Thor Groswold

One of the Sport's Greatest Early Salesmen

By Jerry Groswold

The story of Thor Groswold is the story of a truly unique individual who was a tough taskmaster. With that toughness came an amazing amount of love, passion, common sense and wisdom. He grew up in Norway on skis and is perhaps best known as the manufacturer of Groswold Skis in Denver, Colorado, from late 1932 until the spring of 1952. But he did much more than make skis. He spent his life selling skiing. And he sold it anywhere to anyone who was willing to listen. Skiing was his life’s passion and that passion, the life-long love of the sport and his love of life are the story that needs to be told. Neither I nor many others ever truly understood how much my Dad did for the sport of skiing until it was too late to properly thank him. Perhaps this brief telling of his life of involvement in the sport will be a start.

He was born October 28, 1895 on the Dokka Farm near Kongsberg, Norway. He grew up with the likes of the Engen brothers, who immigrated to Utah and led the development of skiing there, and the Ruud brothers, who led the Norwegian dominance of Olympic and International ski jumping into the 1950's.

His was born Thor Kristian Dokka. When he was about 5 years old, his mother inherited her family’s farm, known as the Grosvold Farm, near Skollenberg Station and the family moved there. All of the children took the name of the farm and he became Thor Grosvold. When Thor immigrated to this country, he changed the "v" in his last name to a "w".

Thor grew up on the farm and started skiing and ski jumping at an early age. He competed with the Engens and Ruuds from Kongsberg. He also competed while he was in the military. He skied well enough to be selected to test the hill at Holmenkollen in Oslo. While Thor never competed there, being selected as a forejumper was indeed an honor and recognition of his considerable skill.

Thor graduated from public schools in Kongsberg, attended Military School in Oslo and served as a Royal Guard. He attended Business College in Oslo and ultimately became office manager and assistant treasurer of a painting business in Oslo.. Thor immigrated through Ellis Island on September 21, 1923, and joined a cousin in the dairy business in Colorado Springs.

After a couple of years, Thor moved to Denver and studied accounting and business at the University of Denver. He went to work for the George Tritch Hardware Company where he was its auditor, credit manager and secretary until 1932 ¹. The company was in the hardware business and ironically was a distributor for Northland Skis, a brand with which Thor would ultimately compete. The Great Depression took its toll on the Tritch Hardware Company and Thor took the company through bankruptcy and liquidated it.

On July 19, 1928, Thor and Bernice Brandt, a good skier and ski jumper of Norwegian heritage, were married. He, with his new wife, lived in Homewood Park, near the site of a ski jump where both of them competed. The family moved to Denver in the early-30's and remained there until 1941 when they moved to Littleton.

Even during the depression he kept up his involvement in skiing and the promotion of the sport. With the failure of the hardware business and his own inability to find a decent pair of skis, Thor was encouraged by friends and associates to begin to manufacture skis. He formed the Thor Groswold Ski Company in 1932 and started making skis at 38th and Walnut in Denver. The company was later incorporated as The Groswold Ski Co., Inc., and in 1934 was relocated to 1205 Shoshone St. where it operated until 1952 when the plant was closed. The company was literally started from scratch and as the business grew Thor developed ski making techniques by trial and error and from the little knowledge he had brought from the old country.

He became a great innovator and used his many talents and those of dedicated employees to make the very best of skis and ski equipment. Several of the country’s top ski competitors worked for the Company, including Barney McLean who was the shop foreman during the 1940’s and Dick Durrance, of Man on the Medal fame.

Among the innovations that Thor introduced over the years were bending and shaping techniques. When he first started, skis were shaped by literally boiling the tips in hot water until they were flexible enough to bend. Thor concluded from his own skiing expertise that important functions of making a ski turn were camber and side camber. He knew that a ski turns when bent and the more uniform the bend, the better the ski will turn. From that came "Dual Camber" skis, where the ski had camber behind the footplate as well as in front. He went from there to develop the "Forward Camber" ski, where the major portion of camber was in front of the footplate. It was not possible to get the camber that he wanted through the original bending methods so Thor developed a system where the entire ski was placed in a form and steamed until it took and retained the desired shape. This process worked well until the system was destroyed by fire. That loss prompted a shift to gas fired ovens and, as Barney McLean has commented "The skis never came out quite the same after that fire."

