For nearly 100 years, skiers have closed the season into the farewell drink.

Photo top: Prescient in grasping pond-skimming's end-of-season appeal, Mt. Baker, Washington, started holding its Slush Cup in the early 1950s. Coverage in Warren Miller films helped make the spring ritual a popular closing act to the ski season.

As the story goes, in spring 1928, Cliff White and Cyril Paris, Banff Ski Club pioneers and experienced Alpinists, chanced upon a large snow-melt pond far below them in Banff, Alberta’s backcountry. They challenged each other to see who could skim farthest across the meltwater on skis. There’s no record of who won, but, violà—a soggy end-of-ski-season ritual was born.

Taking advantage of this colorful origin story, Banff Sunshine resort will celebrate its “96-ish” Slush Cup in late May, on the final day of the season. The resort touts it as the oldest pond-skimming event in North America. Flexing its own bragging rights, Sugarbush, Vermont, claims to be the oldest official event in the U.S., though the resort can’t pin down an exact starting date. It also claims to offer participants America’s longest stretch of open water at 120 feet.

Perhaps the most influential of the original pond-skimming celebrations in the U.S. may be the Mt. Baker Slush Cup, started in the early 1950s in Washington State. An early adopter of this spring ritual, Mt. Baker, however, credits its pond-skimming fame to movie maestro Warren Miller, who said he was invited to the resort in 1954 to film the new event. “The combination of high-altitude, hot July sun, high blood-alcohol content and wobbly legs offered some fantastic, never-before-seen crashes for my next year’s feature-length ski film audiences,” Miller recalled in a 2015 Tahoe Guide newspaper column. Pond-skimming antics became a staple of Miller’s oeuvre, and the filmmaker claims his 1950s Mt. Baker coverage ignited a movement.

Vail, Colorado, winks as it touts its event as the World Championships of Pond Skimming. Whitefish Mountain
Resort in Montana awards $1,500 in cash across a multitude of categories. In California, Palisade Tahoe’s Cushing Crossing, now in its 33rd year and one of the more iconic skims in the U.S., features a proper pond and has become so popular that it now limits the event to 50 participants.

Big Sky, Montana, annually held one of the more innovative pond skims in the country prior to Covid. Every year, the creative man-made ponds changed format, with sometimes two of them side by side or end to end, and with kickers and rails, drawing hundreds of rowdy fans and participants. After a few years off, pond skimming returned to Big Sky this spring to close the ski season.

Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin, always in tune to counter-programming, offers its unofficial and weather-dependent pond skimming across “Lake Reveal,” typically in June. Melting snow and local topography unite to create a natural pond alongside Dercum's Gulch trail, under the gaze of riders on the Lenawee lift. No official spectators. No entry fees. No prizes. The pond is available at any time, to anyone who is up to the challenge.

The unique and notorious Ski Splash at Snowmass, Colorado, began in 1970 and persisted until 1984 before the plug was pulled over insurance issues. The event had a kicker on the ski slope above the then-El Dorado Hotel’s outdoor swimming pool, and instead of skimming across it, the often scantily clad participants did their aerials and landed in the pool. Hopefully. But not always. Hence the cancellation.

Skiing’s spring bacchanalia vibe is global, of course. Pond skimming translates to water sliding in Europe, with the attendant components, however, consistently similar. Participants costume up or strip down and strive to take skis, snowboards, ski-bikes, cardboard airplanes, patrol toboggans or, occasionally, a full-body Styrofoam Eiffel Tower costume or a wraparound Titanic ship across a frequently purpose-built pond at the end of a slope. Expect to see sharks and pirates and beach-themed attire. Moses often parts the sea, and Jesus "walks" it, at a brisk pace. Think a soap-box derby on snow. The event typically includes live music, rivers of beverages, sponsor banners, loaner life jackets, paramedics and hundreds—often thousands—of revelers.

In Europe, Switzerland’s Engelberg Titlis resort was once famous for its mineral water, so it takes water sliding seriously. The resort holds multiple rounds to determine the winner, with the pond’s approach-slope shortened after each round, gradually reducing water-planing speed.

In the annual Défi Foly contest at La Clusaz, France, skiers don’t zip across a man-made slush hole; they take on an actual lake, where the ice is usually only partially broken up by the second half of April, when the event is staged. Helmets and life jackets are mandatory, and participants start on a steep hill above the lake, tuck all the way onto the water and try to glide across 525 feet. The half-dozen rescue boats stay busy all day. In 2011, Frenchman Philippe Troubat, a Freeride World Tour competitor, cleared 509 feet, which he claims as an unofficial world record. For pond-skimming purists, however, his achievement might require an asterisk in the record books:

He rode a monoski. 

Middle-schooler's 10th Mountain Division Project Wins National History Award.

For his entire life, Aesop Birkemeier heard stories about his late great-grandfather, who served in the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division. An indefatigable history fan even at an early age, the 13-year-old seventh grader from Nashville, Indiana, won a National History Day award for his project spotlighting the legendary ski troops of World War II.

The nonprofit competition was established in 1974 and currently engages more than a half million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance or website. Nearly 3,000 students from across the country, grades six to 12, presented 1,600 history projects, judged by 540 historians and education professionals in the 2024 competition. It’s history’s equivalent of a science fair.

Aesop’s theme for the competition was “Turning Points in History: The Legacy of the 10th Mountain Division.” He chronicled the 10th's success during the war and the role played by his grandmother’s father, Onas Glenn Inman (1917–1996) of Doans, Indiana. His display included an Eisenhower jacket, a field manual, Inman’s checkerboard and archival images. The centerpiece of his project was a historical play of sorts that he wrote and performed, based on stories he heard about his great-grandfather.

According to the Columbus, Indiana, Republic, Aesop competed against 100 students before winning first place in the junior division. He received a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a $1,000 cash prize. In addition to winning top honors, Aesop was also chosen as one of nine students to perform his entry during a showcase at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Inman, who died before Aesop was born, served in the 10th Mountain’s126th Mountain Engineering Battalion, Company B, in the division’s two campaigns: Kiska Island, Alaska, and Italy’s Apennine mountains, according to the Denver Public Library 10th Mountain Division archives (see Skiing History, January-February 2024).

