club showed promise, but warm winters meant slow membership sales. By 2016, only 750 memberships had been sold, at $75,000 each, of 1,500 offered. Hence the $5 million debt load.

As John Fry pointed out ten years ago, in the pages of Ski Area Management, private clubs have succeeded on a more modest scale, at least in Ontario. Beginning in 1949, skiing families in Toronto put up half a dozen private areas, mainly to get their kids into ski racing.

Those areas are going strong today, because the member families can collectively afford the costs to maintain their small hills and short lifts.

At the other end of the scale, hedge fund manager Sam Byrne bought The Yellowstone Club out of bankruptcy in 2009 and revived it. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Byrne sold more than $1 billion in real estate, acquired neighboring Moonlight Basin and linked up with Big Sky. The secret is selling to the 1-percenter market, who can afford to own their second (or fifth) homes without having to rent them out to cover interest costs and maintenance. New Yellowstone Club members put up a $300,000 member-

6 | November-December 2017

The base lodge at the private Hermitage Club (formerly Haystack Mountain) in Vermont. In October, members were asked to chip in $10,000 each to help pay off $5 million in debts.

Hedge-fund manager Sam Byrne bought Montana’s Yellowstone Club out of bankruptcy in 2009. He also acquired neighboring Moonlight Basin and linked up with Big Sky. To join, new members pay a $300,000 fee and buy $4 million in real estate. ship fee and buy at least $4 million in real estate, then pay $36,000 annual dues. For that kind of money, you could spend six weeks a year heliskiing in Canada—for 30 years. —Seth Masia

SKIING HISTORY

Howelsen Jumps in Jeopardy

CEDAR BEAUREGARD

Landslides at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs have eroded the foundation of the park’s largest ski jumps.

Carl Howelsen built the first jump on this hill in 1914, and it has trained generations of Olympic-caliber jumpers and nordic combined athletes.

Colorado’s oldest ski area is owned by the City of Steamboat Springs and home to the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, also founded by Carl Howelsen a century ago. The club develops nordic, alpine, freestyle and snowboard athletes on the site, under a contract with the city that expires next year.

The city has been subsidizing the area to the tune of $500,000 annually, and can’t afford the estimated $1 million to stabilize and repair the ski jumps. As reported by the Steamboat Pilot, the city last spring sought a concessionaire to take over management of the park, but the only bidder was Steamboat Ski Resort. The resort offered to split savings (and presumably profits) with the city 75 percent to 25 percent, with the city getting the smaller share. The catch: the city would remain responsible for capital costs, including repairs.

The city council is split on the fate of the jumping structures. The 90-meter jump, built in 1950, burned in the spring of 1972, apparently torched by opponents of the 1976 Denver Olympics. It was rebuilt by 1978, but has since been supplanted for national team training by more modern jumps in Lake Placid and Park City.

There’s no question that Howelsen will remain viable for training. Jumping and nordic combined coach Todd Wilson reports that the two largest jumps are too steep for today’s FIS rules, but the club has a record 135 kids training on all seven jumps and all have been paved with plastic for summer use. Moreover, the area will host a FIS Continental Cup nordic combined event December 15–17 on the HS 75 hill. —S.M.

Landslides have eroded the foundations of the two largest jumps at Howelsen Hill, Colorado’s oldest ski area. www.skiinghistory.org

SKI LIFE SKI December 1967

Hugh Hefner, Sometime Skier

When Hugh Hefner died on September 27, magazines and newspapers filled up with appreciations and condemnations of his influence on the course of western civilization. Here at ISHA, we were more interested in his influence, however fleeting, on skiing.

Hefner built Playboy Club resort hotels at a couple of small ski resorts—at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 1968, and at Great Gorge, New Jersey in 1972. Playboy Enterprises exited the ski resort business in 1982.

In 1969, John Jerome panned the Playboy Club ski resort concept in the pages of Skiing Magazine (see the reprint in Skiing Heritage, March-April 2011), while four decades later, John Fry and artist Graeme Ross collaborated on an entertaining look back at Playboy skiing (Skiing Heritage, June 2009).

Hefner clearly liked skiing. Skiers appeared not infrequently on Playboy covers. And from 1956 to 1972, Hef employed as editorial director and associate publisher A.C. Spectorsky, the co-author with Aspen instructor Fred Iselin of the best-selling book Invitation to Skiing.

Which leaves the important question: Did Hefner actually ski? We have as evidence only this photo, purportedly taken in Aspen around 1970, of a man less happy than we’re used to seeing him. —S.M.

Hugh Hefner on skis, and looking a bit skeptical, in Aspen around 1970.

November-December 2017 |

7

WHY IS IT CALLED THAT?

Derived from a Russian word meaning “to plane,” sastrugi are wind-carved ridges of snow that form on open slopes or downwind from trees.

Rhoda Wurtele Catches Some Serious Air

Canadian ski legend Rhoda Wurtele Eaves dropped out of a plane at 14,000 feet over Fiji in early November on a tandem skydive—at the age of 95. “I loved it,” Rhoda told Skiing History. “It was my fifth jump, and I jump from the top height—as high as they’ll let me go. We did some somersaults and twists on the way down; it’s a real thrill.” But not one that compares to ski racing, she adds. “When you’re skydiving, you’re attached to someone else who’s running the show. In alpine racing, you’re in complete control.”

Rhoda and her identical twin sister, Rhona, comprised Canada’s first women’s Olympic alpine ski team in 1948 and competed across North America from 1942 to 1959. Between them, they won almost every race they entered, including the Alta Cup, Roch Cup and Harriman Cup. They are honored members of both the U.S. and Canadian halls of fame.

MOGUL AND SASTRUGI

Tim Joyce, Skydive Fiji director, took the tandem jump with Wurtele. “She said, ‘If I’m alive and well next year, I want to come back and do that again.’ She thoroughly enjoyed the jump,” he told the The Fiji Times.

COURTESY JOHN EAVES

Most veteran skiers have heard that “mogul” derives from the South German word mugel, meaning a hummock. But you may not know that mugel comes from the Old Norse mugi (heap) with its Old English variant muga (stack of hay).

Wind-crusted snow often forms “sastrugi,” those wind-carved ridges on open slopes or downwind from trees. The word is Russian, and comes to us from the steppes and Siberia, where Arctic wind planes the snow down to leave sharp ridges. Struga is the verb “plane,” as in planing wood. Zastruga is “to plane wood.”

years ago...snapshots in time

21

ASC GOES PUBLIC, OTTEN BRINGS THE GAVEL DOWN

The American Skiing Company went public on November 6, and chairman Les Otten was on hand at the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the initial public offering and bang the closing gavel. ASC is offering 14.75 million shares, and some 7 million shares changed hands on the first day. The stock opened at 18-1/4. Some of the IPO cash will fund ACS’s acquisition of Steamboat and Heavenly. — SNOW COUNTRY (JANUARY 1998)

38

LONG-DISTANCE XC LEAGUE

The World Loppet League is a new development born of the boom in long-distance citizens’ crosscountry racing. Inspired by Telemark’s Tony Wise, whose American Birkebeiner is part of the league schedule, it ties together nine races in as many countries in Central Europe, Scandinavia and North America. For $15, citizen racers can buy a World Loppet Passport, and the idea is to get a medal by completing all of the races. There’s no time limit. Steve Fossett, a 35-year-old American who works on the Chicago Options Exchange, completed seven

8 | November-December 2017

races this season [in Austria, Italy, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway]. He’d leave on Thursday and return Monday, a schedule that left him in a state of “constant jet lag.” — SKIING

40

MAGAZINE (OCTOBER 1979)

THE WORLD’S FASTEST UNOFFICIAL MAN ON SKIS

Steve McKinney, the 24-year-old speed skier from Squaw Valley, California, smashed skiing’s world speed record on September 22 with a blistering 121.77 mph run in Portillo, Chile. But the world hardly took notice. McKinney’s record run was dubbed unofficial because of the absence of International Ski Federation (FIS) officials and political game-playing that left the racers with the task of regrouping and reorganizing the meet after the aborted Kilometro Lanciato speed trials in Italy in mid-summer.

McKinney, in his first run, lost his balance after hitting the timing section at 111 mph and crashed spectacularly, bending one of his skis like a pretzel. Incredibly, he was unhurt. Brushing himself off, he changed skis, jumped into the speed chute, and proceeded to uncork his record-breaking run. — SKI MAGAZINE (DECEMBER 1977) SKIING HISTORY

People age 65 and older can ski free this season at 115 resorts across 27 U.S. states. The list of resorts is available at SeniorsSkiing.com, the free online magazine for older skiers.

According to recent National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) statistics, 20 percent of the nation’s total skiing and boarding population is 52 and older (1,843,000).

Those age 52–62 total 1,220,000 participants, 62-71 total 510,000, and 72+ total 113,000.

The number of resorts reporting free skiing privileges for seniors increased slightly from last season. People in their 60s ski free at nine resorts. Those 70–79 have a choice of an additional 65 resorts, and those 80 and older ski free at 112 resorts. Those in their 90s ski free at all listed areas.

The states with the most areas offering free skiing are New Hampshire (12), California (11), Michigan (10), Pennsylvania (9), New Mexico (8), Maine and New York (7), and Colorado, Oregon and Vermont (6).

Washington State has five areas with free skiing.

Many resorts have a range of discounts for older skiers purchasing lift tickets and other products and services. The editors of SeniorsSkiing.com advise looking online or asking before making purchases—and call ahead to confirm free skiing before you arrive.

The list is available to all SeniorsSkiing.com subscribers. Existing subscribers have immediate access to the list, while new visitors to the site must enter their email address to have access. From the home page, click “Community” in the menu bar and then “Subscriber Only Content” in the dropdown box. Subscribing to SeniorsSkiing.com—an ISHA corporate sponsor and partner—is free.

43

THOENI’S FLAWLESS SLALOM

Memories of 1974 are etched sharply in the mind.

Gustavo Thoeni’s second run in the slalom at St. Moritz was the most flawless, technically perfect thing ever done on skis. Thoeni won two gold medals in the FIS World Championships and a place alongside Toni Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy in anyone’s Hall of Fame.

50

—SKI MAGAZINE (SEPTEMBER 1974)

TAKE MONDAY OFF

The ski industry expressed support for the “Monday is a holiday” bill (S.1217) in Congress.

Proposed by Sen. George Smathers (D-FL), it established three-day weekends for most national holidays—a boon to all tourism businesses. Big-city skiers took weekend bus tours to New England resorts.

In New York, Sportiva Tours sent 4,000 skiers to Sugarbush, Glen Ellen and Killington. Sportiva supplied rental gear, two nights of lodging and meals on the bus. Plus ski instruction from their own staff of handsome young Austrians, most of them graduate students at New York universities. — SKIING TRADE NEWS (FALL 1967) www.skiinghistory.org

PHOTO BY JOHN DAKIN

Seniors Ski Free This Season at 115 U.S. Resorts

Bob Parker’s children, Guy and Katherine, spoke at a memorial for their father, held in September in Vail’s Ford Amphitheater. Approximately 400 people attended the service to pay tribute to Parker, a 10th Mountain Division veteran, ski journalist and Vail marketing visionary (see Skiing History, July-August 2017). Speakers included former Vail Resorts owner George Gillett, current Vail executive vice president Christopher Jarnot, former Vail mayor Rod Slifer, and other friends from Parker’s military and resort career.

SKI LIFE SKI December 1974

67

AUTOMATED INSTRUCTION

Remy Leclerc and Henry Rist of the Parallel Ski School in New York City have developed a teaching method that utilizes an electronically controlled machine. This machine automatically shows the mistakes and enables any beginner to practice over 120 christianias, with or without ruade, per hour. That is three or four times what is possible in an outdoor lesson. The mistakes are indicated by flashing colored lights, automatic brakes and other control devices.

—SKI MAGAZINE (NOVEMBER 1950)

78

P.C. SNOW REPORTS

A new proposal for reporting snow conditions stressed that terms like “good” or “poor” skiing should never be used, since what may be good skiing for one skier is poor for another. Sufficient data should be supplied about actual snow conditions so that each skier can judge for himself.

Terms recommended include fluffy, powder, sticky, slush and unbreakable grainy crust. —SKI MAGAZINE (WINTER 1939) November-December 2017 |

9

SKI ART

DWIGHT SHEPLER (1905–1974) Left: Shepler painted Old Bear Mountain Trail as a tribute to Bob Hurlburt, who was killed in action off Okinawa during World War II. Hurlburt was a member of the Schussverein, a ski club that ran outings and annual races on the New Hampshire trail.

