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SKIING HERITAGE: A quarterly journal

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Second Issue 2007, June, Vol 19 #2 Zermatt 1933

Cover: Jumper launches in front of the Matterhorn. 1933 Zermatt poster by Pierre Kramer, available from Vintage Ski World.

Found! A Photographic Treasure by John Fry
Seventy years ago, Nicholas Morant began to capture the beauty of alpine skiing. He was Canada's Ansel Adams. His pictures of trains, landscapes and people appeared in Life, Look, and National Geographic, on dollar bills and postage stamps. During a period in the 1940s, Morant created a portfolio of skiing pictures that make him one of the gratest ski photographers who ever lived. A staff photographer for the Canadian Pacific Railway, based in Banff, Alberta, Morant shot ski instructors, racers and skiing celebrities amid the spectacular Canadian Rockies. His life work is housed in the Whyte Museum in Banff. The author has chosen a dozen large-format photos for Skiing Heritage.

When Les Was More by Scott Andrews
Success or failure? The Les Otten legacy is mixed. Beginning as a ski instructor and lift mechanic at Killington, Otten built Sunday River into a regional powerhouse, then parlayed that into a national empire. Beginning in 1994, his American Skiing Co. acquired Attitash, Sugarbush, Killington, Mt. Snow, Sugarloaf, Cranmore, Waterville, Pico, The Canyons, Steamboat and Heavenly. The company went public in 1997 at a market cap of $265 million. Then, overleveraged, the enterprise proved incapable of weathering a dry winter, and Otten lost control in 2001.

Chamonix Magnifique by Doug Pfeiffer
ISHA skiers joined Penny Pitou for a week's ski adventure in France, March 9-17. There were 30 of us, ages 38 to 80, on the first-ever ISHA European travel venture. We skied the Vallee Blanche, Le Tour, Les Grands Montets, La Flegere, Le Brevent, and Courmayeur. We stayed at the Hotel Mont Blanc, visited the Dynastar factory, and met Rene Bozon, Leo Lacroix and Glen Plake. What more could fun-loving skiers ask for?

Jackson Hole's Alpenhof Lodge by John Fry
Beginning about 75 years ago, Americans were enthusiastic to import Austro-Bavarian high alpine styles in music, speech and especially architecture. An outstanding example is the Alpenhof, the first lodge in Teton Village, built in 1965 by New Jersey skiers Dietrich and Anneliese Oberreit. It was sold in 1988 to Ed and Susan Cunningham, who have managed to make the 40-room lodge even more Bavarian.

Nelson Bennett: A Life and Love for Skiing by Tom Eastman
At 92, still splits and stacks 12 cords of wood each fall -- and he's still racing. A four-event man at the University of New Hampshire, Bennett began working in the kitchen at Peckett's-on-Sugar Hill in the 1930s. He graduated with a degree in forestry in June, 1940, and moved to Sun Valley in October, where he worked his way up to head of the Ski Patrol -- with time off to serve as a staff sergeant in the Mountain Training Group of the 87th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. In 1956, Bennett managed the U.S. Olympic squad, and in 1960, he left Sun Valley to manage White Pass, Wash., where he hired Dave Mahre, and helped to coach Dave's twin boys. Bennett was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1995, he fixed the ropes for the 50th anniversary climb of Riva Ridge.

Classic Races: Sugar Bowl's Silver Belt by Seth Masia
Founded in the spring of 1940 to rival Sun Valley's Harriman Cup, Sugar Bowl's downhill race lifted its Silver Belt trophy from the old Sierra longboard racers of gold camp days. The course was short but steep, plunging from the summit of Mt. Lincoln through a narrow couloir and down a long gulley. Friedl Pfeifer and Gretchen Kunigk (later Fraser) won it the first year. After WWII, the race became a favorite late-April season closer and three-day party for racers winding down after the European season. With the beginning of the World Cup in 1967, the international crowd lost interest, and the last classic Silver Belt was held in 1975, won by Cindy Nelson and Greg Jones.

From Rock Carvings to Carving Skis by Øivind Kulberg
Modern ski design -- camber, twin tips, waisted sidecuts -- may be rooted in shapes that were conceived more than 3,500 years ago. Evidence of skis and skiing goes back to the last Ice Age. Skis were probably first used by hunters who could use them to run down prey, exhausted in deep snow. Even the oldest rock carvings suggest that skis had bottom camber; early skiers carried hunting implements -- axes, spears, bows -- which could be used as we use poles today. Waisted skis were described in the 17th century.

Campgaw Mt.: Launching Missiles, and Skiers by Barry Jay Warsch
Located junt 18 west of the George Washington Bridge, Campgaw Mountain is the closest ski area to New York City -- the Manhattan skyline is visible from the 719-foot summit. In 1955, this hill became the site for a Nike surface-to-air missile base, designed to protect New York from Russian bombers. In 1962, Bergen County installed a rope tow on park land adjacent to the missile site, and for a decade skiers shared the hill with nuclear-tipped rockets. The missile battery was closed in 1971, and the Army's land transferred to the county. Today the area boasts 15 skiable acres with full snowmaking over 269 vertical feet served by two double chairs and tree surface lifts.

The Rear-Entry Boot: A Life Cut Short by Seth Masia
The original plastic boots fit so badly they could draw blood, and they could bruise or fracture a tibia at the top of the cuff. Beginning in 1969 innovative bootmakers -- notably the Hanson brothers -- invented the tongueless rear-entry boot, with a comfy liner wrapped smoothly over the shin and instep. High interest rates and competition from Europe put the American factories out of business by 1984, but the rear-entry banner was then picked up by Salomon, Nordica and Raichle -- and in 1987 those companies held about 80% of the market. Racers and top ski instructors didn't like the way rear entry boots fit or flexed. Lange and Tecnica led the charge in the return of the overlap, four-buckle boot. Salomon found their complex mechanical fitting system was too expensive to produce, and in 1992 the last of the high performance rear entry boots disappeared.

Skier's Bookshelf by Morten Lund
Powder Pioneers by Chic Scott. An extraordinary tribute to skiing in Western Canada, full of high adventure (the 1958 Grand Traverse expedition), low comedy (the attempt on the face of Mt. Robson), pioneerin, exploration, early resorts, lifts and racing, the birth of helicopter skiing, cross country marathons and extreme skiing.
The Art of Skiing by Jenny de Gex. 162 impressive pages of posters and photographs from the late 1800s through the 1950s. A volume to treasure.

Remembering: Dick Goetzman, USSA and Hall of Fame president; Robert Nordhaus, 10th Mountain vet and New Mexico ski resort pioneer; Don Metivier, ski journalist; Dick Wilson, 10th Mountain vet and disabled skiing activist; Jean Saubert, Olympic medalist and six-time U.S. champ.

Long Thongs: Martinis for Lunch by Bill Wallace
The daily newspaper ski writer has two tremendous advantages. His avid public will read anything he writes and his boss has no idea what he is writing. Covering skiing from a desk in the city is not difficult, thanks to a steady stream of publicity releases from ski area. There are opportunities to enjoy the hospitality of ski resorts. But don't quit your job. There are no openings here at present.

Index of Back Issues

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The International Skiing History Association is a not-for-profit corporation, whose mission is to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport's heritage.

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