Readers Respond

On the morning of July 15, I received a sad phone call from Marie Jose Valencot, informing me that my friend and her longtime partner, Sylvain Saudan, had passed away the previous night.

Her voice made me recall when I met the legend for the first time. The year was 1989. I had read that Sylvain was running a helicopter ski operation in the Himalayas of Kashmir, and the article said, “For more information, call 50530469 in France.” I recognized this to be a number in Chamonix, and I dialed. A female voice told me via a recorded message to leave my name and telephone number. Sometime later the phone rang.

“Allo, is zeese Jeemie Petterzon? Yes? Good. Zeese is Sylvain Saudan. My girlfriend told me you called. I am calling from a ... What you call it in English? A phone box in Paris ... excuse me, I must put in some more coins.” ... clink, clink, clink ... “now we are okay?”

This was heli-skiing in the Himalayas operated from his private apartment in Chamonix. No travel agent. No secretary … and calling me from a phone booth instead of from his hotel room. As I chatted with Sylvain from his phone booth, I felt an immediate sense of comradeship. He was one of us. This legend was perhaps the greatest ski bum of all time, but a ski bum, nevertheless.

The Guinness Book of Records has no category for ski bums, but under the heading of skiing, Sylvain has been listed as follows: “Steepest Descent-Sylvain Saudan (b Lausanne, Switzerland, Sept. 23, 1936.) Achieved a descent of Mt. Blanc on the northeast side down the Couloir Gervasutti from 13,937 ft. on Oct. 17,1967, skiing gradients of about 60 degrees.” Sylvain has appeared previously in this record book for other remarkable skiing feats.

Skiing, nowadays, has more different tangents than ever before. There are specialists and competitions in cross-country, telemark, ski jumping, downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super G, ballet, moguls, figure eights, aerial acrobatics, freestyle, ski cross and speed skiing, as well as extreme skiing. But not many people can claim to be the founder of one of these categories. Sylvain Saudan is truly the father of extreme skiing—and one can make a good case for the fact that this particular kind of skiing is the discipline that is most representative of the consummate skier.

Sylvain described his steep-skiing exploits as neither a quest for fame nor financial remuneration, but rather as a natural progression of his life of skiing. As he insisted, his ever-increasing renown was a mere byproduct of “doing what I want to do.” He simply loved the special challenge of extreme skiing. Whereas most excellent skiers would feel a sense of satisfaction having successfully negotiated a slope of 40 degrees, Sylvain told me, “For me, what is steep, is if you make a mistake, you are dead.”

He viewed his frequent dance with death as a gift. “People who face death,” related Sylvain, “know exactly zee value of life.” Perhaps this statement partly explains why someone who loved life could take so many risks. 

Jimmy Petterson
Gothenburg, Sweden

Editor’s Note: For more on Sylvain Saudan, see page 30.

Letters to the Editor: We’re All Ears

There may not be a more experienced and distinguished readership in the ski industry than ISHA’s audience. We’d like to hear from you. Send letters to the editor to seth@skiinghistory.org. Please include your name and your town of residence.

Buddy Werner and Me

I was intrigued with the January-February 2024 issue of the magazine. I found the article “1964: Breakthrough at Innsbruck” fascinating. In 1958-1959 I lived with my family in St. Anton. My parents were friends of Pepi Gabl, who was also a patient of my father’s. We were from Portland, Oregon, where my father was an orthopedic surgeon and Pepi was head of the ski school at Timberline Lodge. Pepi had built a small pension in St. Anton and was thrilled that my parents rented the entire place since Austria was really struggling after its brutal occupation after World War II. Paying guests were a rare commodity.