Early skis were made from a single piece of wood and were shaped by machine and by hand. Quality raw material was critical to the kind of ski produced and Thor traveled into the South to personally select material. Hickory was the material of choice and came as 2x4’s called "billets" that were about 8 feet in length. He graded the wood according to its clearness, freedom from knots and imperfections and straightness and paid for it accordingly.

Thor acquired the License to produce Splitkein skis in 1939 and thus started a whole new concept of manufacturing. Laminated skis were constructed with thin layers of wood the length of the ski glued together in narrow strips called "cane". The process was called "split cane" or "Splitkein" in Norwegian. The lamination process allowed the ski to be shaped while the pieces were glued together. The development of camber became even more sophisticated and allowed design changes that enhanced the ease of turning the ski.. A laminated ski was lighter, stronger, didn’t warp and allowed each ski made to be the same as the next. Thor devised gluing ovens that enhanced the process and even experimented with microwave processes to set the glue.

Thor joined forces with Dan Holley, whose family manufactured carburetors for the Ford Motor Company, who had figured out how to bond aluminum to wood. The theory of the Holley Climatic Camber Ski, which had an aluminum running surface, was that when the snow was colder, more camber improved the ski. The metal running surface would contract in cold snow and increase the camber. Unfortunately while the bare aluminum surface could be incredibly fast in the right kind of snow, it was horribly slow and even impossible to move in the wrong kind of snow. What could have been the first metal ski failed for the lack of an acceptable running surface.

Through the process of lamination, Thor built a wooden ski that actually had on the same characteristics of the original metal skis. This involved a bottom running surface and a top surface that were thin single pieces with the shape of the ski being created by a wooden filler. The flex of the ski came from the expansion and contraction of the two surfaces. In Head’s case, these surfaces were metal. Thor used specially laminated pieces of wood for the surfaces.Thor even provided a guarantee against breakage for the skis he manufactured. Marketing wooden skis had to face the issue of the skis being broken. Thor had great confidence in the skis he made and backed that confidence with the unusual guarantee.

The Ski Company recognized the importance of the use of their equipment by excellent skiers and it became one of the first "official" suppliers to a U.S. Alpine Ski Team. Most of the 1948 Olympic Alpine team was equipped with Groswold Skis and Gretchen Fraser won the first Olympic Gold Medal ever won by an American in Alpine Skiing on a pair of Groswold Skis!

Thor produced skis that carried the names of many well-known ski pioneers. Each of these skis had characteristics that the person who endorsed them felt were important. The 1941-1942 Groswold Ski Company catalog featured skis carrying the names of, and quotes from, Otto Schniebs, Otto Lang, Dick Durrance, and Friedl Pfeiffer. Others who endorsed skis for Thor over the years included Barney McLean, John Litchfield, Toni Matt, and Fred Iselin.

Early on, Thor realized that it would be important to provide the skiing consumer with ski related products. The 1941-1942 catalog shows bindings and waxes as available through the company. Thor acquired a patent for and developed what was called the "Dual In-line Binding " which was a cable binding with the spring action free of friction in front of the toe piece. He manufactured the "Control Cable" that eliminated the toe iron and replaced it with a simple cable device. From that came the "Goodman binding" which used a control cable and a Bilstein heel spring. Additional accessories included an Airflow Ski Rack and an adjustable length ski pole that could be made shorter or longer, depending on the wishes of the user. For a period of time, the factory even made steel edges in the machine shop.

With the coming of the Second World War and the creation of the 10^th Mountain Division, came the need for military ski and winter warfare equipment. As one of several companies that made ski equipment for the military, Thor made skis for the military, even though it was against his better judgment. Hence the production was far less than it might have been. Thor had definite ideas on how a ski should be made and unfortunately military skis had to be made to government specifications. Thor steadfastly maintained that no one, no matter how good a skier, could ski on what he described as "bridge planks." The company did manufacture lots of snowshoes called "Bear Claws" for the military.