“I’m never going to forget the moment I was in the stands and they called my name. It was the best feeling I ever had,” says Aesop, who doesn’t yet ski. He wants to learn in Colorado, where he can also visit the Denver Public Library archives, the Colorado Snowsports Museum’s 10th exhibit and the nearby Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument.

The Birkemeier family has a record of competing in numerous past National History Day events. Says Aesop’s mother, Torrie Birkemeier, “Aesop’s dad and I both believe that in order to look where we’re going, we have to understand where we’ve come from.” — Jeff Blumenfeld 

Snapshots in Time

1936 Europe Is Decades Ahead of America

America discovered skiing last winter in dead earnest and is getting set for the greatest skiing winter in its history. But Europe is 20 years ahead of the U.S. in making skiing luxurious and taking pictures of it. Skiing began because the nomadic Lapps and Mongols had to get across vast, open wastes of snow. Not until 1800 did a few Norwegians near Telemark discover it was also fun. It took another 30 years more for the rest of Europe, notably those nations with a piece of the Alps, to catch on. First and best advice for beginners is to fall down when they think they are going too fast. — “Skiing Is Fun and Makes Beautiful Pictures” (Life, December 7, 1936)

1959 The Only Unfortunate Part of Teaching Skiing

You may remind these people (Ski Illustrated) that they printed a long article about my ski style in 1938—quite 10 years before Emile Allais. The only unfortunate part of teaching a new and different technique in skiing is the controversy between the different schools and the disadvantage to the pupils of getting completely mixed up while changing from one school or resort to another. — Hans Georg, “Ski Style” (Letters, SKI Magazine, November 1949)

1978 Skiing the French Way

Ironically, with all the thought that has been lent to the French technique, it rarely has been associated with that which is most aesthetic and elusive in skiing—powder. Normally such concepts as avalement, rebound and jet turns are connected with mogul skiing, where energy is at a premium and efficiency foremost. In powder, motions must be more subtle and unhurried in order to maintain fluidity, balance, and control. The powder seeker knows that exaggerated movements are unnecessary and a hindrance, throwing off the rhythm that is so crucial. — Gordie Skoog, “The French Way” (Powder, November 1978)

1984 Forget the Hot Tub. Check out Those Ski Stunts

Since the other characters have names like Squirrel, Fergy and Kamikaze, Harkin is Hot Dog’s apparent hero. But its real heroes are the stunt skiers, since some of the sports footage is quite lively. Mike Marvin, who wrote the screenplay and who directed the second unit, obviously knows his ski feats. He knows less about character, though, and the nonskiing part of the script concerns itself mostly with cooking up pretexts for the ski bunnies in the cast (Tracy N. Smith and Shannon Tweed are the two female leads) to doff their clothing. A hot tub, a waterbed and a heart­shaped bathtub figure prominently in the film’s dramatic development, and so does the nowadays obligatory wet T-shirt event. — Janet Maslin, “Review: ‘Hot Dog,’ Skiers Competing and Playing” (New York Times, January 14, 1984)

2025 Jumping into a Scandal

GENEVA — Sign stealing in baseball. Match fixing in soccer. Doping allegations in swimming. Now ski jumping has its own scandal. Cheating by Norway team officials manipulating jumpers’ ski suits has shaken a national reputation for fair play and high-minded principles at their home Nordic world championships, where the host team dominated the medal table. Two Olympic gold medalists, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, had denied involvement since the allegations emerged over the weekend but were suspended Wednesday and put under formal suspicion in an investigation overseen by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. — “Norwegian Ski Jumpers Suspended During Suit Tampering Inquiry” (Associated Press, March 12, 2025)

A brief history of organized labor on the ski slopes.

National news outlets reported angry crowds in two-hour lift lines at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort over the Christmas holidays. This high-profit part of the ski season is vital to everyone in the community. But when 204 members of the ski patrol at America’s largest ski resort went on strike on December 27, 2024, vacationers were denied access at times to up to 80 percent of the terrain due to safety closures.

Photo top: AP photo/Melissa Majchrzak

Ski area owner Vail Resorts delayed negotiations with the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association prior to the strike. The absence of patrol personnel meant that much of the resort couldn’t open. This incensed vacationers who faced the long waits on the few lifts that operated. Bad press was rampant and extended to one of CNBC’s national commentators, Jim Lebenthal. Upon returning from his family’s Park City holiday, Lebenthal blasted Vail Resorts during an early January episode of CNBC’s Halftime Report. He also cited Vail Resorts lingering low stock valuation.

Lebenthal reported that he arrived at Park City to find two feet of fresh snow. However, he was shocked and angry that less than 20 percent of the mountain was open due to the lack of patrollers. Then he issued some on-air business advice to Vail Resorts: “If you want to run a travel and leisure company, you darn well better give the experience you’re advertising. If you don’t, you will get negative PR and non-repeating customers.”

After 13 days, Vail Resorts and the patrollers’ association reached agreement on January 9, 2025. Vail agreed to raise the starting pay for patrollers and safety workers by $2 to $23 an hour, with expanded benefits, while veteran patrollers received an average increase of $7.75 per hour. But the public-relations damage had already been done.

1960s Strike Averted

Organized labor hadn’t really been a presence at American ski resorts prior to 1964, when the Aspen Mountain Employees Association formed. The new group demanded not only a raise from the minimum wage of $1.80 per hour but more than the maximum $2.05 per hour being offered. The Aspen Skiing Corporation (as it was known then) finally countered with a starting wage of $2 an hour, rising to $2.40 after three years. The Aspen Times ran a banner headline declaring “Aspen Strike Averted.”

The Aspen Mountain Employees Association never officially unionized. Later, in 1971, the Aspen Ski Patrol joined the Teamsters and by December went on strike for better wages. It was a contentious time. Many Aspen residents supported the patrollers, while a lot of local burghers and ranchers opposed them. As was the case in Park City, some merchants accused the Aspen patrol of trying to sabotage the town’s most profitable part of the winter. Others felt that without a well-trained patrol who could afford to live in town, it was going to be tough to ever keep the ski areas open safely.

