Reviews: ISHA 2025 award winners

Ullr Award

Presented for a single outstanding contribution or several contributions to skiing’s overall historical record in published book form.

American Birkebeiner
The Nation’s Greatest Ski Marathon
By Jerome P. Poling

In American Birkebeiner, Jerome P. Poling brings us the remarkable story of how a modest ski race in the North Woods of Wisconsin grew to become the largest cross-country ski marathon in North America. This book spans more than 50 years of race history, from visionary race founder Tony Wise and his efforts to promote Nordic skiing across the Upper Midwest to race-day highlights, skier profiles and history-making finishes.

American Birkebeiner celebrates every athlete and outdoor participant who has ever pushed themselves to their limits. The book sparks with lively, narrative-driven prose and is based on extensive archival research, reporting and personal interviews. This lavishly illustrated book also features 150 photographs, including intimate portraits of athletes pushed to the limits of their endurance, sweeping aerial shots of skiers and cheering crowds, and awe-inspiring winter vistas. An exquisitely crafted ode to an extraordinary race, American Birkebeiner will inspire winter sports fans and outdoor enthusiasts alike.

American Birkebeiner, the Nation’s Greatest Ski Marathon,
by Jerome P. Poling, Wisconsin Historical Society Press (2025), 368 pages.

Orte der Erinnerung im Skisport 
(Memorable Places in Skiing)
Edited by Dr. Markwart Herzog and Annette Hofmann

This multidisciplinary volume examines a wide range of “places of memory” in organized skiing.

The focus is on traditional ski competitions and winter sports areas, decaying and forgotten ski jumps (“lost places”), and collectible artifacts displayed in museums or auction houses. Included are papers on places of social gathering, media and biographies, National Socialist sports policy and “invented traditions”—legends and myths, which repeatedly become subjects of historical deconstruction.

With contributions by E. John B. Allen, Reiner Beck, Andreas Brugger, Thomas Busset, Sébastien Cala, Markus Friedrich, Markwart Herzog, Annette Hofmann, Grégory Quin, Andreas Praher, Karin Rase and Marit Stub Nybelius.

In German, Orte der Erinnerung im Skisport (Memorable Places in Skiing), edited by Dr. Markwart Herzog and Annette Hofmann, Nomos Publishing (2025), 229 pages.
 

Shishapangma, Skiing the Highline
The Account of the First American Ski Descent from an 8,00-Meter Peak
By Michael Marolt

Shishapangma, Skiing the Highline, is the account of the first American ski descent from an 8,000-meter peak. In this gripping true story of determination and grit, author Mike Marolt recounts pushing the edge of extreme sports with his twin, Steve Marolt, and lifelong friend Jim Gile. Together, they reached the pinnacle of their progression from childhood climbing and skiing to attaining the highest peaks in the world.

In Shishapangma, the mountaineering trio overcomes overwhelming odds as they climb and ski the 14th highest mountain in the world. The climb cemented a team that became arguably the most accomplished high-altitude skiers in history. The trio always maintained the unwritten ethics of climbing the highest peaks, shunning all Sherpa/porter support, as well as supplemental oxygen and altitude drugs.

Shishapangma, Skiing the Highline, by Michael Marolt, Gatekeeper Press (2024), 260 pages.

Skade Award

Presented for an outstanding work on regional ski history or for an outstanding work published in book form that is focused in part on ski history.

Ski Club Lodge Pioneers, 1944-1967
Advocates. Architects. Aficionados. Alpine initiatives of the Kosciuszko State Park Trust, Australia. 
By Donald Johnson

This is the story of the challenges faced in building the modest club lodges in the ski resorts of the Kosciuszko State National Park Trust in Australia. For seven decades, these private ski-club lodges have predominated in providing skier accommodations in Australia.

After the Kosciusko Lodge burned down in 1952, ski clubs pioneered a unique form of Alpine communal living. Through unrelenting efforts of their intergenerational members, those ski clubs have successfully sustained their lodges in the face of many challenges. Their resilience has contributed to the quality of today’s Alpine communities now recognized for their historic and cultural significance.