Thor was an intent competitor and his competitive record is long and filled with success.

Appendix A although incomplete, details some of his competitive accomplishments. It is interesting to note that in many of the reported events, both he and his bride to be, Bernice Brandt, competed and did well. His first competition warrants specific mention because of the unusual newspaper article prior to the event. Once in America, Thor almost immediately started competing. The headline of an undated newspaper clipping obviously printed before that first meet reads:

"ALL THE WAY FROM NORWAY COMES GROSWOLD

TO SHOW IN SKI MEET".

The sub- heading reads "Four months in U.S., Hardy Norseman Will Show Skill at Mount Genesee." The article talks about Thor’s recent arrival in the U.S and his heritage and quotes Thor as saying

An accompanying article states that he won first place in the tournament at Genesee with a jump of 68 feet.

Thor’s incredibly high level of interest and commitment to the sport is reflected in the fact that he was processed through Ellis Island on September 19, 1923. He competed in his first ski meet at Mount Genesee in January of 1924. By the spring of 1924, less than a year after he arrived in America, he had become the Treasurer of the Pikes Peak Ski Club and a member of the Tournament Committee for the first meet that club held on June 8, 1924.

In the early days of the company, skis were made in the late winter and early summer. Thor did most of his own selling in the fall and early winter, traveling from town to town and from general stores to hardware stores with a car full of samples and a big box of ski movies that he would show to anyone who would watch. In his travels, he gave away almost as many skis as he sold. Towns like Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Hot Sulphur Springs, Grand Lake, Dillon and others had kids out skiing who couldn’t have other than because Thor provided the skis and the encouragement.

Barney McLean, who met Thor when he was about 7 or 8 years old, knew Thor and his love of the sport well. Thor sort of adopted Barney who was a rising star in the ski world. Barney came from a large family where there was not a lot of money for things like skiing. Thor, in his classic style, tried to help wherever he could. Barney tells a story of being in Steamboat Springs in 1933 or 34 for a jumping meet. On the day before the meet, he had fallen and broken the only pair of jumping skis he had. Thor found him crying alongside the hill and asked what was wrong. When Barney told him, Thor took Barney over to the local Hardware to get him a new pair of skis. When Thor discovered that the store had sold all of their Groswold skis, he dug in his pocket and bought Barney a brand new pair of Northland jumping skis so he wouldn’t miss the competition.

Thor was active in officiating at competitions, and helped develop competitive rules and the establishment of the official’s organization that yet today oversee all kinds of competitive skiing. As chairman of a National Ski Association committee he wrote and helped administer many of the original tests that were used to confirm the qualifications of many of the first certified officials. The basic concepts of these tests and certifications remain in place today.

Thor seized every opportunity to get people on skis and was involved in and strongly supported every aspect of early Colorado skiing. He became a member of the Board of Directors of the Denver Ski Club and its President of the Denver Ski Club in 1927. He was Vice President of the National Ski Association in 1927 and in 1933 helped bring national conventions and competitions to the Denver area. In 1932, he was selected to report on ski events, including the 1932 Olympics for the Denver Post. In the winter of 1933 he was identified as the "Dean" of the Denver Post Ski School that was created "to give beginners instruction in all winter sports. Anybody is eligible to attend classes and there is no charge." He promoted ski meets that were held in Homewood Park, Genesee Mountain, Pikes Peak, Allen’s Park, and Estes Park.

In 1936 he was the Secretary of the United States Western Amateur Ski Association. He was involved in the Homewood Ski Club, an original incorporator of the Arlberg Club and the founder of the Ski Club Zipfelberger of Denver, along with a close friend, Dick Tompkins. Thor was rewarded for his efforts in fostering skiing in the state by the United States Forest Service when it presented him with a special use permit for a mountain cabin. Typical of his unselfish interest in promoting the sport, he assigned the permit to the Ski Club Zipfelberger, which used it to build a cabin in the Upper Basin on Loveland Pass.