One day a patient of my fathers, Ron Funk, showed up with most of the U.S. Ski Team. Ron asked if they could live with us because we had room and they had no money. My father thought that was a great idea so long as some of them skied with me when they were in St. Anton during breaks in the racing schedule. All I can say is what an experience I had as a young ski racer from the States skiing with Buddy Werner who was living with us. That was the year Buddy won the Hahnenkamm downhill, which was an absolutely spectacular achievement. He fell in the slalom, and I remember walking down the street in St. Anton and seeing the headline of the newspaper saying, “Werner loses Hahnenkamm slalom”—not “Molterer wins slalom.” The Austrians absolutely loved him. I later went on to be (for what it is worth) the No. 1 Alpine skier for Williams College. Nothing, however, from a skiing point of view was as special as that winter with Buddy Werner, Max Marolt and some of the others.

Jock Kimberley
Portland, Oregon

Oscar Hambro Company Revisited

I liked the back cover feature advertisement of Oscar Hambro Co. (“Ads from the Past,” January-February 2024). From some Norwegian skier research I did years ago, I found that Oscar opened his store in Boston in 1927, behind the Copley Plaza Hotel (now Fairmont Copley Plaza). It was one of the main ski stores in New England until World War II. He also added a store in New York City and opened the second ski factory in New Hampshire in 1937, just after Carl Lund established the Lund Ski factory in Laconia. Skis made in Oscar’s factory bore the Ski-Craft marking, which he patented. 

Oscar’s real name was Oscar Pedersen Hamre, born in 1894 to a fishing family on a farm near Stavanger, Norway. He migrated to Montreal in 1926, bringing a consignment of skis, boots and poles to sell. In the winter of 1927, he came to Boston and set up his ski-import store near the Carver Plaza Hotel. In the off season he worked as a sail maker for the yachting and fishing communities around Boston. His store was quite successful. The back cover of the American Ski Annual hosted his ads every year from 1934 through 1940. After World War II he closed the ski shop and bought a 75-foot retired Coast Guard boat he used for commercial fishing. In 1954 he moved to Seattle and later to LaConner, in Skagit County, where he was a well-known part of the commercial fishing community until his passing in 1971. 

Kirby Gilbert
Bellevue, Washington

Editor Seth Masia and authors Paul Hooge (“The Odyssey of Walter Neuron”) and Andreas Praher (“Skiing in Nazi Austria”) are deserving of enormous credit and thanks for finally helping bring to light in the November-December 2023 issue of Skiing History the long-ignored subject of National Socialism’s entanglement with the skiing and mountaineering communities of Austria and Germany, beginning in the earliest days of Nazism. Moreover, the virtual erasure from history of the strong Jewish presence in both those communities prior to the Aryan race laws and regulations being implemented starting in the ١٩٢٠s is also finally coming into focus. 

(Photo above: Walter Neuron in Chamonix, 1940)

Of the many facts and stories related to these issues that researcher Jason Williams and I have uncovered in our 15 years of research (which will soon be the subject of a book tentatively titled The Snow Angel) is the crusade in the 1920s and ’30s of Austrian Alpenverein officer Eduard Pichl to eliminate the historical record concerning Jewish free-climbing progenitor Dr. Paul Preuss (acknowledged by Reinhold Messner as perhaps the greatest mountaineer in Austria’s history), the Alpenverein’s close association with Hitler going back to Munich prior to the failed 1923 beer hall putsch, the life-saving ski and mountaineering escapes to Switzerland and Bohemia organized by Jewish skiers in Germany and Austria in the 1930s, and the fact that British skier Sir Nicholas Winton (son of Jewish parents from Germany) used the pretext of a ski trip to the Czech-German border to organize the kindertransport program that saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children and teens in Prague just prior to the start of the Second World War in Europe (the subject of a forthcoming major motion picture). 

Some of those older children ended up returning to Europe as elite combat troops in the US 10th Mountain Division. These stories need to be told and remembered. By assisting in that process, Skiing History is fulfilling a vital service not only as a repository of historical data, but as an important torch illuminating both the proud legacy—and the occasionally not-so-proud deviations from
egalitarianism—that marks the story of skiing around the world. 