Dwight Shepler skied into the art world in 1932 when he was taken up a snow-squally mountain in Vermont. At the summit the weather cleared, “revealing a stunning composition…I felt I had found a pioneering new theme in snow, mountains and skiing.” Indeed he had.

Born in 1905, Shepler grew up in the Boston suburbs and trained at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, with a fine eye for drawing and watercolor painting. In 1928 he graduated from Williams College, in the hills of northwestern Massachusetts.

His first artistic attempts were pictures of his boyhood passion: sailing, especially off the coast of Maine. Then the sport of skiing captured his enthusiasm.

His book An Artist’s Horizons, published in 1973, includes an evocative circa-1935 drawing of St. Sauveur, in the Laurentians of Canada, on the title page. His paintings and drawings are not created by a detached observer; when you look at the pristine runs of Mad River Glen or Tuckerman Ravine, you know he skied there. Sun Valley was his favorite in the West, equaled only by the virgin-powder slopes of Aspen. Dartmouth Carnival posters and advertisements for Sun Valley and other resorts soon brought him renown. Watercolors of Zermatt and the Far West, including the Canadian Rockies, opened up the world of winter to exhibition visitors in Boston, New York, London and Paris.

The Old Bear Mountain Trail (above) was painted as a memorial to Bob Hurlburt, a Harvard Medical School graduate killed in action off Okinawa in 1944. Hurlburt had been a stalwart of the Schussverein, a club that often enjoyed this trail,

10 | November-December 2017

BEEKLEY COLLECTION

COURTESY NEW ENGLAND SKI MUSEUM

Below: Mountains and Skiers, 1940.

cut by the Civilian Conservation Corps in New Hampshire, and ran an annual race on it from 1937 until the war.

During World War II, Shepler was a Navy combat artist.

He chronicled battles in the Pacific and was on the Normandy beaches. These desperate, explosive pictures were part of his assignment…until the war ended and he could return to the natural world. Like many elite skiers of the 1930s, he knew everyone: He stayed with Duke Dmitri of Leuchtenberg in St. Sauveur, he drew a portrait of the Marquis degli Albizzi, he travelled with filmmaker John Jay, painted with Florian Hammerle, took trips with Otto Lang and listened to Joe Dodge’s tales. That all this was captured on paper and canvas is one of the lasting joys to those who never knew the snows of yesteryear. Dwight Shepler died in 1974. —E. John B. Allen SKIING HISTORY

COLLECTIBLES

The Art of the Unexpected

ALL IMAGES COURTESY HAY FAMILY

In a career that stretched three decades, Murray Hay became one of North America’s most prolific trail-map illustrators. BY LORI KNOWLES

Above: Canadian ski-map artist Murray Hay prepares to take a charter flight near Quebec City in Canada, probably for an aerial survey of Le Massif or Mont Sainte-Anne. Left: Hay’s first trail map, completed in 1976, depicted the Lake Louise ski area in Alberta.

T

hey’re the Where’s Waldo illustrations of Canadian skiing. The late Murray Hay’s hand-painted trail maps of the late 20th century are as detailed and witty as the red-and-white striped Waldo creations of British illustrator Martin Handford. Showcasing trails, bumps, boundaries and a trove of hidden humor, Hay’s maps have guided skiers from Lake Louise to Tremblant, Alyeska, Sun Valley, Blackcomb and beyond.

H

ay’s introduction to skiing came in the mid-1970s by way of Alberta’s Lake Louise Ski Area. The resort brass—Charlie Locke, Sir Rodney Touche—contacted the Calgary-based commercial artist, curious if he knew how to paint a trail map. “I had no idea,” Hay told the Calgary Sun in 1991. “I didn’t know what the hell skiing was!”

Hay quickly learned everything there was to learn about skiing…and then some. Signing on first with Lake Louise—and then later with resorts in Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Alaska and Japan—he helped to advance skiing’s map-making process in the days before computer-aided design. In a career that stretched three decades from the 1970s to the 1990s, Hay joins Hal Shelton, Don Moss and James Niehues as North America’s most prolific resort map illustrators. (For www.skiinghistory.org

a comprehensive article on the work of Shelton and Moss, see the December 2005 issue of Skiing Heritage.)

T

oday, Murray Hay’s daughters—Allison and Lynda— describe their father’s process as meticulous, painstaking and time-consuming. For each project the artist spent many uncomfortable hours on the edge of his comfort zone, strapped into a harness and leaning from the open door of a helicopter. With a Pentax camera in hand, he snapped photographs of ski area slopes, trees, lodges and topography. Back at his drawing board—a basement studio at home in Calgary—the artist pieced the images together into a panoramic view. Then, using old-school tools such as pencils and tracing paper, Hay traced trails, gullies, liftlines and trees. Resort staff made changes to these pencil sketches, adding a band of rock here, or a dip in elevation there. “He was always taking them back and forth for ski-area approval,” Allison says.

“For them he’d literally move mountains!”

Next, the artist would spend up to three months transforming his sketches into what daughter Allison calls “beautiful paintings”—acrylics on canvas rendered with care and a great deal of detail. “I remember coming home from school to find my dad in the basement with a teeny, tiny brush getting the shapes of the trees November-December 2017 |

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or the exact point the sun was shining,” she says.

“He’d paint moguls so you actually felt as though you were skiing on the map.” She adds: “His work would take hours and hours and hours, and sometimes he’d get bored. We’d hear him giggling in the basement and he’d say, ‘Girls, come here and look!’ He’d painted ski crashes or little tiny fights into the crowd scenes. They were hard to find unless you knew where to look.

They were exquisite.”

In the final stages, the artist added trail names, chairlift routes and legends to a clear plastic overlay, then wrote his signature obscurely in a lower corner.

To this day, skiers at Canadian resorts such as Sunshine Village and Lake Louise will peer at a trailmap on the side of a run and ask, “Is that a Murray Hay?”

H

ay’s daughter Lynda describes her father as humble, hardworking and a “first flake skier.” Inspired at age 55 to learn to ski, she says he became a “mature” ski bum, clomping around in the house at the first sign of snow, getting used to new ski boots. Says Lynda:

“When I was 14 it was extremely annoying!”

Despite his age, Hay learned how to ski quickly, and he learned to ski quickly, often beating his daughters down the slopes he’d come to know through mapmaking. Through his work, Hay befriended Canadian ski greats such as World Cup skier Dave Irwin, Sunshine Village mountaineer John Gow, and of course, current Lake Louise Ski Area owner Charlie Locke.

“He’d go to see Charlie on business,” Lynda says, “but the business would take about 10 minutes, then they’d go ski for the day. He loved it. He made great buddies in the ski industry.”

Canadian skiers have always loved Murray Hay, too. The artist’s reputation for detail has lived on in many a ski household. “I can’t count how many times people tell me they were lost at a ski area but found their way because they had one of my father’s ski maps,” Allison says. “They’ll say to me, ‘I’ve got a Murray Hay in my pocket!’”

When asked how they would classify Murray Hay as an artist, his daughters don’t hesitate to describe him as a realist. “In his work there was nothing left to chance,” Allison says. “The scenery, the nature, the landscape…it was all extremely realistic. Yet it always had an element of surprise—something interesting that you had to look for.”

Which brings us back to the Where’s Waldo concept.

The next time you’re given a chance, look more closely at a Murray Hay ski map. You may see hidden tracks in the snow, dueling skiers in a liftline, or footsteps trailing down a mountain. They won’t be painted with red-and-white stripes like Waldo, but the humor’s the same and it’s just as unexpected.

Lori Knowles is a Canadian skier, writer and Editor-in-Chief of SNOW Magazine.

Hay created his maps by taking aerial photographs and then using tracing paper to add trails and lifts. This map depicts Panorama Mountain Resort in British Columbia.

MURRAY HAY ORIGINALS Top photo: This map of Lake Louise shows the World Cup downhill course, with its start and upper sections faintly visible below the treeless summit. Bottom: The Lake Louise cross-country trail network. In the lower lefthand corner, you can see the frozen lake and the famous namesake Chateau.

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A Murray Hay original will be auctioned in Spring 2018 at a Calgary fundraising gala benefitting the Calgary Association of Disabled Skiing (cadscalgary.ca). Several more Murray Hay originals may soon go to private sale. For information, follow the Facebook page www.facebook.com/Murrayhay skimaps or contact Allison Hay by email (Allison.Hay @td.com) or phone (403.216.2046).

SKIING HISTORY

TECHNIQUE

The 10th Mountain Division Ski Technique of WWII A skier bearing a heavy pack needs a quiet upper body for stability. In teaching ski troopers how to do it, instructors anticipated fundamental post-war technique changes. BY CHARLES C. ROBERTS, JR. AND SETH MASIA A World War II ski trooper descends a practice slope while wearing a rifle and heavy backpack, weighing a minimum of 90 pounds. The Arlberg ski technique, popular at the time, featured an exaggerated shoulder rotation that turned the load into a topheavy pendulum.

W

hile racing for the University of Washington, John Woodward was a slalom ace. Unofficial champion of Pacific Northwest alpine racing, he finished fifth in tryouts for the 1936 Olympics.

He also joined the ROTC program and went into the U.S. Army in December of 1940 as a second lieutenant. That winter he led 15th Infantry ski patrol training trips, and in March was transferred to the 41st Division’s ski patrol. By late spring he had led about 10 weeklong patrols on and around Mt. Rainier. When the Army folded his unit into the new 10th Light Division in 1943, later to become the 10th Mountain Division, Woodward was named its head ski instructor. His duty was to train ski instructors and develop a teaching progression for U.S. Army ski troops.

The instructor team quickly found that the Arlberg teaching progression then in vogue in U.S. ski schools was unsuitable for military skiing. The problem was that ski troops carried a heavy pack containing gear and grub for a two-week slog through the mountains.

Platoon Sergeant Hugh Evans calculated that if the pack was filled with all the required gear, the weight would be 112.25 pounds. Without the tent, the weight would be 99 pounds. Radiomen and other specialists might have heavier packs. Troopers usually cite 90 pounds, as in Ralph Bromaghin’s lyrics for the WWII-era song www.skiinghistory.org

Demonstration of a Stem Christiania turn from the 1936 book Downhill Skiing

by Otto Lang. Because the Army at first had no field manual for on-snow operations, instructors agreed to use the book as a reference to resolve disputes over finer points of technique.

Ninety Pounds of Rucksack (“Ninety pounds of rucksack, a pound of grub or two; he’ll schuss the mountain like his daddy used to do…”). On top of that, a 10-pound M1 Garand rifle was clipped to the pack. The Arlberg technique featured an exaggerated shoulder rotation that turned the load into a top-heavy pendulum, with the rifle swinging wide on every oscillation.

As a racer, Woodward was strongly influenced by Emile Allais’ 1937 book Ski Français, which advocated a pure parallel teaching method. That was clearly impractical for recruits who had never even seen snow, let alone slogged through fresh wet “powder” under a heavy load. In a July 2001 interview with Lowell Skoog, Woodward said that Swiss ski technique made more sense for military skiing because it relied on stemming, unweighting and weight transfer to make turns instead of shoulder rotation.

When world champion Walter Prager and mountaineer Peter Gabriel, both Swiss, joined the instructor corps, they were the only two who knew the Swiss technique. They couldn’t get the Austrians to go along with it, Woodward said, so the team settled on a “modified Arlberg” technique, using Arlberg leg movements but throwing out the shoulder swings, at least when wearing a pack. Because the Army at first had no field manual for snow-bound operations, instructors agreed to November-December 2017 |

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In 1944, the Army developed a manual that provided guidance for troopers on how to perform the Stem Christiania (above) and other turns. Soldiers wearing heavy rucksacks modified the technique (below) by quieting the upper body and steering actively with the feet and lower body—not an easy task in flexible, ankle-high leather ski boots.

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use Otto Lang’s 1936 book Downhill Skiing as a reference to resolve disputes over finer points of technique.

The new 10th Light instruction progression, aimed at nonskiing recruits, included walking on skis, the side step, the herringbone, climbing with seal skins, the snowplow turn, the stem turn, the lifted stem turn and the parallel turn. In the end, the emphasis on a quiet, stable upper body presaged the evolution of American ski teaching. By the early 1970s the emerging American Teaching Method (formalized by PSIA technical chairman Horst Abraham) blended Arlberg’s stem-based lower-body maneuvers for beginners and intermediates with Swiss and French-based parallel skiing at the expert level—all with a stable upper body “anticipating” each turn by keeping the chest facing more or less down the fall line.