In Park City, the strike’s issues were bluntly put in local and national media: At their current wages, some patrollers were forced to live in their cars. And Park City isn’t the only ski resort in the country where wages don’t equate to the skills required of a patroller. A reader commented on a January 4 story in the New York Times, “I am a delivery driver and my hourly rate is $45 an hour and my job entails putting packages on people’s doorsteps. Dedicated safety professionals should not have to worry about paying the bills.”

In 1971, the Aspen Skiing Corporation acted swiftly and brought in scabs. The move, plainly a case of union-busting, saved the Christmas season. The strike and picketing continued, though with less optimism. During a hot-dog skiing contest on Aspen Mountain’s Ridge of Bell that winter, the ski patrol sent several members down the mogul-studded run pulling a toboggan with a second patroller seated in it. An onboard sign read: “You Fall We Haul, Teamsters Local 961.” It was heartily cheered, but the union conceded defeat on January 23, and many members were eventually rehired. They ditched the Teamsters affiliation in 1973.

While the patrollers’ initial goal wasn’t achieved, wages were soon brought up to the levels they’d asked for, and ski instructors got a raise, too. Other ski patrols around the country took notice. In 1978, the Crested Butte, Colorado, patrol formed a union, now one of the oldest in the ski industry. By 1986 Aspen had formed the Aspen Professional Ski Patrol Association, and Breckenridge, Colorado, patrollers followed suit the same year (Breckenridge was owned by ASC at that time).

In 1994, the ski patrol at Colorado's Keystone unionized, as did patrollers from Steamboat, Colorado, in 1998. The Steamboat chapter disbanded after a few years but eventually joined patrols at Crested Butte, Aspen, Breckenridge, Keystone and the Canyons at Park City to form United Professional Ski Patrols of America, Local 7781, a chapter of the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Keystone and Breckenridge later left to form their own unions. Patrollers at Killington, Vermont, unionized in 2001 but disbanded a year later. Telluride, Colorado’s patrol joined CWA in 2016. Washington’s Stevens Pass had been in existence since the late 1930s without its patrol unionizing, but within a year of the ski area’s purchase by Vail Resorts in 2018, patrol voted to join CWA. The ski patrol at Big Sky, Montana, successfully unionized in 2021, as did patrollers in Purgatory, Colorado, in 2022.

In 2022 electricians and lift mechanics at Park City Mountain Resort joined the patrollers in one of the first instances where non-patrollers unionized. They formed the Park City Lift Maintenance Professional Union. The following year, Crested Butte lift mechanics made the same move.

The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), the ski resort industry’s major trade association, took notice. Its 2023 annual convention held an educational session on “Unions and the Rapidly Evolving Labor Landscape.” Statistics indicate that about 7.6 percent of ski patrollers are currently unionized, up sharply from 5.5 percent in 2021, according to industry publication Ski Area Management.

Throughout the Park City strike, social media was rife with clips of crowds chanting, “Pay your employees!” Memes also flourished, featuring “Epic lift lines,” evoking Vail Resorts’ ubiquitous marketing hook.

Industry Wage Growth

Vail Resorts could point to NSAA’s 2023 Wage and Salary Survey that showed that overall wage growth across all ski resort jobs was up 18 percent over the prior year. Wages for entry-level ski patrol jobs rose 51 percent, to $19.91 over the previous five years, and for entry-level lift mechanics 41 percent over the same time period, to $22.61. Critics countered that wages had started low and remain unreasonably low for the work at hand and for the high cost of living in resort towns.

At the onset of the walkout, Park City Chief Operations Officer Deirdra Walsh wrote in an editorial in the Park Record newspaper that, “No one wins a strike.” In the end, however, Vail Resorts capitulated. Not only did the striking patrollers win, but Vail’s corporate image was hammered.

Questions and at least one lawsuit remain. The company announced that they would give passholders credit for each day skied or boarded at Park City during the strike toward the purchase of an Epic Pass of equal or greater value next year.

Illinois resident Christopher Bisaillon wants more.
Bisaillon filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of guests who purchased tickets during the strike, claiming that Vail Resorts “intentionally and willfully deceived hundreds of thousands of consumers” by failing to disclose the strike and the resultant conditions. “What was expected to be a dream vacation for thousands of families, at the expense of tens of thousands of dollars per family, quickly turned into a colossal nightmare,” according to the lawsuit.

Bisaillon says in the lawsuit that he spent $15,000 and skied fewer than 10 runs during a week-long vacation. He says he learned about the strike after he arrived, a day after the strike began, and that less than 20 percent of the mountain was open, which resulted in lift lines that lasted up to three hours.

Investors worry how this will impact Vail Resort’s financial performance and stock value. One of the business advantages the resort operator touts is the ability to isolate losses at one business center from the rest of the company. In a January earnings call, Vail Resorts reported a 2 percent decline in pass sales but an increase in revenue due to an 8 percent price increase, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Still, the company’s stock price fell about 17 percent in the immediate aftermath of the Park City strike and remains slightly above its 52-week low.

Wages and labor relations can’t be confined to one resort company, however. In a statement to the New York Times, Seth Dromgoole, the lead negotiator and a 17-year patroller at Park City, views the January settlement as “more than just a win for our team—it’s a groundbreaking success in the ski and mountain worker industry.”

Ultimately, the best business barometer for Vail Resorts will be its Epic season-pass sales for next season, which account for a majority of its annual revenue—and that’s before any lifts have spun. Though pass numbers were down slightly this season, an overall price hike more than compensated. So far that seems to be a viable mechanism for covering a lot of expenses and contingencies. Possibly even better wages. 