Charles J. Sanders
Briarcliff Manor, New York

Connecting Continents

The November-December edition of Skiing History published my article “Pan-American Championships,” discussing the ski competitions between the Esquiadores Yanquis from the U.S. and South American skiers for the Championship of the Americas from 1937–1950. There was great hope that the competitions would continue to further connect skiing in North and South America.

Despite the good will developed between the skiers from the two continents, World War II prevented future reciprocal visits. Only one more Pan-American Championship was held after the war. No attempts were made to continue the Pan-American Championships, even though interest in Alpine skiing grew substantially on both continents. During the short time the championships were held, they showed that skiing is a way to open bridges between different countries. 

John Lundin
Seattle, Washington

Correction

We omitted mention in the November-December issue of the vintage fashion show in our overview of the upcoming Skiing History Week in Park City, Utah, March 20-23, 2024. One of the week’s most popular events, the fashion show is scheduled for the bar to open at 5 pm, with the show at 5:45 pm, on March 20, at the Alf Engen Museum.

Thank you for honoring the late, great Doug Pfeiffer by reprinting one of his many articles (“Revolution in Ski Teaching,” September-October 2023). 

Here’s an extra dash of trivia for Doug’s remembrance: He was an early adopter and instructor of snowboarding. At a time when prejudice against snowboarders ran high and many ski areas would not allow “knuckle draggers” on lifts, Doug dropped in. He taught snowboarding at Snow Summit, California, in the late 1980s.

Doug was skeptical at first. In a February 1990 article for Snow Country 
magazine, he described snowboarding as “the art of going downhill while standing sideways with feet cast in concrete.” Whatever inefficiencies he saw in the fledgling sport were overcome by his curiosity and perseverance. “A year ago, had anyone told me—a skier of long standing—that I’d actually become joyfully addicted to snowboarding, I’d have fallen off my skis laughing,” he wrote.

He developed a system to teach snowboarding with three basic moves for edge control, pressure control and turning control, promising proficiency in eight hours or less. “I logged 16 hours on a board before white-knuckled terror, even on intermediate runs, was replaced by mostly pleasurable rides. Now I’m able to teach the sport, and my students learn in five to eight hours what took me 16.” The man not only knew how to get down a hill on multiple conveyances, but he shared his knowledge and wrote about it with flair.

Ron Rudolph
Fairfield, Connecticut

Skiing’s Mark Twain

Doug was very special to me. He and Ginny were so welcoming and solicitous to me and my wife, Corinne, on our many trips to Park City/Deer Valley for veteran ski instructors reunions in the early 2000s. He introduced us all around, took us to parties of skiing’s movers and shakers and other friends, made sure we were teamed up with a group for skiing for the next day and skied with us on many, many runs. He loved to do his “Pfeiffer Tuck,” “Royale Christies” and the “Mambo.”

When I mentioned to Doug that I couldn’t believe how well Stein Eriksen skied at Deer Valley, even though Stein at that time was 80, Doug replied to me, “I’m older than Stein!” And Doug was skiing like a teenager.

The year I nominated John Fry and Doug to the Laurentian Ski Museum Hall of Fame, John gave a great acceptance speech, entitled “I Remember/Je me Souviens.” But Doug’s brought the house down. He was witty, funny and historical. I used to call John the dean of North America’s ski history; I often said that Doug was skiing history’s Mark Twain.

Doug was inducted into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1987; the Canadian Ski Museum Hall of Fame in 2000; and the Laurentian Ski Museum’s Hall of Fame in 2016. 

Bob Soden
Montreal, Quebec

Be a Holiday Hero

Impress your family and friends by immersing them in the history of our sport for the holidays. A subscription to Skiing History magazine is the ideal gift for the discerning skier or rider­­—and conveniently suitable as a great stocking-stuffer. Go to skiinghistory.org/join to send a subscription to a friend or family member at a discounted holiday gift rate.

