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Classics: 1975 -- The Long Hello
They spent almost an hour in line, yet more and more skiers came, bonding as they waited ... and waited. Lift lines have been part of the ski experience as long as there have been lifts. Is there...
Lifts That Went Nowhere
Ski lift evolution is dotted with failed experiments. (Photo above: The Mount Hood Skiway launched in 1951. The enormous weight of the buses meant the lift hauled 72 skiers per hour—when a chairlift...
Willy Schaeffler: The Original Rebel
There was more to Willy Schaeffler than stern disciplinarian. By PETER MILLER During the 1970-71 World Cup season, the men of the U.S. Alpine squad clashed with their coach, Willy Schaeffler. After...
Perfecting the Plastic Ski Boot
Sven Coomer recalls the design process leading to Nordica’s groundbreaking boots. As told to Seth Masia In 1962, I went to Chamonix to watch the FIS World Championships and got to train with the...
Sun Valley's Ruud Mountain
The Forgotten Era of Ski Jumping Sun Valley opened in December 1936, and the next spring it hosted America’s first international Alpine competition, the combined event that became known as the...
The Legacy of Spider Sabich
Belatedly elected to the Hall of Fame, the charismatic skier drove the professionalization of Alpine ski racing. From the moment he entered the world on January 10, 1945, a ball of energy and gangly...
Skiers in Revolt
Can Vail Resorts improve employee and customer relations? By Seth Masia From the January-February 2022 issue (Posted February 12, 2022) Overcrowding and staff shortages at ski resorts first...
Beijing Olympic Courses Still a Mystery
What to Expect When You're Inspecting By Edith Thys Morgan When Alpine skiing athletes head to the Beijing Olympics, they will do so with an unprecedented lack of knowledge about the venue. While...
Dynamic Reinvents the Slalom Ski
By Seth Masia The VR17, engineered for French ski racers, was imitated by ski factories around the world. From the January-February 2022 issue The Dynamic VR17 remains legendary, and for good reason...
The Nelson Camps: Birth of the Canadian Ski Team
In 1964, the Kokanee Glacier gave birth to Canada’s national ski team. Canadians fared poorly at the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck. Only Nancy Greene had a top-10 finish (seventh in downhill). In May...
Resorts: Baroness Mimi and Mont d'Arbois
Megève celebrates 100 years as the first purpose-built ski resort in France. Megève, the posh ski resort just off the main road between Geneva and Chamonix, has been managed by the Rothschild banking...
Walter Kofler Invents the Polyethylene Ski Base
Before P-tex, there was Kofix. It drove a revolution in ski racing. When Alpine skis had wooden bases, it was common to waterproof them with celluloid lacquer, made by dissolving celluloid in ether,...
Heavy Lifting: Aspen Under Construction
Meet the folks who built Aspen’s first chairlifts, 75 years ago. Aspen Mountain celebrates its 75th anniversary of lift-served slopes this winter, but the area’s skiing history started well before...
Northland Skis: Fire and Feud in St. Paul
By Greg Fangel and Paul Hooge How Christian Lund mopped up rivals while making the world’s best-known hickory skis. Illustration above: Henry Hall (1893-1986), of Ishpeming, Michigan, was just one of...
Catching up with Kari Traa
By Aimee Berg The Norwegian mogul champ is back home in Voss, raising kids and running a $70 million company. But she still flies through the air. At 14, Kari Traa started skiing moguls in oversized...
Sunshine on my Shoulders: A history of ski music and song
By Charlie Sanders Photo by Robert Doisneau/Getty Images As a professor of entertainment law at New York University, I’ve taught courses on the relationship of music to history. I’ve also been skiing...
The European Origin of Skiing
By Maurice Woehrlé Archaeology and DNA evidence support the theory that skiing arose east of the Baltic, at the end of the last Ice Age. Translated by Seth Masia Where and when was skiing invented?...
Kiki Cutter Densmore
By Edith Thys Morgan Where are they now? The first American to win a World Cup race starts a new life. Photo above: Kiki at the World Cup GS in Val d'Isere, December 11, 1969. Popperfoto/Getty Images...