He accompanied Andre Roch on his first trip to Aspen along with a group of dedicated skiers who all stayed at the Bavarian Lodge near Ashcroft. From there they explored Mount Hayden and Thor helped in the development of the Roch Run on Ajax Mountain in Aspen. In 1938, he participated with members of the Gunnison Ski Club using the train to ski Marshall Pass between Gunnison and Salida. Some 137 Members of the Gunnison Ski Club joined Thor, Aspen’s T.J. Flynn and Count Phillipe de Pret, instructor at the Broadmoor Hotel on that trip. From that involvement he helped in the development of the Pioneer Ski Area located south of Crested Butte on Cement Creek.

Also in 1938, Thor and Clark Blickensderfer, a friend and fellow ski enthusiast, purchased a portable rope tow manufactured by the Swedish Freezer Co. It had a 4-_ horsepower motor that was mounted on a toboggan and it would pull itself uphill. Once and set up, it would provide uphill transportation – one skier at a time. In its first year, it was set up for a week at the Arlberg Club, moved to Allenspark for a week and then to the Upper Basin and the Switchback Trail on Loveland Pass for an extended time. It even found its way into the Current Creek Basin to the west of the top of Berthoud Pass for the annual May Day Slalom. Tickets were 50 cents a day in the beginning but the were increased to a $1.00 a day.

He helped locate and lay out the Monarch Ski area near Salida, which is still in operation today. He was one of the original investors in and an original director of Arapahoe Basin and remained active in its development and operation for several years.

During the Second World War, Thor was involved with the Norwegian Air Force that trained in Little Norway in Eastern Canada. He also assisted in the location of Camp Hale at Pando and with the development of Cooper Hill as a military training site. He participated with Minnie Dole in the creation and development of the 10th Mountain Division. He has been identified as the Western Vice President of the National Ski Patrol during the beginnings of the 10^th Mountain division by a cowboy turned Army mule skinner by the name of Oley Kohlman.

Prior to the time the 10th Mountain Division left for Europe, hordes of ski troopers stayed at the family home in Littleton while on weekend passes from Camp Hale. It was common for there to be 20 to 30 occupied mummy sleeping bags on the living room floor or in the back yard on most any summer weekend. It was also common for Bernice to make her famous "Swedish" pancakes until 10:30 or 11:00 on Sunday morning when all the military had had their fill. Another weekend ritual was for Thor to take the ski troopers to the factory and invite them to select a decent pair of skis for their own use. Monday morning, the finishing room painted the selected skis white so they could be shipped to Camp Hale. The skis were always either very inexpensive or a gift

The post war years were years of rapid growth for skiing in Colorado and Thor remained active in all phases of the sports development. He was instrumental in getting Sven Wiik to come to Western State College in Gunnison to coach in 1949. He was also active in helping Willy Schaeffler recruit Norwegian standouts to the University of Denver.

Thor was instrumental in re-activating the Jumping complex at the Winter Park Resort. He had participated in the original construction of the 50 meter Jumping hill in the early 1930’s and provided the encouragement for Harald Sorensen, Marv Crawford and his son Jerry to create and operate The Winter Park Ski Jumping Program under the auspices of the Winter Park Executive Director, Steve Bradley. This program has provided ski jumping instruction at no cost for literally thousands of youngsters for the last 45 years and produced top performers like Scott Clayton, Todd Wilson, Ryan Heckman , Landis and Thor Arnold among others. The program still operates today.