The heavy rucksack affected the unit’s ski technique in a number of ways, beyond the problem of turning.

Simply traversing on skis was a chore with this load. A wide track was necessary to stabilize the weight. When a trooper loaded one ski, as in a stem turn or lifted stem, that ski sank into soft snow, producing a weight shift that was unrecoverable. Climbing with skins in deep snow was more than exhausting. 10th Mountain veteran Earl Clark frequently explained that the combined mass of skis, rifle and pack more than doubled his body weight. Fellow soldier Gordon (Tiny) McQuade recalls that he weighed slightly less than 100 pounds when he arrived for training in 1943.

When he fell while lugging a rucksack, he could not get up, and two fellow troopers had to lift him. His dislike of the pack was so intense that on an occasional day training outing, he would stuff his pack with pillows so it looked loaded. This worked for a while until his sergeant discovered the ploy. He was immediately sent to KP (kitchen patrol) duty.

The lifted stem turn is performed by transferring all the skier’s weight to the stemmed outside ski, then lifting the inside ski and stepping it over to the parallel position and then weighting it. The late Bob Parker, 10th Mountain vet and Vail pioneer, recalled that under a heavy load the move required great care: You had to keep the knees and ankles flexed to keep the center of mass as low as possible, and do the lift-and-step quickly to reduce the time the stemming leg had to bear the whole load.

Moreover, the final parallel had to be wide track to form a stable base for the heavy combined weight of skier and pack. A polished-looking narrow-track, feet-together stance did not work out well as it encouraged the top-heavy skier to topple sideways.

Even very experienced skiers, like Hugh Evans, found it difficult to ski with the loaded pack. The secret, he said, was to ski slowly. Troopers often froze sealskins to the bases of the skis for the braking effect. Most turns were snowplow and stem turns. Skis were used for transportation, to travel to the SKIING HISTORY

CARRY THE WEIGHT

To fine-tune your balance and perfect your technique, try skiing with a 90-pound pack.

BY RON LEMASTER

L

Platoon of 10th Mountain Division skiers at Cooper Hill. The instructors out front have narrowed the stem to a parallel stance, while the student recruits used a wide fully-stemmed technique. next objective with all of the equipment. It was dangerous and unnecessary to travel at speed while loaded, so very few photos of such an endeavor exist.

In 1944, an Army manual was developed (apparently with no input from Woodward’s team) giving guidance on how to perform the Stem Christiania and other turns. The technique was identical to that described in Lang’s book—that is, pure Arlberg. The stem christie entailed a counter rotation of the upper body at turn intiation, followed by rotation of the upper body through the turn. This worked, of course, only for the skier without a loaded rucksack.

The Swiss-French-Arlberg mashup didn’t entirely solve the problem of turning, even on the relatively easy training run at Cooper Hill. It required more active twisting (steering) of the feet and legs to compensate for the loss of upper body movement. The ankle-high leather boots of the era, even the relatively heavy Army-issue ski boots, didn’t help much with foot-steering.

The 10th troops shown in the photo are skiing with heavy packs but without rifles. The lead skiers appear to be skilled, executing parallel turns in expert fashion. The knee and ankle flexion is needed to keep the center of mass low to aid in balancing the heavy backpack. The 1943 vintage ski boots lacked the fore/aft and lateral stiffness of today’s modern ski boot, making it difficult to maintain balance when negotiating steep slopes with a heavy load.

The Army never did formally address skiing with the heavy rucksack and rifle, nor do modern ski schools have a teaching module for pack-burdened skiing. Like the soldiers of the 10th, modern skiers have to figure out adaptations to technique on their own. Many modern skiers carry packs, though few would ever saddle up 90 pounds. Ski patrollers, backcountry skiers, mountaineers and camera people often carry up to about 40 pounds of high-tech lightweight gear. We use modern boots with all their advantages in support and leverage, not to mention warm and waterproof comfort. We have www.skiinghistory.org

earning to ski with 90-pound packs on their backs made sense for the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division. After all, that’s how they were going to have to ski when they were deployed, and it provided great strength training while the troops were learning the skills of the sport. There was also another benefit, possibly unintended, but equally important.

Skiing is a sport of balance: balancing on a platform that is moving on a slippery surface. Technically speaking, that means managing the alignment of forces of interaction between you and the snow. To develop that skill, your body must become attuned to the pressures and forces that develop between your body and the snow, and their alignment. Forces are proportional to mass, so a good way to develop that awareness is to amplify the forces by increasing your mass with a heavy pack.

The increased force on your body and pressure under your feet make it obvious where your point of balance is. Moreover, small movements, be they fore and aft or toward the inside or outside of the turn, not only become glaringly obvious, but their effects on the behavior of the skis are magnified.

Economy of motion and efficiency of stance are the result, without the need of an instructor to tutor you on the finer points of technique. Skiing with a pack loaded with just 20 or 30 pounds will tune up a skier’s technique in short order. Skiing with a 90-pound rucksack will turn an apprentice into a journeyman: just what the doctor ordered for the 10th Mountain Division.

Ron LeMaster fine-tunes his balance while skiing with a 30-pound pack loaded with camera gear.

flexible wide skis that do most of the work in difficult snow. It’s still no fun to fall under a heavy pack, which can swing forward and pound your head into the snow like a hammer. When carrying a big load, today’s skiers resort to the same adaptations figured out by troopers of the 10th—a wide, stable, evenly-weighted stance, quiet upper body to keep the pack in control, and strong but smooth leg technique.

A 41-year, PSIA Level 3 ski instructor and 19-year AASI Level 2 snowboard instructor at Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin, Charles Roberts is also the author of two books on World War II and a book on the history of Wilmot. ISHA president Seth Masia is a longtime ski journalist and PSIA Level 3 instructor at Vail.

November-December 2017 |

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Todd Brooker After surviving a horrific crash on the notorious Streif, the Crazy Canuck downhill champion went on to a successful career as a TV commentator.

BY EDITH THYS MORGAN

PHOTOS COURTESY TODD BROOKER

T Brooker dropped out of high school in 1975 and started training at Blue Mountain under Ernie McCulloch. He made the Canadian national team two years later. This photo shows him in the first World Cup race of the 1982–1983 season in Switzerland.

Brooker on his way to an 11th place finish in the downhill at Val Gardena.

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As his TV broadcasting career winds down, Brooker now spends most of his time brokering real-estate deals near his home in Thornbury, Ontario.

his January, for the 78th year, the world’s best downhill racers will take to the Streif in Kitzbühel, Austria to compete in the Hahnenkamm downhill, the hairiest two minutes in ski racing. The first North American to win the Hahnenkamm was Ken Read in 1980. Read’s victory kicked off a string of four wins over the next four years by the “Crazy Canucks,” Canada’s bold, pioneering speed merchants. The streak continued through 1983, with Todd Brooker’s win at age 23.

The Streif racecourse is uniquely challenging because of two exceptionally long and treacherous sections that require steel nerves and laser focus. The first occurs right out of the start and the second is at the very bottom, across a sidehill so steep that it can’t be groomed by machine.

Here, in full view of the finish, is where many of Kitzbühel’s most spectacular crashes occur. Among the most memorable is Todd Brooker’s career-ending, rag-doll crash in 1987, exactly 30 years ago.

Brooker is still well recognized around Kitzbühel, where he garners celebrity status when strolling through town on his annual visits as a TV commentator. If he is remembered to TV viewers stateside primarily for his crash, it doesn’t bother him. “It’s OK with me that it comes SKIING HISTORY

up so much, because I also have a victory to show for it,” says Brooker in his lilting, positive voice. “It was my moment to shine. If it had beaten me, it might be different.” As it is, Brooker emerged as a downhill great, a Crazy Canuck with a gondola in Kitzbühel bearing his name.

Todd Brooker and his older brother Mark grew up in Waterloo, Ontario. Their parents, Charlie and Joyce, did not encourage them to play hockey, despite the fact that Charlie was a member of Canada’s 1956 bronze medal Olympic hockey team. Joyce had spent her youth tagging along to hockey arenas and Charlie deemed the sport “too dangerous” for his boys, so they spent winter weekends in Collingwood, with the Toronto Ski Club at Blue Mountain. With 491 vertical feet, Blue Mountain is the biggest of several ski areas along the Niagara escarpment. The kids learned to race under the tutelage of Austrian Rudi Hiegelsberger, who instilled in them a pure love of skiing. Todd was enthralled by Jean-Claude Killy, both his gold medal sweep at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics and the photos depicting the fun he had skiing. “I wanted to be just like Killy. I wanted to be the best,” explains Brooker.

THE FAST TRACK

At age 16, two weeks before the school year started, Todd informed his parents that he wasn’t going back to school and was going to become a ski racer. “They didn’t say a thing. But they also didn’t say no,” he recalls. He moved up to Collingwood to live with some ski instructors at the base of Blue Mountain and skied every day. At the time, the Blue Mountain ski-school director was legendary ski racer and instructor Ernie McCulloch. Every morning, McCulloch would make a run or two with young Brooker.

“The chair lifts at that time were very slow, so on the long rides up, Ernie told me everything he knew about racing,” recalls Brooker, who tried his best to follow McCulloch as instructed. Later that 1975 season, www.skiinghistory.org

COURTESY KEN READ

THE START

The Canadian men’s alpine team at a 1982 World Cup event in Val d’Isere, France.

Brooker (far right) was one of the younger members of the legendary team—including Ken Read, Dave Murray, Dave Irwin and Steve Podborski—who dominated World Cup downhill racing from 1978 to 1984.

Brooker squeaked into the Canadian Championships when another athlete got sick. With a borrowed motocross helmet, suit and skis, he headed out west for the first time, finishing 7th, ahead of some of Canada’s top skiers.

After one training camp in Argentina, Brooker was designated to the “backup squad” of Canadian downhillers, who would train on the Europa Cup and eventually take the Crazy Canuck baton from the likes of Read, Jim Hunter, Dave Irwin, Dave Murray and Steve Podborski.

The following winter was a bad snow year. When all the Europa Cups were canceled the back-up squad shifted to the World Cup, which explains why Brooker’s first international race was the World Cup downhill in Val Gardena. “Immediately off the Camel Bumps, I stiff-legged the second bump and landed upside down. All winter one of us was crashing into something,” says Brooker.

The mantle of Crazy Canuck brought extreme pride but also pressure, particularly for a young kid who had, until the previous season, skied 12 weekends a year.

What he lacked in mileage he made up for in self-motivation. After his first knee injury in 1979, Brooker sustained knee injuries every other

year, but never had the luxury of time to rest and relax.

THE KITZBÜHEL CONNECTION

Before he learned to ski, Brooker lived in Kitzbühel for three years when his father was a player/ coach for the local hockey team.

In January 1982, having scored his first top-15 result at Val Gardena in December, Brooker finished 13th in the Hahnenkamm and saw his teammates Read and Podborski on the podium both days. The very next season, in 1983, without a World Cup win to his name, and with his first coach Rudi Hiegelsberger in the crowd, Brooker won the Hahnenkamm. His was the 4th Canadian win on the Streif in as many years, and the last to this day.

Brooker went on to win two more downhills, in Aspen later that season and then in Furano, Japan in 1985. Injuries continued to plague him, though he finished on the podium at Kitzbühel again in 1985. In 1986 he crashed on the sidehill, but didn’t give it a second thought. And then came the famous crash in 1987.

Brooker’s wife Lisa, an avid horsewoman from Waterloo whom he had married in 1984, was on tour with him that year, helping out on the hill as needed, and often watching from November-December 2017 |

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Brooker (right) with his NBC colleague Tim Ryan. They worked together for 15 years, starting at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Anton in 2001.

Bob Beattie (center) and Brooker (right) with Brooker’s daughter, Elle, at the World Cup Birds of Prey downhill in Vail. the finish. On the final training before the downhill race, Brooker came out of the Hausberg slightly low, and his downhill ski popped off on the notoriously bumpy sidehill. As he fell his head rammed into the base of the gate. In 1987, “gates” on the Hahnenkam were more like saplings, immovable stakes iced into the ground.

Unconscious, Brooker cart-wheeled sickeningly, his limp body sliding to a stop against the flimsy row of wooden snow fencing intended for crowd control. (Today, gates give way on impact, and that section is entirely lined with protective A-net.)