Ski Club Lodge Pioneers, 1944-1967, by Donald Johnson, Perisher Historical Society (2025), 196 pages.
 

Film or Photography Award

Presented for an outstanding contribution to the historical record of skiing in photographic or film/digital form.

Big Mountain Soul: Ski Africa

Brilliantly filmed and edited, this documentary explores the motivation of Black skiers and snowboarders, and their passion for the sport. It records the 1973 origin of the National Brotherhood of Skiers (NBS) and its early attraction to big-mountain, back-country skiing. This pursuit has evolved into the next goal for the organization, as the group now pursues skiing all seven continents. Here, amid a historical perspective of Black skiing history—beginning in 1909 with Arctic explorer Mathew Hanson—is the story of the NBS’s expedition to Morocco to skin and ski the Atlas mountains of the African continent.

Directors Brendan Russo and Cameron Sale. Producers Jonathan M. Correia and John M. O’Conner. 45 minutes; Outside TV

First Tracks: Michigan’s Skiing Legacy

This film takes us on a journey with Emma, a young student who discovers the unique history of skiing in Michigan. Starting with Nordic skiing by Scandinavian loggers and miners who erected towering ski jumps in the late 19th century, the film explores how Michigan skiing influenced the development of the sport nationwide. Here’s the 1905 launch of the National Ski Association in Ishpeming and Boyne Mountain’s first chairlift in the Midwest. Along the way, Emma learns about the Michigan invention of the Snurfer, early snowmaking innovations and one of the first rope tows in the country. A heartfelt and educational story, First Tracks celebrates Michigan’s legacy on the slopes.

Producers Mike Panich and MWS Productions. Collaborator Michigan Snowsports Industries Association. 18 minutes; YouTube/MyMichiganTV

Advice for Girls

Advice for Girls spotlights the collective experience of women in the ski industry. The feature-length film, with an all-female cast and production crew, brings together advice from three generations of women to remind girls and women of all ages that they are worthy of success, allowed to take up space and are invaluable to the future of the ski industry. With an inclusive cast—women of color, queer women, transgender athletes, women with disabilities and more—the film strives to provide all viewers with someone to connect to and be inspired by.

The Road West Traveled Director Sara Beam Robbins; Writers Sara Beam Robbins and Addy Jacobsend; 45 minutes; YouTube/TheRoadWestTraveled

Bill Healy: A Man Who Loved a Mountain

Offered as a personal story through the eyes of his family (his wife, sons, great grandson and colleagues), this film captures the remarkable character, pioneering vision and enduring legacy of Mt. Bachelor’s founder, Bill Healy. The film explores Healy’s arc as an Oregon skier in the 1930s, his World War II combat experience in the 10th Mountain Division and his years of struggle to open Mt. Bachelor in 1958 and continue to evolve the ski area today. This is an inspirational story of the founding of a major resort and how Bill Healy’s spirit continues through all the skiers who enjoy this resort today.

Producers Mt. Bachelor and the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation; Editor Joseph McMahon; 50 minutes; MBSEF/Vimeo

We’ll Still Be There: The Story of Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge

This film tells the story of ski-industry pioneers Jim and Elfriede Shane, powder skiing at Alta, Utah, and the Shanes’ creation of the Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge at Alta in 1963. Before building their iconic lodge, the husband and wife team were ski pioneers at the forefront of technological developments in both powder skis and avalanche mitigation practices. The story unfolds through the recollections of Elfriede and her long-time friends and fellow ski pioneers Jim McConkey, Junior Bounous and Alan Engen, supported by visuals in large part made possible by the extensive archives of the Special Collections Department at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University Of Utah. Here is the inspiring story of Jim and Elfriede Shane.

Producer Flylow Gear; Director and Writer Alex Mager; 12 minutes; Flylowgear.com