An article in 1949 in the Denver Post quotes a news release about his being nominated for American Ski Trophy, the then highest award in skiing presented each year to the skier making the greatest contribution to the sport of skiing. It says;

The Groswold Ski Company closed its doors near the end of the winter of 1952. Thor’s wife , Bernice, had passed away three years earlier and that loss coupled with increasing operating expenses and the inability to properly fund the growing operation made it impractical to keep the company going. By then he had decided that he did not want his sons in the ski business and made that eminently clear to both of them and Thor moved on to other endeavors. Those endeavors included the soil compaction equipment business and the Snowblast snow plow business, but Thor stayed active with skiing and was an active skier until at age 65 he severed his Achilles Tendon while skiing on Berthoud pass. Typical of Thor’s rugged independent nature, he picked himself up after falling, skied to the bottom and drove himself to the hospital. Because of the severity of his injury compounded by his stubborn attitude, he never skied again. Thor suffered a stroke in 1967 and was confined to a nursing home until his death in 1973.

Throughout all of this he never lost either his love of skiing or his willingness to help anyone interested in the sport. One of his strongest beliefs, one that he lived his life by, was driven home to me in his usual simple direct way. In the early 1940’s, a high school meet was held in Winter Park. Since I was in junior high school. I didn’t get to race but was allowed to forerun. My brother was racing with a lot of good friends and I was lucky enough to beat the entire field in the downhill, rather soundly. I thought I was pretty hot stuff and got to forerun the Slalom on Sunday. After I finished completely full of myself, my dad, who was timing the race, called me over and told me to go up and be a gate keeper. I told him that I was so good that I didn’t need to do that. He picked my up by the collar of my parka, looked me in the eye and explained it simply by saying "Young man, in a sport like skiing you always put back more than you ever take out!" Needless to say, I quickly got to my post and remained there throughout the rest of the event. That was the credo by which he lived his entire life.

As a result of his encouragement and his teaching the love of the sport, his family including six grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren as well as the many he touched throughout his life became enthusiastic participants and learned to love the sport the way that he did.

Notes

1938 Who’s Who in Colorado, the Colorado Press Association, p.272

United States Immigration Service Records, Ellis Island

Loan document from the University, $35.00 for tuition.

Marriage Certificate issued in Gilpin County, Colorado.

"Camber" is the opening between the running surfaces of a pair of skis when they are placed with the bottoms together.

"Side camber" is the opening between the edges of a pair of skis when the sides of the skis are placed together.

" Footplate" is the thickest portion of a ski when looked at from the side and is where the bindings are place. The footplate is generally, but not literally the middle of the ski.

Recorded interview with Barney and Margaret McLean, April, 2001

Aspen History Association, website.

An original of this catalog is owned by the author.

Original of this catalog in the possession of the author

Colorado Ski Museum website.

Undated, unidentified newspaper article framed and in author’s collection.

Official Program for the First Annual Pikes Peak Ski Tournament, in author’s possession.

Correspondence in Thor’s files in author’s possession.

Undated, except as to year, newspaper articles, V. J. Robinson Family Scrapbook.

Newspaper article, V.J. Robinson Family Scrapbook.

Series of newspaper articles, 1935, V.J. Robinson Family Scrapbook.

1936 American Ski Annual.

Records in the Office of the Secretary of State of Colorado.

Abbot Fay, A History of Colorado Skiing, Western Reflections, Inc. p.21

Abbot Fay, A History of Colorado Skiing, Western Reflections, Inc. p.25

Abbot Fay, A History of Colorado Skiing, Western Reflections, Inc. p.25

Rocky Mountain News, November 12, 1938

Abbot Fay, A History of Colorado Skiing, Western Reflections, Inc. p.42

Oley Kohlman, Coyboy’n The Way It Was. , unknown , p. 125

Abbot Fay, A History of Colorado Skiing, Western Reflections, Inc. p.57

Undated unidentified newspaper article in author’s possession.

Appendix

Competition Record

The following is as complete a listing of the competitive record of Thor Groswold as has been compiled to December 2001. Thor Groswold and Bernice Brandt were married in July 1928. The results of Bernice Brandt are shown where available.

January 1, 1924 – Thor wins Ski Jumping Tournament held at Genesee.

February 24, 1924 – Thor won the Interstate Ski Tournament held at Genesee. Bernice Brandt was first in Ladies Jumping class.