In late July, a celebration was held for the life of Freda Langell Nieters at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Colorado. Old-timers learned new tales of Freda from other old-timers. Freda had a lifetime of skiing and of contributions to her sport, from girlhood in Oslo to the collegiate team of the University of New Hampshire and winning the intercollegiate downhill championship. She missed an Olympics only because of an injury, yet soon after beat the entire Norway national team. Years later her daughter Ingrid would make up for her mother’s missed Olympics as a cross-country skier in the Lillehammer Olympics. Freda taught as a Nordic instructor and examiner, then in Alpine, primarily at
Keystone and Arapahoe Basin resorts. My understanding is that she was also an Alpine examiner for the Professional Ski Instructors of America .

Hank Thiess, former ski school director at Keystone, where he knew Freda, and at several other resorts, explained about Freda, “An organizer, she developed a cadre of older instructors that took sessions with her and young instructors/coaches with the intent of assuring the ski school’s veterans stayed current in their style and knowledge, calling the group “Freda’s Flying Fossils.” And to instructors she coached regarding their students: “They will never care how much you know until they know how much you care!”

It occurs to me that Skiing History readers who knew of Freda would appreciate knowing of her passing, at 91. And those unfortunate enough to not have known her would also appreciate learning of the legacy of a dedicated life-long skier who brought the meaning of camaraderie and joy to the sport for so many.   

William R Jones
Silverthorne, Colorado

Better Late than Never

During the 1947 Silver Skis race on Mt. Rainier, confusion about the location of the finish line led to a delay in awarding trophies. Don Amick left for home before learning he’d won third place. Early this year, a family in the Yakima Valley sent the engraved platter to the Washington State Ski & Snowboard Museum, which sent it on to Russ Amick, shown here, a mere 76 years after his father finished the race.

Kirby Gilbert
Seattle, Washington

Just got the May-June 2023 issue and saw the short piece on Colorado’s oldest ski lift. It did start as Chair 3 at Aspen, installed by Bob Heron in 1954 from Spar Gulch to the Sundeck, relieving pressure on the old, slow Number 2 single. But now it’s mostly a much newer Riblet lift. When the chair was moved to Sunlight in 1972, Riblet was called in and made major modifications. Most of the lift dates from 1973: Those are all Riblet chair carriers with Riblet clips securing chairs to cable. The lift is powered by a 1973 Riblet 150 hp vault drive at the top terminal. Only the steel lattice towers, and the return tension station at the bottom, are
original 70-year-old Heron components from 1954.

Kirby Gilbert
Seattle, Washington

The Mighty Terry Peak

Regarding the cover art of the March-April 2023, I would guess the skier is meant to be skiing at Terry Peak, in Deadwood, South Dakota since, as far as I believe, it is the only ski area located near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Interesting tidbit: The top of Terry Peak is at 7,100 feet and, as the area notes on its website, that makes Terry Peak the highest point between the Alps to the east and the Rockies to the west!

Bernie Weichsel
Wayland, Massachusetts

Decisions, Decisions

I get up here to Whistler, and I have the best choices for reading material. Just the best ski magazine ever.  

Nigel Jones
Seattle, Washington

 Support Telemark Racing as an Olympic Discipline

In “Where Are They Now? Hedda Berntsen, Norwegian Triple Threat” (July-August 2022), Aimee Berg writes that the amazing skier/athlete Hedda Berntsen in 1997 won gold at the Telemark World Championships. What an amazing champion in multiple disciplines! It made me ask why has telemark ski racing not made it to the Olympics when there are so many ski disciplines included, while telemark racing has a deep ski history and a strong current international FIS race circuit? After the
classic course, with gates, skating and jump, Hedda said, “I have never been more tired in my whole life on the course or after.”  

Back in 2006, Schweitzer Mountain hosted the Telemark World Championships. Our five-year-old daughter was the forerunner for the classic race and went on to considerable success at the USA Telemark National Championships.