Snapshots in Time

1937 Society’s Newest Winter Playground

When skiing became a nationwide mania in 1935, Austrian Count Felix Schaffgotsch sold Union Pacific Railroad’s 45-year-old Board Chairman Averell Harriman the idea that the U.S. deserved a winter resort like Switzerland’s St. Moritz. The result is that Ketchum, Idaho (pop. 217), has become for people who like their weather cold what Palm Beach is for people who like it hot. Sun Valley is three days from New York by train, overnight by United Airlines. — “East Goes West to Idaho’s Sun Valley, Society’s Newest Winter Playground” (Life Magazine, March 8, 1937)

1969 ‘‘Ski Stewardesses’’ 
In this Sussex County community where the Vernon Valley Ski Area has created a stir by introducing girls as lift attendants, almost 3,000 enthusiasts frolicked in excellent skiing conditions today. The skies were clear, the temperatures were comfortable and the waiting time at the lift lines within reason. But while Vernon Valley has all of the necessary equipment, including three chairlifts and a T-bar lift, the item that seems to be causing the most comment this season is the girl attendants. Almost all of them are students at nearby Sparta High School. “The girls prefer being known as ‘ski stewardesses,’” said Anthony Martino, president of Vernon Valley. “And we think they’re doing a great job. They’re patient with children, polite with adults and appealing to our jet set. We haven’t had a complaint about them yet.”— Michael Strauss, “Girls Give Jersey Ski Resort a Lift” (New York Times, December 29, 1969)

1978 Training-Wheels Turns
It seems that American Nordic skiers pay far too much attention to the Telemark turn. It is not really an advanced turn—my students learn it in 15 minutes, and it is really pretty limited. The Norwegian ski instructor manuals don’t even say very much about this turn. The ultimate, the expert turn, is the parallel turn. It is performed very much like a parallel turn on Alpine skis. —Vic Bein, “The New Nordic” (Powder
Magazine, November 1978)

1985 Cash-Cow Olympics
Could the Winter Olympics actually be changing to a profitable venture? Sarajevo’s Olympics Organizing Committee announced that its $96 million revenues from ticketing, licensing, TV rights, etc., were greater than its $88.2 million in expenses and that when the last $3 million or so still owed by licensees comes in, its profit will total about $10 million.—“Sarajevo Olympics Turns Profit” (Skiing Magazine, February 1985)

2024 Looking at You Middle-aged Guys On Groomers
In an attempt to see exactly who is getting injured and killed out there—and how—we dug into stats provided by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). The results were both expected and surprising. The NSAA compiles two fact sheets after each ski season. One reveals the number of on-mountain fatalities and the other the number of catastrophic injuries—defined as “life-altering injuries.” Of the 46 people who died at NSAA ski areas in the 2022-’23 season, 42 were male and 37 were on skis. Of the 53 catastrophic injuries, 42 were male and 44 were skiers. The majority of both incidents occurred on intermediate terrain. Here’s the twist: Most of the on-mountain fatalities during the 2022-’23 season occurred to people who were between the ages of 51 and 60. So while the stereotype is that the young guns hucking cliffs and skiing way too fast are paying the ultimate price, in reality, it’s the middle-aged guys. — “This Group of Skiers is the Most Likely to Have a Fatal Accident, according to the experts,” — Evie Carrick (skimag.com, May 15, 2024)

 Concerns about racing at 40? Previous injuries? The World Cup grind? Vonn laughs.

Lindsey Vonn and Marcel Hirscher have much in common; for instance, each has claimed 20 World Cup globes, including eight overalls for the Austrian-born Hirscher and four overalls for the American Vonn. Both left the circuit in 2019, Hirscher at age 30 and Vonn at 34. And this winter both skiing legends elected to return to racing, following a summer decision by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) to allow former top champions to return to the World Cup circuit within five years after retiring.

(Photo top: Lindsey Vonn, courtesy USSA)

But their two paths dramatically diverge after that. Hirscher’s return, in giant slalom at Sölden in October 2024, was judged as positive. He scored an honorable 23rd place, before struggling in the next two icy slalom races. His comeback attracted more spectators than usual at Sölden, and the television ratings were high. Unfortunately, the experiment ended prematurely after Hirscher tore the ACL in his left knee during training in early December. “Maybe I'm finally done with my journey,” he told the ski press.

Vonn, however, placed 14th in her first comeback competition, racing super G in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in mid-December, and in mid-January popped into the top ten. “It took her 20 seconds to get back into it, and then she was fine,” Chris Knight, Vonn's personal coach, told the Associated Press.

With 82 victories in all Alpine events on the World Cup circuit, Vonn remains one of the most successful ski racers in history, notable for her fighting spirit and resiliency, which allowed her to make impressive comebacks after painful injuries.

While Hirscher’s decision to return (skiing for the Netherlands, his mother’s home country) didn’t create too many emotional reactions inside the ski community, Vonn’s announcement was received with reservations by many observers. They worry about her physical potential at age 40 and the risks she may be taking with her right knee, which was surgically repaired (again) last spring. They seem unpersuaded by the fact that Vonn never quit training hard at the gym and that last winter she skied the treacherous Streif course at
Kitzbühel—at night under the lights.

Yet some racers are positive about her comeback. “She’s experienced enough to know what she is doing,” says Hirscher.

Marco Odermatt, currently the dominant speed skier on the circuit, watched Vonn train at Colorado’s Copper Mountain. “She is definitely skiing well, and pretty fast, too,” he says. “On some slopes she could do pretty well.” Vonn’s European fans eagerly await her appearance on classic courses in the Alps.

It’s key to remember that Vonn made a dramatic comeback once before. At the 2013 World Championships, she destroyed her right knee in the opening super G, while leading the World Cup downhill standings by 230 points—enough to retain the title by one point at the end of the season. She entered only three races the following winter but didn’t have the strength to do well. She also skipped the 2014 Olympics, then returned for the 2015 season and scored a victory in her second race.

There haven’t been many successful comebacks in modern Alpine ski racing, yet a few were pretty spectacular. Most notable were the returns of Annemarie Moser-Pröll and Jean-Claude Killy, both in the 1970s.

After crushing the rest of the field from 1971 to 1975, collecting five consecutive overall World Cup globes and several gold medals at FIS events, Moser-Pröll decided, at age 22, to step down after the 1975 World Cup finals at Val Gardena. She wanted to stay with her dad, Josef, then dying of cancer. He passed in 1976.

A few weeks before the start of the 1976–77 season, Moser-Pröll abruptly jumped back on race skis. She returned to form immediately, scoring third in the opening giant slalom at Val d’Isère in December, then winning the first downhill of the season at Cortina d’Ampezzo a few days later.

Moser-Pröll won 21 more World Cups, for a total of 62 career victories, during those four seasons, including her sixth overall World Cup title in 1979 and Olympic downhill gold at Lake Placid in 1980. She was only 27 when she retired after the World Cup finals at Saalbach in March 1980.