Considering the severity of the crash, Brooker was lucky, emerging with a concussion, a broken nose and a destroyed left knee.

In another stroke of good fortune, neurosurgeon Herman Hugenholtz was traveling with the team at the time, and was standing near Lisa at the finish. He prepped them for what to expect during the re-

18 | November-December 2017

covery. As predicted, Brooker slept a lot. “I fell asleep in my plate, or writing thank-you letters to my sponsors,” explains Brooker, whose head injury eventually healed. “It was three months until I could stay up for half the day.” The damage to his knee, however, was irreparable.

Bob Beattie, who had interviewed Brooker for TV on occasion, was also watching from the finish that day. “As soon as he gets better, have him call me,” he said to Lisa, and gave her his card.

BROADCASTING AND BEYOND

When Brooker did call Beattie, the timing was perfect. ESPN was starting World Cup coverage and Beattie and Brooker became a broadcasting team, traveling to 16 shows per season. Their easy conversational style and shared love of the sport gave them instant chemistry.

“I just loved the sound of Bob’s voice,” says Brooker. “He was all about how you said it.” Among his most memorable moments was being in the booth with Beattie for Ingemar Stenmark’s final GS run, and 86th victory, in Aspen 1989.

“As soon as Stenmark stepped into the starting gate, Bob stood up and stretched out his arms. That was the signal to be quiet. He was crying.

I didn’t say a single thing.” Brooker also credits Beattie with fighting for ski coverage every year: “Bob is the single reason skiing was on TV.” Brooker indirectly provided NBC announcer-journalist Steve Porino’s entry to ski commentating. Brooker’s leave of absence to attend Burger College in 1997 created a need for additional on-air talent, and Porino was it. Eventually Brooker returned and when NBC bought television rights for six Winter Olympics in a row, starting in 2002, Brooker joined Porino and Christin Cooper on what became a familiar broadcast team led by Tim Ryan. Ryan explains that humility was part of Brooker’s charm, as was his ability to zone in on what mattered: “What he chose to talk about was almost always the important thing to be saying.”

Porino concurs with Ryan:

“Magnanimous” is how he describes Brooker, who knew the names of everyone on the production team, and skied enthusiastically despite constant knee pain. “He’s super competitive,” Porino explains, laughing at the vision of “the guy with the red face” exiting the TV truck in frustration or after crossing signals on a shoot. “He had his standards.” He also had a natural and inviting on-air presence. “He never needed to rehearse, and always exuded good cheer,” says Porino. “I loved that you could ask him anything and he could take it somewhere interesting. It was so much fun for me to talk skiing with Brooker on the air.”

In addition to commentating, Brooker parlayed his relationships from skiing into a variety of business ventures around the Collingwood area. “It was survival!” Brooker explains. There was the condo/hotel that he sold and then managed.

As an international ambassador for Ronald McDonald children’s charities, he organized a benefit event that grew to multiple events across Canada, and brought in $5 million over 16 years. The association led him to complete Hamburger University, McDonald’s rigorous training program, though eventually Brooker owned and operated two Wendy’s franchises. Over the years, he has maintained relationships with various companies, including Head Skis.

Brooker and Beattie worked as a team for 16 years. The height of coverage was at the 2001 World Championships, when ESPN covered weekday events and NBC covered the weekend. “It was spectacular,” recalls Brooker. There was enough money to have a telestrator for analysis and Dartfish for sideby-side comparison, as when Daron Rahlves passed Hermann Maier on the bottom of the Super G. In 2004, ski broadcasting shifted to the Outdoor Life Network and in–studio coverage. Without a broadcast team on site, coverage is now reduced to compiling statistics and analyzing whatever replays happen to run on the world feed. “When you hung out in the finish area, SKIING HISTORY

Brooker with his three daughters (left to right): Elle, Sam and Zoe. All three girls learned to ski at Georgian Peaks in Ontario and raced until the FIS level. everyone would share insights with you about the course, the hill, their runs and more,” explains Brooker.

“In the studio or on the phone, you don’t get that stuff. Now you hear commentators talking about the scene but you don’t see it.”

Brooker says he’s in the twilight of his TV career, which means one more year with CBC for the 2018 Olympics and six shows. “It was a good run. I’ll miss it,” he says.

Brooker (far right) and his wife Lisa (center) with (left to right): Zoe, 28, a ski coach in Canmore, Alberta; Sam, 28, a respiratory therapist in Vancouver; and Elle, 25, a school teacher in Perth, Australia.

THE QUIET LIFE

Seven years ago Brooker got his real estate license, and now spends most of his time brokering deals near his and Lisa’s home in Thornbury, near Blue Mountain. All three Brooker daughters—28-year-old twins and a 25-year-old—learned to ski at Georgian Peaks and raced until the FIS level, when it became too much of a commitment. They now live in Vancouver, Banff and Perth, Aus-

tralia, but home is hardly an empty nest. Todd and Lisa also enjoy riding their sturdy Percheron mix horses. He had a knee replacement last February and is looking forward to testing it out on the slopes.

“It’s the first time in 30 years it doesn’t hurt,” he says.

To watch a YouTube video of Brooker’s infamous 1987 crash, go to: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=SEGIyL_WoBk

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November-December 2017 |

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Skiing to the Poles

CHRISTOPHER MICHEL / FLICKR.COM

The critical role of skis in 130 years of Arctic exploration and adventure.

BY JEFF BLUMENFELD In Part I of this two-part article, author Jeff Blumenfeld explains how skis played a critical role in the early Arctic and polar expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen (Greenland, 1888), Robert E. Peary and Frederick Cook (North Pole, 1909), Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott (South Pole, 1911 and 1912). In Part II, to be published in the JanuaryFebruary 2018 issue of Skiing History, Blumenfeld will examine the use of skis in modern-day polar expeditions

by Paul Schurke, Will Steger and Richard Weber.

Blumenfeld, an ISHA director, runs Blumenfeld and

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Associates PR and ExpeditionNews.com in Boulder, Colorado. He is the recipient of the 2017 Bob Gillen Memorial Award from the North American Snowsports Journalists Association, was nominated a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and is chair of the Rocky Mountain chapter of The Explorers Club. No stranger to the polar regions, he’s been to Iceland more than 15 times, traveled on business 184 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland, and chaperoned a high-school student trip to the Antarctic Peninsula.

SKIING HISTORY

PHOTOGRAPHER: SIEMS & CO. OWNER: NATIONAL LIBRARY (BLDSA–F3B030)

T

hroughout the modern era of polar exploration, skis have played an invaluable role in propelling explorers forward— sometimes with dogsled teams, sometimes without, and more recently, with kites to glide across the polar regions at speeds averaging 7 mph. Modern-day polar explorers including Eric Larsen, Paul Schurke, Will Steger and Richard Weber all continue to use skis today, taking a page right out of history. Were it not for skis, reaching the North and South poles in the early 1900s might have been delayed until years later.

This long-awaited message from American explorer Robert E. Peary (1856–1920) flashed around the globe by cable and telegraph on the afternoon of September 6, 1909. Reaching the North Pole, nicknamed the “Big Nail” in those days, was a threecentury struggle that had taken many lives, and was the Edwardian era’s equivalent of the first manned landing on the moon.

But was Peary first to achieve this expeditionary Holy Grail? To this day, historians aren’t absolutely sure whether Peary was first to the North Pole in 1909, although they are convinced both he and Frederick Cook (1865–1940) came close. Of course, Cook’s credibility wasn’t enhanced by his 1923 conviction for mail fraud, followed by seven years in the U.S. federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t until 1986 that the possibility of reaching the pole without mechanical assistance or resupply was finally confirmed, thanks in part to the use of specially designed skis. That was the year a wiry Minnesotan named Will Steger, a former science teacher then aged 41, launched his 56-day Steger North Pole Expedition, financed by cash and gear from more than 60 companies. The expedition would become the first confirmed, non-mechanized and unsupported dogsled and ski journey to the North Pole, proving it was indeed possible back in the early 1900s to have reached the pole in this www.skiinghistory.org

COURTESY JEFF BLUMENFELD

“STARS AND STRIPES NAILED TO THE NORTH POLE”

manner, regardless of whether Peary or Cook arrived first.

Dogs are the long-haul truckers of polar exploration. For Steger’s 1986 journey, he relied upon three self-sufficient teams of 12 dogs each— specially bred polar huskies weighing about 90 pounds per dog. The teams faced temperatures as low as minus 68 degrees F, raging storms and surging 60-to-100-feet pressure ridges of ice.

To keep up with dogs pulling 1,100-pound supply sleds traveling at speeds of up to four miles per hour, team members used Epoke 900 skis, Berwin Bindings, Swix Alulight ski poles and Swix ski wax, according to North to the Pole by Will Steger with Paul Schurke (Times Books/ Random House, 1987). In its basic equipment, this mode of travel was not far removed from the early days of polar exploration.

NORWAY’S BEST SKIER CROSSES GREENLAND

Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen (1861– 1930), an accomplished skier, skater

Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen (left) achieved the first crossing of the Greenland ice cap in 1888. He and his team (above) traversed the island on skis, using special poles that doubled as ice axes, tent poles and kayak frames. They were all expert skiers and had experience living outdoors.

and ski jumper, carved his name in polar exploration by achieving the first crossing of the Greenland ice cap in 1888, traversing the island on skis. Nansen was something of a Norwegian George Washington, revered as a statesman and humanitarian as well as an explorer. He rejected the complex organization and heavy manpower of other Arctic ventures, and instead planned his expedition for a small party of six on skis, with supplies man-hauled on lightweight sledges. His team included two Sami people, who were known to be expert snow travelers. All of the men had experience living outdoors and were experienced skiers.

Despite challenges such as treacherous surfaces with many hidden crevasses, violent storms and rain, ascents to 8,900 feet and temperatures dropping to minus 49 degrees F, the 78-day expedition succeeded thanks to the team’s sheer determination and their use of skis.

In spring 1889, they returned to a hero’s welcome in Christiania (now November-December 2017 |

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praise for the use of skis on the expedition. Their simple Norwegian touring skis with hardwood edges performed without difficulty.

Says Staib, “Skiing in the Arctic is not like skiing at home. There’s no real variety, there isn’t even any waxing. There is no wax for snow so cold and, anyway, there is no need for it. There are no hills to climb or descend.”

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC

American explorer Robert E. Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. Historians now think he may have fallen short due to navigational and record-keeping errors.

Peary returned to America only to learn that Frederick Cook (above), an American surgeon, claimed to have reached the Pole in April 1908, a full year earlier. Cook was later discredited.

Peary used long wooden skis (left) and dogsleds in his Arctic expeditions, relying on Inuit drivers and survival techniques.

The men dressed in furs and built igloos for shelter; they also used support teams and established supply caches.

Oslo), attracting crowds of between 30,000 to 40,000—one-third of the city’s population.

Nansen later won international fame after reaching a record “farthest north” latitude of 86°14’ during his North Pole expedition in 1895, sadly falling short of the Big Nail by a mere 200 miles.

Nansen’s Greenland expedition would be repeated and completed, again on skis, 67 years later by the 27-year-old Norwegian Bjorn Staib in 1962. It took Staib and his teammate 31 days to cross the almost 500-milewide ice cap. “The skis served them well,” according to a story by John Henry Auran in the November 1965 issue of SKI Magazine. He quotes Staib, “There were steep slopes in

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the west, but we never knew where the crevasses would be. So we zipped across as fast as possible— sometimes I wished we had slalom skis—and hoped that we were safe and wouldn’t break through.”

Writes Auran, “Skis, always essential for Arctic travel, now became indispensable. Crossing ice that sometimes was only the thickness of plate glass, the skis provided the essential distribution of weight which kept the men from breaking through. And they made speed, the other margin of safety, possible.”

In 1964, Staib would attempt to ski to the North Pole but was turned back 14 days from his goal by poor ice and extreme cold.

Nonetheless, he had nothing but

Nansen’s techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a future generation of Arctic and Antarctic explorers, including one whose failure in January 1912 was considered a blow to British national pride on par with the wreck of the Titanic three months later.