Telemark is a FIS sport and the FIS did go to the IOC and ask that telemark ski racing be included in the Beijing 2022 Olympics as a demonstration sport, but the IOC denied the request. Telemark is close to being part of the ski racing Olympic family. Support from Skiing History and readers would probably go a long way to seeing this through. It’s a valid discipline when you see the dedicated athletes and how it connects many ski disciplines into one. Reading the article about Hedda got me revved up to try and get more support for telemark racing in the Olympics. 

Tim Boden 
Sandpoint, Idaho

A Beer and a Backstory at Totemoff’s

Your story about Pete Totemoff (“New Mexico’s Indispensable Man,” March-April 2023) really hit home with my wife and I, who have skied 15 days this season at Ski Santa Fe, a great little mountain near our home.

Tipping a few at Totemoff’s is always a special part of the mountain experience. A “throwback” true mountain pub if there ever was one. We, like many, had no idea where the name came from or the deep ties it has to the ski tradition of New Mexico—this includes most of Totemoff’s employees.

So, thank you for the wonderful historic article and the deep dive into the man Pete Totemoff himself. This is another example of the part ISHA plays to keep the ski tradition alive. All involved are to be complimented for their efforts.  

Duane and Susan Larson
Santa Fe, N.M.

 Justice Served: Jim Thorpe’s 1912 Gold Medals Restored

In my article “Pro vs. Am” (July-August 2022), I discussed the historic conflict between the concepts of amateurism and professionalism in skiing and Olympic sports. The most tragic victim of this conflict was Jim Thorpe, who won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympic Games in the decathlon and pentathlon, two of the most difficult of all sporting events. 

Thorpe dominated the 1912 Olympic Games, with Swedish King Gustav V telling him at the medal ceremonies, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” However, Thorpe had earned $25 a week while playing semi-professional baseball before his Olympic career, and in 1913, he was stripped of both medals by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the era’s strict rules governing amateurism. Historians consider this action to be a combination of racism against Thorpe, who was Native American, and a rigid adherence to the idea of amateurism. 

In 1982, the IOC partially restored Thorpe’s 1912 successes by declaring him co-winner of the two medals. But that partial victory is now complete. In July, the IOC announced that Thorpe is now officially recognized as the sole winner of the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games, while the two athletes who received the medals after they were stripped from Thorpe will be recognized as co-silver medalists of their events. When Thorpe died in 1953, the New York Times called him “probably the greatest natural athlete the world had seen in modern times.”

John W. Lundin
Seattle, Washington

Amateur Athletes? Hardly

John Lundin (“Pro vs. Am,” July-August 2022) is right to point out Avery Brundage’s hypocritical stands on amateurism in Olympic competition. But Brundage’s hypocrisy went beyond the unfortunate examples Lundin cites. Even though most Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc Olympians (and other top athletes) were supported by their governments, Brundage saw no problem in their participation in the Olympics. The value of that government support far exceeded the value of prizes or endorsements that led Brundage to disqualify famous athletes such as Karl Schranz. Athletes from the Soviet Union and the states it dominated were often paid by the military or other state institutions without having to do much other than train and compete. Some amateurs!

Ivo Krupka
Former President
Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum
Ottawa, Canad

T-Bar Timeline

I have a correction to make about the Sugarloaf poster in the “Many Gems at Swann’s Winter Auction” (May-June 2022). Those are all T-bars, not chairlifts, on the poster. The poster was created later than 1955. The lower of the tandem T-bars was built in the summer of 1956; the upper T-bar was built the next summer. The lower left T-bar was built later. 

Jean Luce
Carrabassett Valley, Maine

Correction

Due to an editing error, we reported in the July-August issue that Hedda Bernsten and her husband, Tyler Conrad, spend summers in New England. In fact, they live near the ski resort of Hemsedal, Norway, in the winter and in coastal Tønsberg, in the summer.