Jean-Claude Killy, who dominated the first two World Cup seasons in 1967 and ’68, and scored triple gold at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics, retired after the 1968 World Cup finals at Heavenly Valley, California. After a five-year holiday from racing, he joined the World Pro Skiing tour and clinched the Benson and Hedges professional world title at Aspen in March 1973. The season featured an intense battle with the previous champion, Spider Sabich, who was sidelined after injuring his back in a crash.

“I decided to get out of retirement in July 1972 as a kind of bet with the former Rossignol racing chief Gérard Rubaud, who was putting together a pro team,” Killy says. “He only offered me the job as a team manager since he didn’t believe in my potential to race again at a high level in the U.S. dual format. I have always enjoyed these kinds of personal challenges. I was only 29 at that time and in good physical shape. The start at Vail, at the end of November, was grueling as I had to get used to the format and my equipment was not working well. Fortunately, Rubaud came back to me later on and, in January 1973, I was able to win a dual slalom with his skis. It was really fun.”

“I can understand what motivates champions like Hirscher and Vonn, who are surely motivated by their strong passion for ski racing,” Killy continues. “For a downhiller, there is nothing as thrilling as having a demanding course just for you. I just hope that Lindsey remains healthy and having fun despite the dangers. She has been a colorful athlete, and her return should bring much excitement to the tour, which is always positive.” 

Contributor Patrick Lang has been reporting on the World Cup tour since 1969 and attended most of Lindsey Vonn's victories.

 

Breaking Through the Birds of Prey Barrier

A historic downhill run for women World Cup racers

On December 14, 2024, a sunny Saturday morning, France’s Laura Gauché skidded to a stop at the bottom of the Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek, Colorado. And just like that, punctuated by a cloud of snow spray, it was official—Gauché was the first female competitor to ski the Birds of Prey in a World Cup downhill race.

“I’ve been coming to Beaver Creek to watch the men since I was four years old,” said U.S. Ski Teamer Bella Wright at a press conference the day before. “This is going to be a moment that we are going to look back on.”

Male racers have long run the course, which was conceived by Swiss ski champ and noted course designer
Bernhard Russi for the 1999 World Alpine Championships. It’s considered one of the most challenging downhill and super G tracks on the World Cup circuit. But aside from one super G in 2011 (won by Lindsey Vonn) in place of a cancelled race in France, the women didn’t have their chance until now.

Forty-three women competed in the downhill, which was won by Austria’s Cornelia Huetter. The racers started 154 feet lower down the course than the men did the week before. And some of the notorious jumps, like Golden Eagle, were modified, though the women hope they’d be bigger in the future. The downhill was followed by a super G the next day.

“Technically, it’s a very hard course, because you have to do everything right,” says American Lauren Macuga, who placed fourth. “Most of our other courses, there’s time to rest. There’s no time to rest in this course. It’s always coming at you.”

Among the fans cheering on the women: Former U.S. downhiller Steven Nyman, who retired in 2023. “Why not allow them to race after the men?” he says. “There’s so much preparation and so much effort that’s put into this hill, let’s utilize it another weekend.” He continues, “Technical skiers can really show their skill set here, versus just a classic downhill. I think it’s a great opportunity for the women and I’m excited to see more in the future.”

In another history-making moment, Lindsey Vonn was the last forerunner (before her official comeback the next week in St. Moritz). “I think this was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen for a forerunner in my life,” she says.

If Vonn’s career restart goes according to plan, she may be able to join her teammates on more courses once reserved for the men. Says veteran U.S. downhiller Jackie Wiles, “I hope it opens the door to talking about the next step and doing some other venues. We’re here, we’re confident and we want to push those boundaries. It’s a really exciting time.” —Cindy Hirschfeld

Snapshots in Time

1961 Hang, Don’t Loop
Ever since the old days just after the war when we used to ski the Laurentians and snag the basket of our poles in brush, we have given up using the loops of poles for any other purpose than hanging them up when not in use. How many wrenched shoulders have resulted from looping straps around wrists? Our advice: forget the straps while skiing, except in very, very deep powder, in which it is easy to lose a pole forever. —Tik Nottingham, Boston, Massachusetts, “Pole Pointers” (Letters, SKI Magazine, October 1961)

1974 History Starts Now: Stenmark’s First World Cup Win
Ingemar Stenmark, an 18-year-old Swede, rallied from 23rd position today to win the opening men’s World Cup special slalom in which Geoff Bruce of Corning, N. Y., finished fourth after leading the field in the first run. The shy, freckle-faced Swede, in only his second season of World Cup skiing, raced down the second run 1.20 seconds faster than his closest rival for an over-all winning time of 1 minute 51.02 seconds. Andy Mill of Aspen, Colo., clocked 1:54.15 to finish 11th in the American men’s team’s best performance this year. —“Swede, 18, Wins Slalom” (New York Times,
December 18, 1974)

2017 Hell, no
At the age of 59, I wondered whether I might be too old to ski, or at least ski the way I did when I was younger. It turns out I was fine, but older people have a lot to consider before downhill skiing. And not all of it bad. About 18 percent of skiers in 2016 were over the age of 55, according to Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, up from 17 percent in the previous year. “Ten or 15 years ago, we did some research, and we anticipated this huge exit of Baby Boomers that was going to materially impact the total number of skiers,” Berry said. “Our predictive analysis proved to be wrong.”— CAROLEE BELKIN WALKER "ARE BABY BOOMERS TOO OLD TO SKI? PROBABLY NOT." (WASHINGTON POST, FEBRUARY 24, 2017)

2023 Independently Successful
In the ski industry in recent years, the murmurs around every independent resort have been the same: How long until Vail Resorts Inc. or Alterra Mountain Co. comes and plants its flag? In 2008, Alterra didn’t exist and Vail owned just five mountains. Today, the two represent more than half the skiable terrain in the U.S.—and counting. But in 2023, it’s looking likely that independent mountains will have a moment to shine. While residents around many newly acquired Alterra and Vail resorts criticize the corporate tendency to put profit above community, and visitors grow frustrated with massive crowds, indies are drawing new customers. — Gordy Megroz, “Rise of the Indies” (Bloomberg Business Week, October 23, 2023)