British Capt. Robert F. Scott (1868–1912) became a national hero when he set the new “farthest south” record with his expedition to Antarctica aboard the 172-foot RRS Discovery in 1901–1904. Nansen introduced Scott to Norwegian Tryggve Gran, a wealthy expert skier who had been trying to mount his own Antarctic expedition. Scott asked Gran to train his men for a new expedition, an attempt to be first to reach the geographic South Pole, while conducting scientific experiments and collecting data along the way. After all, who better to teach his men? Most Norwegians learned to ski as soon as they could walk. Arriving in Antarctica in early January 1911, Gran was one of the 13 expedition members involved in positioning supply depots needed for the attempt to reach the South Pole later that year.

Scott found skiing “a most pleasurable and delightful exercise” but was not convinced at first that it would be useful when dragging sledges. He would later find that however inexpert their use of skis was, they greatly increased safety over crevassed areas.

“With today’s hindsight, when thousands of far better-equipped amateurs know how difficult it is to master skiing as an adult, Scott’s belief that his novices could do so as part of an expedition in which their lives might depend on it seems biSKIING HISTORY

www.skiinghistory.org

COOL ANTARCTICA.COM

South Pole, Scott’s expedition perished in a blizzard just 11 miles short of their food and fuel cache. A geologist to the very end, Scott and his men were found with a sledge packed with 35 pounds of rock samples and very few supplies.

In November 1912, Gran was part of the 11-man search party that found the tent containing the dead bodies of the Scott party. After collecting the party’s personal belongings, the tent was lowered over the bodies of Scott and his two companions and a 12-foot snow cairn was built over it, topped by a cross made from a pair of skis. The bodies remain entombed in the Antarctic to this day.

Gran traveled back to the base at Cape Evans wearing Scott’s skis, reasoning that at least Scott’s skis would complete the journey. Today those skis can be seen in an exhibit at The Ski Museum in Holmenkollen, on the outskirts of Oslo, honoring Amundsen’s historic discovery of the South Pole. Scott would most certainly roll over in his grave at the thought of his skis displayed near those of his polar rival.

Later polar expeditions would go on to combine skis with kites, with snowshoes, and floating sledges.

Sometimes they even attracted the attention of world leaders.

Above: Scott died with his men on the journey back from the pole. His skis are now on display at The Ski Museum in Holmenkollen in Oslo, as part of an exhibit honoring Amundsen’s expedition.

PHOTO BY JEFF BLUMENFELD

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY LIBRARY

zarre,” according to South—The Race to the Pole, published by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (2000). Scott was bitterly disappointed when he arrived at the bottom of the world on January 17, 1912, only to find a tent, a Norwegian flag, and a letter to the King of Norway left more than a month earlier by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872–1928), on December 14, 1911.

Amundsen had kicked off his successful journey to the South Pole by traveling to the continent in the 128-foot Fram, a polar vessel built by Nansen. He averaged about 16 miles a day using a combination of dogs, sledges and skis, on a polar journey of 1,600 miles roundtrip. With Amundsen skiing in the lead, his dogsled drivers cried “halt” and told him that the sledgemeters said they were at the Pole. “God be thanked” was his simple reaction.

Over a month later, the deity was again invoked, but under less favorable conditions. After Scott reached the South Pole, man-hauling without the benefit of dogs, he famously wrote in his diary, “Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.”

On their way back from the

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (left) reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911. On January 17, British Capt. Robert F. Scott arrived at the pole and was bitterly disappointed to find Amundsen’s tent, a Norwegian flag, and a letter to the King of Norway left a month earlier by Amundsen’s team (above).

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Snowmass: The Beginning

SNOWMASS / JEREMY SWANSON

How America’s first real-estate-focused resort was founded 50 years ago.

BY JAY COWAN

W

hen Snowmass Resort announced retro lift-pass pricing for its 50th anniversary celebration on December 15 this season, the $6.50-for-the day offer lit up the Internet. A screaming deal today, it was the ticket

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price when Snowmass opened on that date in 1967. Never mind that a competitor at the time had billboards proclaiming, “Six bucks? Ridiculous. Ski Steamboat Springs.”

On that snowy morning in 1967, waiting to catch the first chairs and tracks on a big new mountain, I was a 15-year-old who’d been skiing

since I could walk and for whom this was a dream come true. I was living in a just-opened resort with a little village, a clock tower, and this amazing mountain rising above it. One of skiing’s most famous figures, Stein Eriksen, the new director of skiing, jumped through a flaming hoop for the grand opening SKIING HISTORY

SNOWMASS / JEREMY SWANSON

Snowmass opened in December 1967 as a partnership between the Aspen Skiing Corporation (ASC) and real-estate developer Bill Janss. The ASC would build and operate the lifts and trails, while Janss would build the villages, with lodging, second homes and condos, restaurants and retail shops.

on a beginner slope called Fanny Hill. And the snow kept dumping down, like some cosmic validation.

For the next five decades Snowmass would be my home mountain— where I would race and jump, ski and instruct, meet lifelong friends and scatter my father’s ashes.

Snowmass, which gets its name from Snowmass Mountain in the nearby Maroon Bells wilderness, was eyed for skiing for years before it opened. Potential investors, terrain experts and journalists were being carried up the mountain on www.skiinghistory.org

snowcats to check it out. Among them was the late Tom Corcoran, Olympic skier and later founder of Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, who had just become executive assistant to D.R.C. (Darcy) Brown, the redoubtable CEO of the Aspen Skiing Corporation (ASC). Brown was vitally interested in Snowmass and its feasibility as a ski area.

The ASC’s Jim Snobble, who died in 2006, recalled that pilot Tommy Thomas, who “made more landings than he did takeoffs,” was also flying locals who were looking to develop the mountain up to the Big Burn. They included Edgar Stern, the owner of Sears and eventual founder of Deer Valley, and Lance Reventlow, the playboy son of Revlon heiress Barbara Hutton.

That Snowmass-at-Aspen, as it was first called, would make for great skiing was a conviction not universally shared. After all, Aspen already had Aspen Mountain right above town. Also known as Ajax, it was famed around the world.

Minutes away, serious-skier terrain existed at Aspen Highlands, owned by fierce ASC competitor Whip Jones. And Darcy Brown’s ASC also owned Buttermilk, which had superb terrain for beginners and intermediates.

“At the time, Sun Valley had its big mountain and Dollar Mountain for beginners,” says Doug MacKenzie, a former longtime Snowmass mountain manager who was instructing at Buttermilk when Snowmass opened. “Stowe had Spruce Peak for beginners, and the ASC

had Buttermilk. That seemed to be the model. So there was a question about why Aspen needed another area. And lots of people said no one would drive out there for twenty minutes on a dirt road.”

With Whip Jones already next door at Highlands, the ASC, owned by a group of shareholders that included founding members of the Walter Paepcke family and Aspen native Brown, was anxious not to have another competitor. So the company signed a letter of agreement to cooperate with Bill Janss, a southern California real estate developer and one-time U.S. Ski Team racer. Janss would build the villages while ASC would build and operate the lifts and trails.

Janss had discovered Snowmass through a Stanford college roommate, Kingsbury “Pitch” Pitcher. Bill and his brother Ed Janss had hired Pitcher in 1958 to scout Colorado for a big mountain with a base open to real estate development.

Pitcher found it right where he was living. By 1961 Janss had purchased seven ranches in the valley, below Baldy and Burnt mountains, totaling some 3,400 acres.

John Fry, editor-in-chief of SKI Magazine at the time, was in contact with Janss and among those who skied the Big Burn with Snobble.

“Snowmass was the first U.S. ski area built with real estate sales as its basis,” says Fry, the author of The Story of Modern Skiing. “In a way, the Skiing Corp. (ASC) was a perfect partner for Janss, because Darcy Brown didn’t believe ASC should November-December 2017 |

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The new base village at Snowmass in the winter of 1968. Janss’ original vision of multiple European-style pedestrian villages never materialized. Instead, the purpose-built property was mostly built of concrete.

ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

JONE LANE / ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Skiers walk through the new Snowmass base village in 1968. Janss sold a precedent-setting amount of property—most of it ski-in, skiout. That was a rarity in America at the time, and a big factor in Snowmass’ success.

be engaged in lodging and retail.

The Skiing Corp. was happy to leave it to Janss to create slopeside lodging, restaurants, shops, second homes and condos.”

Janss brought in the American Cement Company to help build a pedestrian-only village up a steepish hillside along the lower ski slopes.

That made getting back and forth on foot a daunting hiking experience at 8,000 feet. And while the architecture by legendary local Fritz Benedict was tasteful, the buildings in the village core reflected American Cement’s specialty: lots of concrete. It was a purpose-built resort that looked the part and was inconvenient to boot.

In the end, Janss’ and Benedict’s original vision for Snowmass— multiple lift-connected, Europeanstyle pedestrian villages with small

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lodges—would never materialize.

Original Snowmass merchants didn’t want more competition, and local politics and zoning issues also played roles in the changes.

Yet Janss would sell a precedentsetting amount of property, much of it ski-in/ski-out, rare in America then and a big factor in Snowmass’ success. When much of that goal was accomplished, Janss left to focus on running Sun Valley, which he’d recently bought.

For the original skiing feasibility study, ASC’s Brown picked Snobble, a supervisor in the Aspen ski school. “We had an exceptional crew of people,” said Snobble.

“They included Tom Marshall, Jess Capparella, and especially Hal Hartman senior. We learned a lot from him. It was hard, almost medieval work.” They opened Snowmass

COLORADO SKI AND SNOWBOARD MUSEUM

ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

A Trackmaster Sno-Cat delivered skiers to the top of Big Burn in 1967 for one of the last snowcat ski runs.

From left to right, the skiers are Bill Mason, Don Rayburn, Hal Hartman Sr., Art Bowles, and Jim Snobble.

The photo looks down on the future Snowmass Golf Course.

Stein Eriksen, Snowmass’ first director of skiing, loaded the first official chairlift on opening day at Snowmass in December 1967. The lucky couple from San Diego, Jere and Dick Riley, won the honor in a lottery by reserving a room at the Silvertree Hotel.

with five lifts the first winter, including the Big Burn.

Created when Ute Indians torched the mountainside before their expulsion to Utah in 1880, the Burn was the area’s star attraction. The fire-thinned mountainside is a skier’s grand ballroom, with vast terrain and great optics. From early on, however, local instructors warned that it wasn’t steep enough, especially for good, bottomless deep powder. They were right, but it was deceptive.

“One day we packed out a run up there and the first group to ski it was from the Dallas Ski Club,” said Snobble. “We told them that our instructors thought it was so flat they could just let their skis run.” The Burn, however, becomes progressively steeper as it goes.

“Part way down, they all had to bail out into the powder,” chuckled Snobble. “We named the run Dallas Freeway.”

From the beginning the terrain at Snowmass was underrated, mostly by those who had never skied it, or never skied it the way you could. It was waggishly called Slowmass, yet has always had some of the best high-speed cruisers in the country. The resort has steadily opened up more and more doubleSKIING HISTORY

black terrain along with big league pipes, parks and off-piste access.

Today locals don’t try to enlighten the naysayers. That’s why there’s still freshies after several days.

The skiing at Snowmass was an immediate hit. “Since the first year when everyone was predicting doom,” said Snobble, “Snowmass made more money and did more skier-days than Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk combined. After awhile, they started spelling it with a dollar sign where the S was.”

One of the big keys to Snowmass’s appeal has been its attention to customer service from day one.

Wall-to-wall grooming was a novelty at the time it opened, and helped to inspire generations of corduroy cultists. And the Snowmass ski school has always been widely acclaimed, especially its kids’ section.

“Once people realized they could ski Snowmass while their

kids were in these great programs on the same mountain, it changed the game,” says Doug MacKenzie.

“Now if there were emergencies or equipment issues, they were right there and could deal with it. And they didn’t have to drive somewhere to pick them up at the end of the day.”

In the winter of 1980–81, Snowmass introduced a unique amenity in American skiing at the time— formal sit-down dining on the mountain. Gwyn’s at High Alpine happened when Gwyn and George Gordon, partnering with the Ski Company, added a china-and-linen restaurant seating 80 onto their High Alpine cafeteria.

“We gambled that Snowmass guests would want to dine more like the Europeans did,” says Gwyn Knowlton. “We laughed that if it didn’t work we would just take out the wall and convert it back to caf-

JOAN LANE / ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

D.R.C. “Darcy” Brown (left) at Lift One during the ASC’s 20th anniversary celebration in December 1966, one year before Snowmass opened.

ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

10th Mountain Division veteran Fritz Benedict was the first architect to arrive in Aspen after the war. He designed numerous residences, commercial and public buildings, and planned the entire base village at Snowmass.

ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

This circa-1960s photo of Tom Corcoran was taken at Snowmass during an early scouting expedition. At the time, Corcoran was executive assistant to ASC head Darcy Brown.

www.skiinghistory.org

eteria seating. Instead, a few years later we had to remodel it and add additional seats, a waiting room and restrooms!”

Back in the village, it has always been challenging to compete with nearby Aspen for après and nightlife, especially when the vast majority of beds are in Aspen. Major new additions and plans over the last few years have been targeted in that direction. Even in one of America’s great ski resorts, the struggle to get it right continues.

But if fifty years have made anything clear, it’s that they’re going to keep trying.

Jay Cowan is a longtime writer and Aspen-area resident who now splits his time between Colorado and Montana. His most recent article for Skiing History, “Wild Ride,” covered the 12 years of Aspen Skiing Company ownership by Hollywood mogul Marvin Davis. (July-August 2016).

ASPEN SKI CO. COLLECTION

Jim Snobble, the general manager of Snowmass, climbs into a snowcat in 1975. Snobble oversaw the original Snowmass feasibility study for the ASC and helped to open the mountain with five lifts during that first winter.

Bill Janss was a California realestate developer and former U.S. Ski Team racer. He discovered Snowmass through a college roommate, Kingsbury “PItch” Pitcher. Janss hired Pitcher in 1958 to scout Colorado for a big mountain with a base area suitable for real-estate development.

ASPEN TIMES/ COURTESY MARY JANSS

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MEDIA REVIEWS

A Century on Skis

T

his thoroughly researched book chronicles the ups and downs of the first 100 years (1917–2017) of the Chisholm Ski Club of Rumford, Maine.

Currently located at Black Mountain ski area, since the 1930s the club has produced dozens of nationallevel racers and Maine Ski Hall of Famers, and also made its mark by hosting numerous international, national, collegiate Since the 1930s, the Chisholm club and state nordic has produced dozens of high-caliber championships. racers and Maine Ski Hall of Famers.

Lightly touching on the sport’s Scandinavian roots, the first section chronicles how skiing took hold in Rumford from 1920 to 1932. Winter carnivals were paramount in those years, and community involvement played a big role in the early success of the club, a fact still true today. The book is crowded with hometown heroes who clear the trails, monitor the race courses, prepare the meals, organize the finances and keep the flags flying.

The economic depression of the early 1930s coincided with the growth of cross-country skiing, and club legend Wendall “Chummy” Broomhall makes his first appearance in 1929 as a 15-year-old, placing fourth in an 18-kilometer race during the U.S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association championships. (He went on to compete in the 1948 and 1952 Winter Olympics.) In 1950, due to bad weather in Lake Placid, the FIS World Championships were moved at the last moment to Rumford, thanks to a quick phone call from Chummy. The town turned out to make the meet a huge success.

After the war, the club continued its nordic programs in jumping and cross-country, with an emphasis on youth programs—from 1955 to 2014, 74 Chisholm-trained athletes competed in the U.S. Junior National Championships. Meanwhile, the club developed an alpine center by

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erecting a rope tow on Scotty Richardson’s land in 1954.

Five years later, the operation moved to Black Mountain, with a half-dozen trails, a base lodge and a rope tow.

Despite financial setbacks over the years, today Black Mountain remains a viable community ski area and the hub of Chisholm Ski Club activities, with 45 lift-served alpine trails and 17 kilometers of nordic trails. The club hosted the high-profile 2011 and 2012 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Black, and this season will organize more than two dozen events, from high-school races to the Bates College winter carnival.

As Chummy Broomhall says: “It’s only a little club, but we do big things.” —E. John B. Allen A Century on Skis: The First 100 Years of the Chisholm Ski Club of Rumford, Maine by Scott Andrews. Published by Great Life Press (2017). Softcover, 215 pages with black-and-white illustrations and appendices. $20 plus shipping. Available from Bethel Historical Society (bethelhistorical.org, 207.824.2908), Ski Museum of Maine (skimuseumofmaine.org, 207.265.2023) and New England Ski Museum (staff@skimuseum.org, 800.639.4181).

FLY BABY

In the early 1980s, a set of adventurous, athletically gifted girls from Lee, Massachusetts, followed the advice of their Austrian father and picked a favorite sport.

Twelve-year-old twins Kim and Krista Schmidinger chose skiing, which they had learned at Eastover Resort, where their young parents had second jobs.

Their talent landed them both at Stratton Mountain School and, by age 12, on the U.S. Ski Team. Gold and silver medals at the 1989 Junior World Championships—for Kim and Krista respectively—foretold a successful life in skiing for the twins.

In Fly Baby, Kim (now Jochl) recounts her fairytale beginning and follows its inevitable reallife twists and turns.

Jochl’s athletic journey charts the jagged SKIING HISTORY

path of a phenom, from meteoric ascent through devastating injuries, grueling comebacks and ultimately the acceptance of unrealized dreams. Throughout the book, Jochl refers to coaches anonymously and accurately portrays an unsteady U.S. Ski Team where “replacing staff would become the norm.” Fun times and close bonds of teammates came with the reality of competing as an individual in a precarious team structure, built to support its stars of the moment: discretionary whims could trump merit; character held little value; friendships were secondary to performance; and athletes felt like disposable assets, making it a particularly harsh environment for young girls. While her sister Krista was able to run the gauntlet and compete in two Olympics, Kim followed the well-trodden path of racers who’ve been injured, receiving from the organization neither the time nor the consistent support to fully recover.

Kim retired from ski racing in 1993, at age 23, and stepped, literally, into a different landscape. A new home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, college, marriage and family, and the quest for a pilot’s license all brought new challenges and an expanded sense of purpose as Jochl forged an unanticipated path into the business side of the ski industry.

As vice president of Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk, North Carolina, Jochl gives an insider view of the intricacies and vagaries of the ski business, the importance of community involvement, and the heartbreaks and triumphs of a life shaped by skiing. Fly Baby is written with a charming dose of gratitude for the simple victory of taking a run in a place called home with the people you love. —Edith Thys Morgan Fly Baby: The Story of an American Girl by Kimberley Schmidinger Jochl. Published by Wilifred Lee Books (2017); 222 pages, softcover with black-and-white photos. Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon for $19.95 or at kimberlyjochl.com.

SKI LIFE SKI December 1967

www.skiinghistory.org

ISHA MEMBER PROFILE: PETER FISCHER Peter Fischer, who for 35 years helped to distribute Bogner skiwear in the United States, has been a faithful supporter of ISHA for more than 15 years.

“I came to America with $50 in my pocket and two suitcases,” he says. “The ski business made my luck and I want to give back to it. Skiing History is our shared story.”

Peter was born in Berlin in 1938, and after the war served an apprenticeSince the mid-1970s, ship in wholesaling and Fischer and his wife merchandising. In 1964, Daniela have taken 92 badly needing a vacation heliski trips. from his interior design firm, he traveled to New York and bought a $99 Greyhound Bus pass, good for unlimited travel for 99 days. Reaching the West Coast, he fell in love with San Francisco and began to think about emigrating.

Then came a great stroke of luck. Peter loved sailing, and was a member of the Potsdamer Yacht Club on the Wannsee. He learned that a fellow member was Hans Hagemeister, who had settled in San Francisco in 1932 and, with his partner Wolfgang Lert, was the very successful importer of Bogner skiwear in America. Peter phoned Hans, they met, and Hans was impressed by Peter’s merchandising background. “I’m 55 years old and I’m looking for a right-hand man,” Hans said. Peter signed on.

“I knew nothing about skiing,” Peter says, “except that snow is white. And I spoke English poorly.” Arriving in San Francisco in 1965, he recalls, his first paycheck was $328. The following winter he went to Sun Valley to learn to ski, and then spent all his weekends at Squaw Valley.

Ten years later Peter and his wife Daniela began heli-skiing three or four weeks each winter with Canadian Mountain Holidays, and supplying Bogner “heli-suits” for the guides and guests.

After Hans and Wolfie retired, Peter owned Hagemeister-Lert. He sold the company to Fera in 1996 and retired in 2000. He and Daniela have homes in Mill Valley, California and Munich.

Peter has now skied 92 heliski trips since the mid1970s, totaling more than 10 million vertical feet. He’ll turn 80 in March 2018, but is not done heli-skiing yet.

Despite Parkinson’s disease and a torn rotator cuff, he’ll celebrate the birthday with his friends at CMH in January. —Seth Masia

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NEWS FROM ISHA

Left to right: ISHA chairman John Fry, Johannes von Trapp, Per Sorlie, and Johannes’ wife Lynne on a ski outing at Trapps.

Johannes founded America’s first pay-to-ski cross-country touring center at his family’s Vermont lodge in 1968 and hired Sorlie from Norway as the instructor; Sorlie is traveling from Norway to attend the 2018 anniversary.

T

rapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont—the United States’ first commercial cross-country touring center—will celebrate its 50th 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 27room 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

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COURTESY TRAPP FAMILY LODGE

COURTESY JOHN FRY

Trapp Cross-Country Touring Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The weeklong schedule includes outings to Slayton Pasture Cabin, a three-mile ski from the main lodge. The rustic cabin serves lunch and has a stone fireplace so skiers can warm up. 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 50th 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.

SKIING HISTORY

YOU CAN MAKE SKIING HISTORY

ISHA PARTNERS WITH NASTAR TO HOST 2018 SKIING HISTORY DAYS AT SQUAW VALLEY

…and win a lift pass good at 230 resorts.

The International Skiing History Association (ISHA) will host Skiing History Days at Squaw Valley, California, March 21–24, 2018. The event will be held in conjunction with the NASTAR 50th anniversary celebration and national championships.

ISHA is planning a multi-day program that includes team racing, guided on-mountain tours and history lectures. On Thursday, March 22, longtime ISHA members Eddy and Osvaldo Ancinas will host a cocktail reception that includes a racing community reunion and presentation on behalf of the Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation (see page 32). A delegation from China, led by historian Shan Zhaojian, will attend Skiing History Days; they will stage an on-snow demonstration of traditional Altai skiing, tentatively scheduled for Friday, March 23. The 26th annual ISHA Awards banquet, honoring the year’s best ski history books and films, will be held Friday evening in the historic Olympic Village dining hall, where the athletes dined in 1960.

Hundreds of celebrants—the country’s top recreational racers and their families—will also be in Squaw that week for the annual NASTAR championships, with races and clinics, concerts and parties, and autograph signings by U.S. Ski Team athletes.

Lodging will sell out quickly, so make your plans now. For more information, see the ad on page 38–39 of this issue. To book your tickets, go to skiinghistory.org/events. Questions? Call the ISHA office at 802.366.1158.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame is hosting its annual induction ceremony and Snowsport History Celebration at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, April 12–15, 2018. For tickets and information, go to snowsporthistory.com.

ISHA’s 2017 fundraising drive is underway, and I hope you’ll make a generous donation in support of our work.

Gifts from members like you have enabled us to expand and enhance our Website (skiinghistory.org), so that visits increased by 224 percent in the last five years. Our annual awards now attract book and film entries from historians around the world. And donations fund the research and writing that appear six times a year in the pages of Skiing History, our nonprofit journal.

The cost of ISHA’s work far exceeds the income that we receive from membership dues. Your taxdeductible donations—above and beyond your annual dues—make the difference.

Every year, more than 400 ISHA members and corporate sponsors make gifts to preserve and expand understanding of the sport’s colorful history. Please open your heart and purse strings, and make a generous donation to our 2017 campaign. It’s easy to donate online: www.skiinghistory.org/donate. Or send a check to ISHA, PO Box 1064, Manchester Center VT 05255.

John Fry, ISHA Chairman

PS: Give $100 or more by December 31 and be entered into a raffle to win the use of two NSAA / U.S. Ski Team Gold Passes for one week (7 consecutive days) during the 2018 ski season. Good for one lift ticket, per day, per pass at participating ski areas. Generously donated by our partners at the National Ski Areas Association.