March, 1924 – Thor borrowed money for a train ticket and traveled to Dillon, Colorado, by train and competed in a meet held on a hill built by another Norwegian, Peder Prestrud. The Dillon Hill was of one of three places he had heard about before he came to Colorado. The other two were New York and Steamboat. On the Dillon Hill, the jumpers had to be sure to clear the knoll and get onto the landing hill, as they had never removed the stumps and rocks that were immediately below the takeoff. Thor was quoted in a Denver newspaper article as saying that the only thing that kept him in town and in the competition was the fact that there was no train to take him home. Apparently it was very windy during the meet and both Thor and the then National Champion, Lars Haugen were blown over and fell during the meet. He told me that at the Sunday evening banquet he was given his prize - a crate of eggs. When he questioned the prize, since he was in the business, he was told to come by the general store in the morning on his way to the train. They bought back the eggs for enough money to pay his train fare and a little more. A Denver newspaper article says that he was paid $125.00 and was able to pay off his loan for the train ticket.

March 1, 1924 – Thor won the National Amateur class at a meet put on by the Boulder Ski Club. The event was held 12 miles west of Boulder

June 8, 1924 – Thor was second in his Class at the First annual Pikes Peak Ski Tournament put on by the Pikes Peak Ski Club. Bernice took second in the Ladies Ski Jumping. The trophy she won is in the family archives in the author’s basement.

July 4, 1924 - Thor participated in the Second Annual Summer ski Jumping tournament held at St. Mary’s Glacier. Bernice placed second.

January 18, 1925 – Colorado Amateur Skiing Championsip, First Official Colorado State ski meet held at Genesee Mountain. Both Thor and Bernice won their classes.

January 27, 1925 – Estes Park Ski Jumping Tournament – Thor wins his class.

February 15, 1925 – The Interstate ski tournament is held at Mount Genesee. The official program for the event has an ad on the back page which show a picture of Thor winning the Colorado Amateur Skiing Championship on January 18, 1925 The ad is for the Tritch Hardware Company and is selling Northland Skis which Thor used in that event Thor was third and Bernice won

March 15, 1925 – Fourth Annual Ski Tournament, Allen’s Park Ski Club Both Thor and Bernice each won their events.

January 24, 1926 – All Western Ski Tournament, Mount Genesee

January 31, 1926 – Allen’s Park Ski Tournament, Both Thor and Bernice won their classes.

February 21, 1926 – Interstate Ski Tournament, Mount Genesee

March 1, 1926 – Boulder Ski Club Tournament – Both Thor and Bernice win their classes.

March 14, 1926 – Fifth Annual Ski Tournament, Allens Park Ski Club, Thor wins event.

July 4, 1926 – Mid-Summer Fourth Annual Ski Tournament – St. Mary’s Glacier – Program points out that Denver is the only city in the world which annually features Summer and Winter Ski Tournaments.

January 30, 1927 – U.S Western Ski Association Third Annual Tournament under the auspices of the Homewood Ski Club. Both Thor and Bernice entered

February 5 and 6, 1927 – 23^rd Annual National Ski Tournament and Olympic Tryout under the auspices of the Denver Ski Club, Thor was third in his class and Bernice was second.

January 27, 1928 – Thor won the U.S. Western Ski Jumping Championship held at Genesee

March 28, 1928 – Second annual Boulder Ski Club meet, Eckel course,
Thor won first place in Class A.

1932 – Attended the 1932 Olympics. Was designated as a special reporter for the Denver Post.

March 13, 1932 – Thor Groswold wins the Arlberg Cup Downhill on the Mary Jane trail near West Portal

March, 1933 - Thor Groswold wins the Arlberg Cup Downhill on the Mary Jane trail near West Portal

March 5, 1934 - Thor Groswold wins the Arlberg Cup Downhill on the Mary Jane trail near West Portal

February 28, 1936 – U. S. Western Amateur Ski Association, Slalom Championships, Thor was third.

January 20/21, 1941 – Slalom at La Madera Run in the Sandias, Thor won the slalom, Jerry was first in the junior class and Thor, Jr. was third.