2024 FIS Grounds Record Jump
Ryōyū Kobayashi might have bettered the world ski jump record by nearly 40 meters on Wednesday, but the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) says it won’t recognize the Japanese jumper’s landmark effort as it didn’t meet the governing body’s competition conditions. The 27-year-old launched into a jump that saw him fly around 955 feet (291m) through the air. While Kobayashi’s jumps “showcase an extraordinary athlete’s performance, a ski flying competition must be based on a FIS-certified distance measuring system and take place on a ski flying hill homologated by FIS in order to stand up to comparison with other flights and be eligible for an official ski flying record,” the FIS stated. — Amy Woodyatt, “Ryōyū Kobayashi flies 291 meters through the air in landmark ski jump” (CNN, April 25, 2024)

Annual comprehensive ski testing has all but disappeared, along with its legacy print-magazine partners. Niche media look to fill the void.

(Photo top: Testers for Snow Country magazine use a lift ride to fill out test cards in April, 1994. Courtesy RealSkiers.com)

In the spring of 1967, the editor of Skiing magazine, Doug Pfeiffer, invited Sven Coomer— then ski school director at Nevada’s Mt. Rose—and Jim McGill from California’s Big Bear to meet him at Mammoth for a six-week ski test session. Today, more than 50 years later, Skiing has long since been shuttered and the six-week ski test didn’t survive Pfeiffer’s tenure. The few on-snow tests that remain don’t last more than two or three days. This peek into the past traces the highs and lows of ski media’s attempts to evaluate skis based on their on-snow performance.

The impetus for Pfeiffer to test skis on snow came from Skiing’s publisher, Ziff Davis, whose cornerstone publications covered such fields as cars, motorcycles and cameras. These titles prioritized product reviews to establish the magazines’ bona fides as experts in their fields. Applying this formula to skis was practically foreordained.

Pfeiffer and Coomer hammered out a testing protocol and invited ski importers to send them their latest and greatest for evaluation. However, a couple of problems popped up immediately. First and foremost, many of the skis arrived in unskiable condition, with railed edges or wavy bases, which would mask any attempt to evaluate them fairly. Hand-tuning the skis took hours of hard work; the wet-belt sander wouldn’t be introduced until 1972, and the stone grinder in 1974. In that era, skis delivered to shops were generally in no better shape.

Even though most suppliers—Atomic being the lone exception, according to Coomer—had delivered unskiable samples, they lobbied to suppress any negative reviews. Ski testing was still foreign to the European markets, and the suppliers of the day didn’t want upstart Americans criticizing their star products. A revolt ensued on the supplier side, but Coomer defended the integrity of their testing methods, which were much more thorough than anything being done today. (For example, today no one bothers to measure the camber line of so much as a single ski, much less collect any other data not shown in the catalog.) As product testing was integral to the Ziff Davis brand, the publisher stood behind the ski-testing protocol and the supplier rebellion was stifled. Pfeiffer’s on-snow testing and consequent ski reviews would run until 1974, when he was pushed out and began writing for SKI.

Until then, SKI’s forays into equipment coverage had been spotty, as its editor, the brilliant John Fry, preferred to focus on instruction and technique. The early high-water mark occurred in 1968, when the magazine surveyed 100 instructors about their experience with 35 ski models from 17 brands. In 1970, a more tepid effort engaged seven editors to review 23 models.

When SKI decided to ramp up its gear coverage, Henri Patty at Rossignol used his leverage as a major advertiser to squelch the idea by threatening to boycott on-snow tests. SKI’s publisher backed down, and so did Ziff Davis, effectively ending on-snow testing at both magazines. From 1975 to 1981, SKI and Skiing cobbled together reviews based on the perceived design intent of a ski, bolstered with marketing blather, factory visits, interviews with designers and bench tests; in other words, just about everything but on-snow evaluations.

To plug this hole in its coverage, SKI had contracted with John Perryman, a former Head engineer who created a series of workbench tests that would ostensibly be more scientific than the anecdotal notes of a tester on snow. The “SKIpp” tests (SKI Performance Prediction), as Perryman’s notion was titled, sounded air-tight on paper but utterly failed at predicting ski behavior. Aside from being unbearably arid, rinsed of all the nuanced behavior on-snow testing might have revealed, Perryman’s reviews rarely reflected real-world performance.

The SKIpp protocol was euthanized with the arrival of associate editor Seth Masia in 1974, but it would be several seasons before on-snow testing was reinstituted. In the meantime, working through the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), ski factories standardized bench-testing procedures so that every lab, and magazine, produced comparable data.

In the fall of 1975, SKI dedicated 18 pages to equipment coverage, beginning a ritual that would last until the death of print. By 1978, the fall gear reviews were trumpeted on the cover, but a full-blown buyer’s guide that would occupy an entire issue didn’t materialize until 1983. Meanwhile, in 1981, Bill Grout, then senior editor at Skiing, began to supplement bench-test data with informal impressions from a handful of testers. Over the next two winters, he gradually resumed formal testing. Challenged, Masia organized an on-snow test in late March 1982 at Alpine Meadows, but it was cancelled by a massive storm. The following year he recruited instructors to test skis at Palisades Tahoe (née Squaw Valley) and by 1984 both magazines were back in the on-snow testing business.

Masia soon was given the green light to engage a larger team, equipped with test cards that broke down ski behavior into phases of a turn and other criteria that together provided a composite picture of a given ski’s performance envelope. The arrival of Ed Pitoniak as top editor resulted in a major budget commitment to testing, allowing Masia to load up on skiing luminaries who gave the test results both credibility and cachet. SKI moved its week-long springtime test camp to Beaver Creek and employed two dozen instructors and racers to review up to 120 skis. Later, SKI’s template became the model for ski publishing arriviste Snow Country magazine, where this writer presided over all Alpine equipment coverage.