KATHLEEN JAMES

KATHLEEN JAMES

SKIING HISTORY NIGHT AT HICKORY & TWEED

More than 60 skiers and ISHA members attended Skiing History Night at the historic Hickory & Tweed ski shop in Armonk, New York on October 2. The evening included appetizers and wood-fired pizza, wine and Paulaner beer, plenty of socializing, and an entertaining presentation by ISHA director Jeff Blumenfeld on “Bygone Gizmos: Crazy Ski Products That Faded, Fizzled or Failed to Stand the Test of Time.” The event was co-hosted by ISHA director Skip Beitzel, who has owned Hickory & Tweed since 1985. www.skiinghistory.org

Earlier in the day, the ISHA board held its biannual meeting at the legendary Explorers Club in Manhattan. Pictured from left to right are ISHA directors (front row) Mike Calderone, Art Currier and Rick Moulton; (back row) Charlie Sanders, Wilbur Rice, ISHA executive director and Skiing History editor Kathleen James, Jeff Blumenfeld, Wini Jones, Bob Soden, John Fry and Einar Sunde.

November-December 2017 |

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MUSEUM NEWS

Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation Hires New Director

COURTESY JILL MILNE

T

he Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation (SVSMF) has named Jill Milne as its new executive director. Milne arrives with 20-plus years of experience in marketing, fundraising and events, including positions at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. As a volunteer, she has contributed hundreds of hours to Tahoe-area nonprofits.

Currently housed at the Gatekeeper’s Museum in Tahoe City, the SVSMF has identified a site for a permanent home in Squaw Valley Park at the entrance to Olympic Valley. Milne will lead the organization through a critical phase of planning and fundraising to secure the site.

This preliminary work will be supported by a $125,000 development grant from the Placer County Board of Supervisors.

Milne will lead the SVSMF Once complete, the museum through planning and fundwill honor the 1960 Squaw raising to secure a site and Valley Winter Olympics and build a permanent home in the skiers, snowboarders and Squaw Valley Park. ski-area pioneers who have influenced western winter sports since the California gold rush.

ISHA will co-host a reception to celebrate SVSMF on March 22, during Skiing History Days, at the home of Eddy and Osvaldo Ancinas (see page 31). To learn more about the museum, go to www.OlympicSki Museum.com or email info@olympicskimuseum.com.

MAINE MUSEUM WINS $25,000 GRANT TO UPGRADE KINGFIELD GALLERY

The Ski Museum of Maine received a $25,000 grant from the H. King & Jean Cummings Charitable Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to renovate its gallery on Main Street in downtown Kingfield. The museum installed new lighting, flooring and displays, and at press time, a grand re-opening was scheduled for early December. For more information, call 207.265.2023, email info@skimuseumofmaine.org or go to www.skimuseumofmaine.org.

32 | November-December 2017

ZACH MAHONE

COLORADO HALL OF FAME INDUCTS FIVE: A crowd of 400 gathered in Vail on October 14 to celebrate the Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame’s induction gala. The newest inductees (left to right) include recently retired Steamboat Ski Resort president, author and ISHA board member Chris Diamond; SKEA Ltd. owner, president and designer Diane Boyer of Vail; former U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association national competition director Walt Evans; Aspen backcountry and ski mountaineering legend Chris Davenport; and Aspen ski racing administrator and official Dave Stapleton.

J. WILLARD MARRIOTT LIBRARY / UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

UTAH SKI AFFAIR: The J. Willard Marriott Library Ski Archives at the University of Utah staged its 27th annual Ski Affair on November 7 in Salt Lake City. The library’s HistoryMaker Award went to the University of Utah ski team and the college’s director of skiing, Kevin Sweeney (left). Last February the Utes won the NCAA skiing championships, the 11th title for the team. Ron Steele (right), former University of Utah three-time all-American ski jumper and U.S. Olympian (1972), who later served as president of Group Rossignol North America from 2012–2017, won the S. J. Quinney Award. The award is presented annually in recognition of contributions to skiing in the Intermountain Region.

SKIING HISTORY

CLASSIC SKI SHOPS

Service, Service, Service Sturtevant’s starts a new chapter as it celebrates its 40th anniversary in the Seattle metro area. BY MIKE DEDERER

COURTESY STURTEVANT’S

W

ith a company timeline that reaches back to the 1960s and three stores in the Seattle metro area—including a new flagship in Bellevue—Sturtevant’s is a fixture on the Washington State ski scene. If its history was turned into a book, it might call for a preface and three chapters.

strom-style customer service.” Quinn: “The key in a tough business was our ability to deliver a level of service and services far beyond the norm.” Backing that up were such concerns as implementing a customer-friendly returns policy, keeping ahead of winter sports trends, staying relevant, and tying in with the community and cusThe Sturtevant’s crew at a 40th anniversary celebration in October tomers.

PREFACE: In 1963, Fred 2017 in its year-old Bellevue, Washington store. Left to right: Jeff Sturtevant acquired the As one of their steps Helm of Sun Valley store Campbell, Sandy Wright, Duncan Campbell, Kurt Bethman, Janet in those directions, the Campbell, Bruce Root, Sigrid Quinn, Alan Quinn, Stacey Weichin Ketchum, Idaho, and partners opened their changed “Helm” to “Stur- brodt and Tracy Gibbons. first Ski Mart near the tevant’s.” That same year, Bellevue store in the Hal Hansen moved his 1980s. The aim: Provide Hal’s Sport Shop from Seattle to Bellevue, a fast-growa discount outlet for leftover products, close-outs, ing city on the other side of Lake Washington. Two consignment skis and rentals. Meanwhile, Sturtevant’s years later, he and his new business partner, Erl Julnes, opened the area’s first snowboard shop, moved its ski changed the name to Alpine House. In 1971, Sturtevant shop twice, partnered with an online sporting goods sold his Idaho ski business to four Bellevue entrepremarketer and tried other new ventures. The company neurs, who also bought the Alpine House and renamed began earning frequent national and regional award it Sturtevant’s of Sun Valley. recognition from the ski industry.

In 2004, Campbell took sole ownership of Dual CHAPTER I: In 1977, Duncan Campbell and Alan Quinn, Sports and all its parts, while Quinn and his wife shiftfriends since middle school in Bellevue, bought the ed to the rep side of the ski and sportswear businesses.

Within another year, Dual Sports acquired SkiBonkers, Sturtevant’s store there, dropped “of Sun Valley” from a major annual snow sports sale launched by others in the name and incorporated Dual Sports, Inc. as the the 1970s. Over the years, tennis, water sports and golf parent company. Campbell brought his financial and apparel became important parts of the mix, too. administrative accounting background to the mix, while Quinn, previously with Alpine House, tackled CHAPTER II: With a 30-year stake in ownership, Campsales and operations. Family connections—still a hallmark of the company—began with Duncan’s and Alan’s bell sold the Dual Sports’ enterprises in 2007 to a young trio who’d grown up in the business: Campwives, Janet and Sig, serving as buyers. bell’s son, Jeff; his niece, Stacey Wright (later, WeichAt the time, there were nearly a dozen ski shops brodt); and their friend, Tracy McEwan (later, Gibin Bellevue and even more in Seattle, so survival and bons). Jeff, an accountant, became chief financial officer. growth were not givens. Looking back, the two forTracy—with four years on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, a mer partners voice similar answers to their approach. college business degree and 10 years as Sturtevant’s genCampbell: “We always made sure we offered Nordwww.skiinghistory.org

November-December 2017 |

33

COURTESY STURTEVANT’S

• Hosted the popular annual SkiBonkers sale, followed quickly by a major moving sale and 39th anniversary sale—three sales in all • Moved the flagship store two miles away, to a bigger and better building in Bellevue

In September 2016, the flagship store in Bellevue moved to a bigger building, with 16,000 square feet of retail and office space. eral manager—became president, chief operating officer and hardgoods buyer. And Stacey, with a marketing background, took on the advertising manager’s duties and softgoods buying.

The energetic new owners continued to refine the business. They assimilated the separate snowboard shop into their expansive 16,000 square feet of retail and office space. They moved the Ski Mart outlets to new locations in Bellevue and Tacoma. After 10 years in an online-sales partnership, they brought that business in-house, offering all products in the Bellevue store and also online. And in a late summer 2016 whirlwind, they: • Sold the company to Colorado-based Christy Sports

LEAVE A

GIFT TO THE SPORT

YOU LOVE

“Being from Norway, Dad knew firsthand the importance of skiing history. Skiing and ski jumping was a passion throughout his life and career, so when it came to estate planning, it was natural that he included ISHA.” —Lisbeth Raaum Harris, daughter of the late Gus Raaum (ISHA donor, FIS official, U.S. Hall of Fame honored member) “From time to time advise the People, whilst they are in health, to make Wills, arranging for the disposal of their temporal goods, and…to leave Bequests for religious and charitable uses.” —Anglican Book of Common Prayer

34 | November-December 2017

CHAPTER III: With more than 50 outlets in Colorado and Utah, Christy Sports’ growth plans included expansion into the Pacific Northwest—with the first such move being the acquisition of Dual Sports and its components: Sturtevant’s retail operations and online business; the Ski Marts; and SkiBonkers. Initial appearances to customers are much the same, with Gibbons serving as president and Weichbrodt as women’s clothes buyer. Jeff Campbell, with a wife and a young daughter, chose to leave the organization to take a year off. And Gibbon’s brother, general manager Kirk McEwan, now heads a small management team.

“Sturtevant’s” and “Ski Mart” continue as the names over the doors, and Gibbons emphasizes the continuation of family operations and the approach that “… customers can continue to expect the same Sturtevant’s staff, service, style and selection.” A visit to the new Bellevue store confirms that.

Mike Dederer is a longtime Pacific Northwest ski journalist and active member of the Ancient Skiers—a group of more than 1,000 skiers, ages 55 and up, from Washington, Oregon and Idaho (www.ancientskiers.com).

This could be the worthiest gift of your life!

In your will or trust, make a significant gift to the International Skiing History Association and any of ISHA’s ski museum partners without affecting your current wealth or income.

• Get in touch with ISHA and your museum(s) of choice for an information package on Legacy Giving and consult your attorney or financial advisor on how to designate the organizations and dollar amounts you wish to bequeath.

•

International Skiing History Association seth@skiinghistory.org (303) 594-1657

New England Ski Museum jeff@skimuseum.org (800) 639-4181

Alf Engen Ski Museum at Olympic Park (Utah) CNelson@uolf.org (435) 658-4240

Pennsylvania SnowSports Museum and Hall of Fame pasmhof@gmail.com (610) 334-4378

Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum admin@skimuseum.ca (613) 286-2864

Ski Museum of Maine info@skimuseumofmaine.org (207) 265-2023

U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame justin@skihall.com (906) 485-6323

Vermont Ski Museum info@vermontskimuseum.org (802) 253-2616

Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum skimuseum@gmail.com (970) 476-1876

SKIING HISTORY

REMEMBERING

Gene Kotlarek

U.S. SKI AND SNOWBOARD HALL OF FAME

Two-time Olympic jumper and U.S. Hall of Famer

Gene Kotlarek set the American distance record by flying 454 feet in 1964; the record stood for a decade.

T

wo-time Olympic ski jumper and U.S. Hall of Famer Eugene “Gene” Kotlarek died November 9, 2017, in his hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kotlarek, who was a jumping legend in the 1960s, was 77.

Born in 1940, Kotlarek grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, where he began skiing at the age of five under the tutelage of his father, George. (A three-time national jumping champion, George was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1968.) By 17, Gene had won the Minnesota state high-school title, as well as the boys’ title at the national junior championships.

Kotlarek was named to his first Olympic team in 1960, representing the U.S. on home territory at Squaw Valley. He was named again to compete at the Winter Games in Innsbruck in 1964. www.skiinghistory.org

In 1963, Kotlarek and his close friend John “The Bullet” Balfanz astonished the ski-jumping world when they placed second (Balfanz) and fourth (Kotlarek) at the legendary Holmenkollen meet in Oslo. Kotlarek was only a fraction of a point out of third place, while Balfanz was the first U.S. jumper ever to make the podium in a major European meet.

Other career highlights include three national titles (1963, 1966 and 1967) and setting the American distance record by flying 454 feet in Oberstdorf, Germany in 1964. The record stood for nearly a decade. After injuring his ankle in 1967, he retired from competition. Gene then served as the U.S. national jumping coach from 1968 until 1970 before starting a career in business. He was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1982. —Seth Masia

MORRIS SHEPARD

Vail and Lange pioneer Morris “Morrie” Shepard, Vail’s first ski school director and employee number two at the Lange Ski Boot Company, died October 12, 2017, at age 92. Shepard grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts, where his childhood

MORRIS SHEPARD

friend and ski buddy was Pete Seibert, founder of Vail. Graduating high school in 1943, Shepard enlisted in the U.S. Navy and earned his wings as a naval aviator. In November of 1947 he traveled to Aspen to visit Seibert, and wound up working with Seibert on the ski patrol, and teaching skiing on the side.