While Snow Country copied some of the characteristics of SKI and Skiing’s gear coverage, it differed in several key details. Snow Country didn’t try to cram all models into a five-day schedule and instead took nearly a month, fashioning a test team according to the genre under review (i.e., mogul ski champions like Cameron Boyle, Scot Kauf and Wayne Wong skied bump skis, ex-racers skied race skis, etc.). We usually didn’t ski more than 12 models a day and were off the hill by 11:00, before the snow devolved into spring slop. Perhaps most importantly to the supplier community (and readers, one hopes), we published our results in their order of finish, creating one champion and a host of also-rans.

Once again, it was Rossignol that blew a fuse. Jacques Rodet, whose bombastic style usually cowed all who dared cross him, demanded we retest one of his star models, which our results had dropped to the middle of the pack. We did, but it didn’t change the model’s sorry standing. Rodet demanded a pow-wow in the Snow Country offices, which became a round table comprised of every major brand’s chief marketing executive. Snow Country stood behind my methods, other brands concurred, and Rossi’s initiative was scuttled.

Flash forward to today, and the major print titles that serviced mainstream Alpine skiers are all gone or so transmogrified by their transition to the digital world that their credibility has crumbled. (More narrowly focused constituencies, like backcountry skiers or pipe-and-park aficionados, remain well served by print titles.) Filling the void left by the likes of SKI, Skiing and Snow Country are a host of online vendors (including Realskiers.com and what’s left of SKI, which many feel lost whatever cachet it had left when it fired Mike Rogan, a brilliant skier and ski tester) who cobble together teams of skiers whose main qualification seems to be their availability.

Looming over all contemporary ski reviews is the specter of AI, which seems capable of producing apparently plausible evaluations—in whatever style or tone one requests—in less than a minute. AI, of course, can’t ski.

Caveat emptor. 

 

Snapshots in Time

1949 The World According to Lunn

Let me say this. The important thing about a teacher is not whether he is Swiss or French or Austrian, but whether he is a good teacher or a bad one. Good teachers are rare, but they are found in all countries. — Arnold Lunn, “Do Skiers Really Ski Today?” (SKI Magazine, December 15, 1949)

1964 Beattie’s Egg-cellence

As they schussed their way toward the Winter Olympics at Innsbruck. Austria, the U.S. Alpine Ski Team was looking great and feeling cocky. Both their skill and their new confidence were the work of their frosty-looking ski coach Bob Beattie. In a few months he has turned America’s men’s team—traditional Olympic also-rans—into formidable contenders. A controversial innovator, Beattie speeded his skiers in downhill by making them hold a streamlined “egg” position even when their skis were off the snow. He cut their time on slalom runs by concocting a maneuver called the “dyna-turn”—and making them use it whether they liked it or not. — “Our Ski Team Flies High” (Life Magazine, January 10, 1964)

1974 No Technique Nuts Here

Hurray for Warren Witherell’s article (“Sitting Back Is Nonsense”). There are many recreational skiers who love the sport and think as he does. We are not racers, not technique nuts—we just enjoy the way we ski and don’t feel we have to conform to the ski-back style just because it’s the newest thing to come down the pike. — Virginia Kanick, New York, N.Y., “Witherell Disputed” (Letters, Skiing Magazine, Spring 1974)

2005 Smoked Out

When Black Mountain opened for the season on Dec. 10, it became the first ski resort in the nation where tobacco use was banned everywhere, including the lodge, the Alpine and cross-country trails, and the lifts, state and industry officials said. But it probably will not be the last. “In many other areas, it’s fairly common to say ‘no smoking’ in a building, but this is the first area to say ‘no smoking’ in parking lots, in base areas and on lifts,” said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, a trade group in Lakewood, Colo. “I think it’s been noticed. I think it’s the beginning of a trend I think you’ll see more of.” — Katie Zezima, “Maine Ski Resort Tells Smokers They Can’t Light Up (No, Not Even in the Cold)” (New York Times, January 24, 2005)

2024 Utah Gets the Winter Olympics—and a Request

What was expected to be a simple coronation of Salt Lake City as the 2034 Winter Olympic host turned into complicated Olympic politics, as the IOC pushed Utah officials to end an FBI investigation into a suspected doping coverup. The International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Games only after a contingent of Utah politicians and U.S. Olympic leaders signed an agreement that pressures them to lobby the federal government. The IOC is angry about an ongoing U.S. federal investigation of suspected doping by Chinese swimmers who were allowed to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Even in the world of Olympic diplomacy, it was a stunning power move to force officials to publicly agree to do the IOC’s lobbying. — Graham Dunbar, “IOC Awards 2034 Winter Games to Utah and Pushes Officials to Help End FBI Investigation” (Associated Press, July 24, 2024)

Rudolf Reschreiter combined his love of hiking and mountaineering with a talent for portraying his high-mountain country in summer and in winter. He studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, under Gabriel von Hakl, specializing in watercolors. He became known for his ability to paint the mountain scenery with great naturalness.

His pictures from a trip to South America in 1903 showed Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador, in all its volcanic and glacial majesty. Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria acquired the Chimborazo painting directly from the artist in 1906.

Quite often, Reschreiter depicted mountain huts that he found congenial. The Rotwandhaus, near the Schliersee in Bavaria at 1,765 meters (5,790 ft), was built in 1890 and saw its first skiers in March 1894. Reschreiter painted this picture in 1907, perhaps by way of celebrating the lodge’s construction. The Rotwandhaus became a popular mountaineering goal for men and women adventurers; here Reschreiter depicts fashionable skiers using the single-pole style in vogue at the turn of the 20th century.

Reschreiter’s watercolor works can be visited in the Alpine Museum in Munich, his home base, and in Kempten, as well as in the Alpine Club in Innsbruck, Austria. There is a 100-Year Festschrift (commemorative book) of the Rotwandhaus by Bernd Rost, published in 2007.

A brutal race format from the past now seems improbable in the future.

Not many skiers have ever gone 90 to 100 miles an hour down Aspen Mountain. But of the few who have, most did it up to 80-plus times in a day, once a year. And it wasn’t in the annual FIS and World Cup downhill races that have spanned the last eight decades. It happened in the now-defunct 24 Hours of Aspen events, which were held from 1988 through 2002, where skiers on a course with virtually no gates regularly flirted with the 100-mile-an-hour mark. And they did it on every single run, all day and all night, non-stop and bumper-to-bumper with a teammate.