In 1951 he married Gloria Neilson and was promoted to assistant ski school director under Friedl Pfeifer. He taught in Aspen for a decade, eventually becoming chief examiner for the Rocky Mountain division of PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America). One of his regular students was Bob Lange.

Vail opened in 1962, and Seibert recruited Shepard to organize the new resort’s ski school. Arriving in the spring, Shepard pitched in to help build lifts, trails and other infrastructure, and worked as a building inspector. When the resort opened in December, Shepard supervised a crew of ten ski instructors. Bob Lange sent him a pair of lace-up plastic boots to try out, and so Shepard became an early advocate and boot tester.

By 1965, Lange was ready to sell boots and Shepard departed Vail to become Lange’s second employee (after Dave Luensmann) and first sales manager. In 1966, Lange shipped 5,000 pairs of boots.

Shepard, remarried and resettled in the mountains, commuted between a home in Aspen and the Lange factory in Dubuque. When Lange opened its factory in Broomfield, Colorado in 1969, Shepard settled in nearby Boulder. (See “50 Years of Lange” in the March-April 2015 issue of Skiing History.)

Lange lost control of the comNovember-December 2017 |

35

pany in 1974 and Shepard began a successful career in Boulder real estate. He retired in 1984 and returned to Vail to ski and play golf.

Shepard was inducted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2003. He is survived by his wife, Suzie; children Morrie Shepard III, Linda Shepard and Amy West; and two stepdaughters, Lettie Kuehn and Bambi Forbes. One stepdaughter, Debbie Kuehn, died in June of this year. —S.M.

TORI PILLINGER ROBINSON

U.S. Ski Team alpine racer

Tori Pillinger Robinson, 51, a former U.S. Ski Team alpine racer, died August 26 after a courageous battle with breast cancer.

Born December 18, 1966, Tori grew up in Park City, Utah, a community that recognized her talent and supported her pursuit of the sport to its highest level. As a member of the U.S. Ski Team by age 17, Tori ascended to the A Team, distinguishing herself as a gutsy competitor and supportive teammate.

In December 1987, she was a top prospect for the 1988 Olympics when a violent finish line crash shattered her body and her Olympic dreams. The crash changed the FIS regulations to prohibit solid finish line poles. Repaired by team doctors Grady Jeeter and Richard Steadman, Tori fought through recovery and returned to the team briefly, until back issues forced her to retire in 1989, at age 23.

From there Tori pursued her nursing degree at the University of

TORI PILLINGER ROBINSON 36 | November-December 2017

Utah, then became a whitewater river guide and emergency room nurse in California. On the river she met the love of her life, Marek Robinson, and together they traveled the world’s wilder places—by foot, boat, bike, ski and truck—eventually starting a family and settling in Coloma, California. From that home base, Tori and Marek “roadschooled” their kids in places like Bora Bora, Tahiti, Spain, Morocco and Mexico.

From the start of her cancer diagnosis in 2011, to the final weeks of her life, Tori lived with an irrepressibly positive outlook and encouraged all with the inspiration to “liveliketori.”

In the midst of chemotherapy, she rallied to attend Dr. Steadman’s tribute in Beaver Creek last December.

The entire Robinson family came to the Squaw Valley World Cup last March, where Tori made her final run. She leaves behind her husband of 24 years, Marek, and their two daughters Stella and Zoe. —Edith Thys Morgan

NORMAN DYHRENFURTH

Mountaineer, filmmaker, ski instructor Norman G. Dyhrenfurth, the climber and filmmaker who in 1963 led the first American expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest, died on September 24 in Salzburg, Austria. He was 99.

Dyhrenfurth was born in Breslau, Germany, the son of Himalayan explorers Günter and Hettie Dyhrenfurth. The family emigrated to Austria in 1923, and then in 1925 to Switzerland, where they became citizens. As a teenager, Norman

NORMAN DYHRENFURTH

learned cinematography, and is said to have worked briefly on a Leni Riefenstahl production. In 1936 Hettie, who was half Jewish (Günter had one Jewish grandparent), moved to the United States, and a year later, at age 19, Norman followed. He got work teaching skiing in New Hampshire, and guiding on mountains across North America.

His adventures included the 1938 first ascent of Mt. Marcus Baker on Kiska Island in the Aleutians.

During World War II Dyhrenfurth attended Officers Candidate School. The Army put him to work shooting training films. He participated in the 1943 invasion of Kiska Island, alongside the 87th Mountain Infantry. After the war, now a dual Swiss-American citizen, he made documentary films and founded UCLA’s film school—but resigned that position in 1952 to work as cameraman for an unsuccessful Swiss attempt on Mt. Everest. In 1953–54 he was a Fulbright scholar in Italy, and in 1956 accompanied a successful Swiss expedition to Mt. Everest.

In 1961 Dyhrenfurth obtained a permit to mount a U.S. Everest attempt in 1963. He led that expedition, which put six climbers on the summit and pioneered the new West Ridge route. Later, Dyhrenfurth was technical adviser to Hollywood movies about climbing, including The Eiger Sanction (1975) and Five Days One Summer (1982).

He is survived by his longtime partner, Maria Sernetz. —S.M.

TONY FURMAN

Ski industry public-relations executive Ski-industry public relations executive Anthony “Tony” Furman died on February 20, 2017, after a short illness at the age of 83.

Tony founded his sports marketing and public relations firm Anthony M. Furman, Inc. in New York City in 1966, growing the business and his national reputation as the “King of Minor Sports.” His agency garnered a prestigious clientele including AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Beneteau yachts, Ice Follies and the America’s Cup. He SKIING HISTORY

TONY FURMAN promoted Wham-O from its beginning and helped make Frisbee a national obsession.

As an avid skier, Tony worked with the Utah and New Hampshire Ski Associations, the Harry A. Leonard and BEWI ski shows, Hunter Mountain, Vail Associates, Men’s and Women’s Pro Ski racing and Lake Placid during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. He represented athletes, including Olympic alpine racer and three-time world freestyle champion Suzy Chaffee; he ran on-mountain events for clients like Camel cigarettes; and he promoted resorts with a repertoire of clever promotional ideas. He was known for his trademark leather hat, Groucho Marx moustache and upbeat personality.

Furman was an adjunct professor at New York University and Long Island University, where he taught classes in sports marketing and promotion. Early in his career, he served as advance man during Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. Born in Glendale, California, in 1934, he leaves behind a loving wife, Betty, of 46 years and their son, Michael Jason. —Jeff Blumenfeld

BILL TURNAGE

Aspen Ski Company and Wilderness Society executive William Turnage, who served briefly around 1989 as a vice-president of the Aspen Skiing Company, and earlier served as executive director of the Wilderness Society and business manager for photographer Ansel Adams, died October 15, 2017, www.skiinghistory.org

at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 74. The cause was stomach and esophageal cancer.

Turnage met Adams when studying at the Yale School of Forestry in the early 1970s. The two hit it off immediately, and Adams hired Bill as a business manager to market Adams’ famous black-and-white pictures of Yosemite and western American landscapes. Turnage left Adams in 1978 to join the Wilderness Society, where he successfully reorganized and reoriented the organization.

Shortly after Bob Maynard became President of the Aspen Skiing Co. in 1988, he hired Turnage as Vice President of Marketing and Communications. The two shared common views on public land and the environment, but the oftenadversarial Turnage clashed with the Aspen community and the local newspaper. Especially acrimonious was the dispute over the planned expansion of the Snowmass resort (see page 24). Turnage lasted scarcely more than a year in the job before departing.

In later years he worked on publishing rights and archive of the work of Adams, who had died in 1984. Turnage is survived by his wife Annemarie Murauer. —John Fry

FRED BECKEY

10th Mountain veteran, climber Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey, the 10th Mountain Division veteran who over a 70-year climbing career put up more first ascents than any other North American, died October 30 in Seattle. He was 94 years old.

Beckey was born in Düsseldorf, Germany and the family moved to Seattle in 1925. With his younger brother Helmut (Helmy), he began climbing in the Cascades. By 1939 the brothers had achieved national fame for difficult first ascents, especially in British Columbia.

Beckey joined the 10th Mountain Division in 1942. After the war he earned a degree in business administration at the University of Washington, but abandoned a business career to climb full time. Thereafter he supported himself with casual

FRED BECKEY part-time jobs and writing. He published some 13 climbing guidebooks over the decades, culminating in the massive history Range of Glaciers (2003, Oregon Historical Society).

He was still climbing at age 93, and in 2017 was the subject of a feature documentary film, Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey. Beckey never married or had children. He is survived by his brother Helmut. —S.M.

BYRON BROWN

Vail racing pioneer Byron Brown, a mainstay of Vail’s ski racing community, died September 13 at age 86.

A Missouri native, Brown was a high school football player and diver and attended Colorado A&M (now CSU) in Fort Collins. After a hitch in the Air Force he worked in Denver and joined the National Ski Patrol at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, where he met his wife Vi and patroller Pete Seibert.

In 1964, Byron and Vi moved to Vail, where Byron did a wide variety of jobs on the mountain, include ski patrolling and teaching. The couple had three children, Mike, Todd and Cindy. Mike Brown raced downhill and Super G on the World Cup circuit from 1983 to 1989.

Byron launched a real estate development business, and the couple collaborated to found Ski Club Vail and the town’s Buddy Werner race league.

In 1983, with John Horan-Kates, Byron was instrumental in bringing World Cup racing and the FIS World Alpine Championships to Vail. —S.M. November-December 2017 |

37

Skiing History Days 2018 Squaw Valley, CA | March 21–25 26th Annual ISHA Awards Banquet | March 23 Partnering with NASTAR to celebrate its 2018 National Championships and 50 Years of Recreational Racing

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS MONDAY, March 19 to Wednesday, March 21 NASTAR registration, training, clinics, course inspections

WEDNESDAY, March 21

3 pm ISHA registration desk open at PlumpJack Inn

THURSDAY, March 22

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

FRIDAY, March 23

10 am to 3 pm ISHA Mountain Tours with inspection of 1960 Olympic race courses; lunch on mountain 5 pm ISHA cash bar reception, Olympic Village Dining Hall 6:30 to 9:30 pm ISHA 26th Annual Awards Banquet, Olympic Village Dining Hall; award presentations and NASTAR illustrated historical memories

SATURDAY, March 24

5 to 9 pm NASTAR/U.S. Ski Team awards ceremony and reception, Olympic House (NASTAR credentials required)

SUNDAY, March 25

10 am to 1pm Liberty Mutual NASTAR Race of Champions

Special lift ticket discounts and lodging rates available. Because more than 1,000 racers will participate in the NASTAR Finals, lodging space will be limited. Book early for best prices and room availability!

34 | September-October 2017

SKIING HISTORY

LODGING & TICKETS ISHA HEADQUARTERS: PLUMPJACK SQUAW VALLEY INN

 King bed rooms $240 midweek / $350 weekend  Double queen rooms $250 midweek / $375 weekend  Rates are per night, plus 10% tax and $18 resort fee. Includes hot breakfast buffet.  Call 800.323.7666 to book rooms in the ISHA block. Group rate not available via online booking.

VILLAGE AT SQUAW VALLEY

 10% discount on available rooms; add 10% tax and $25 resort fee per night  Three-night minimum; two-night deposit required  Rates valid March 21-25  Call 888.767.1907 and ask for ISHA group rate  Or book online. For booking link and discount code see http://skiinghistory.org/event

www.skiinghistory.org

ISHA is joining with hundreds of racers, family and friends, and celebrants of NASTAR’s 50th anniversary to present this year’s Skiing History Days and the 26th annual ISHA Awards at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, California. The week will include racing, skiing, parties, banquets, and discounted lift tickets and lodging.

To register for ISHA events, go to: http://skiinghistory.org/events To register for NASTAR events, go to: https://www.nastar.com/national-championships Questions? Call the ISHA office at 802.366.1158.

Below: U.S. Ski Team athletes and recreational racers at the 2017 NASTAR National Championships at Steamboat; the 1.5-mile aerial tram at Squaw Valley carries skiers from Base Camp to High Camp.

September-October 2017 |

35

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NASTAR’s Golden Anniversary The originator of the biggest recreational racing program recalls how an idea became reality 50 years ago.

PLUS: News and updates from the world’s ski museums Timeless ski techniques