“Skiing so close together at high speed is amazingly dangerous,” British Olympian Martin Bell told Sports Illustrated in 1996. “Which way will I go when he crashes? It’s nerve-wracking. And when it gets dark and you can’t see as well, the danger is doubled.”

The rules of the charity endurance event were brutal in their simplicity: Two-person teams must ski together down Aspen’s Spar Gulch downhill course as many times as possible in a 24-hour span. The duo can rest only during the 14-minute gondola ride back to the top. The team completing the most runs wins. That’s it.

Indeed. Imagine tearing across the upper-mountain rollers under eerie lights at 4:00 a.m., on 225-cm downhill skis in a full tuck and a speed-suit 18 hours into the event. Delirium was a frequent companion late in a 24-hour race whose average pace was well beyond the speed limit in most states. “The constant roar of wind starts to get to you,” Ian McLendon said in a 2001 Aspen Times story. “And the whipping of your ski suit. It’s like the wind is trying to pry it off your body.”

Competitor Matt Ross described the night skiing as “really eerie” and “pretty trippy.” And Chris Davenport, longtime local resident and 1998 winner with Tyler Williams, said, “Words don’t really do the mental state justice.”

The stories of the physical and psychological traumas (frostbite, mega-blisters, severe cramps, hallucinations, paranoia, vomiting, bad wrecks and so on), are legion. The tales sound like a snowbound Death Race movie without the cars. But for some adrenaline-addicted racers, the event was the high point of the winter.

The 24-hour endurance race was a kind of hybrid speed-skiing/Ironman-team ski-a-thon dreamed up by local snowcat operator and itinerant ski racer Ed McCaffrey. Thinking of his father’s battle with multiple sclerosis, he conceived of it as a unique challenge that might be entertaining enough to be a lucrative annual MS fundraiser.

It took a couple of years to find a sponsor, in addition to a location willing to host the oddball event. The first race was in December 1987 at Keystone, Colorado. Five teams participated, and McCaffrey and his partner won, setting a record for vertical in a day and raising $10,000 for the Jimmie Heuga Center in Vail.

The race caused such a stir that the next year it attracted eight international teams and media attention from around the world. It also moved permanently to Aspen, where the bottom-to-top gondola was the perfect facilitator, serving a 2.69-mile track that dropped 3,267 vertical feet. The 24-hour numbers are numbing: Winners typically skied more than 80 laps and racked up 270,000 vertical feet. That would be on the order of 222 miles; average speed on the snow was about 63 miles per hour.

Attempting to explain the event’s unexpected popularity with competitors, given there was no prize money, the 38-year-old McCaffrey said, “You push yourself so far out there that you reach this trance-like state of blissful exhaustion. It’s truly amazing, It keeps people coming back every year.”

With title sponsors Audi and the Aspen Skiing Company, the event rapidly evolved into a high-maintenance production unlike any other race in the world. Support was not only required across a broad front, but for 24 hours straight. The 800 volunteers included physicians, ski patrol, ski techs, massage therapists, food handlers, lifties, lighting and course crews and on and on, many of whom pulled all-nighters.

On a course with a long, flat start and little emphasis on turning, elite ski techs were vital for teams that hoped to be competitive and consisted of local savants like Bill Miller, Jeff Hamilton and Dave Stapleton and pros from the World Cup and speed-skiing tours. Hamilton told the Aspen Times that the 24-hour race format presents challenges for the techs not seen on the World Cup circuit: “What we need to be able to do is change and adapt. It’s not a one-lap race.” 

A further distinction from other ski races was that the competitors spent most of their time (about 20 hours) on the lift. So the gondola became another major focal point and served as a racer’s micro apartment—for 14 minutes. Racers ate and drank, rested their legs and got massages; tried to warm up or cool down using special comforters designed to help flush lactic acid from their muscles; sank into fitful naps (often with hallucinations); changed clothes and boots and relieved themselves into Ziploc baggies and buckets of kitty litter.

In the end, despite all its crazed uniqueness and media attention, the event couldn’t survive. It was turned into a solo race with a cash award in 2002 in the hope of attracting bigger names and bigger sponsors. Tyler Williams, winner in 1998 with Chris Davenport, says the race lost its mojo when it changed to an individual competition. “I think it was more exciting for the fans when there were teams,” he said.

Then again, maybe the ski world had simply moved on. The last 24 Hours of Aspen in 2002 was the same year that the Aspen Skiing Company decided to put its resources
behind hosting a new oddball winter event. The X Games. 

 

Snapshots in Time

1936 PRE-SEASON BUSTLE
The phenomenal development of skiing last year, unprecedented in the annals of sportdom, will be completely overshadowed this Winter if pre-season bustle can serve as a barometer. The department and sporting goods stores, profiting from last year’s experience when they were caught unawares by the “boom,” are already displaying in their show windows the newest modes of skiing equipment and apparel. The stores have also constructed indoor slides on carpets of borax in an Alpine setting, thus giving the more enthusiastic skier a chance to brush up on his technique. — Frank Elkins, “Ski Stage Being Set” (New York Times, November 22, 1936)

1969 KILLY'S BLUNDER
Until now, skiing has represented to me the last avenue of escape from the chaos of an undisciplined society. In skiing, we have been fortunate in having great sportsmen like Stein Eriksen to follow in the search for perfect form. To deprecate technique or the work done by the Professional Ski Instructors of America is no more than an attempt at embracing creative expression as an excuse for technical inadequacy. Even more dangerous are articles by J.C. Killy which might as well be titled, “I can’t keep my skis together, so don’t worry if you have the same problem.” This champion is actually trying to convince our sport that form is unnecessary. — Frank Covino,
Sugarbush Ski School, Vermont, “Form is a Must” (Letters, Skiing Magazine, September 1969)

1990 FOR SALE: U.S. SKI TEAM
Designer labels may go out of style in the 1990s, as many pundits predict, but logos are definitely in for members of the U.S. Ski Team, who will be sporting up to four different manufacturers’ logos this coming season. The International Ski Federation (FIS), which governs such matters, has doubled its bill­board space limit to four logos. That’s not enough to get our skiers confused with Indy race cars (or skiers on the U.S. Pro Tour), but it is another step in the growing commercialization of World Cup ski racing. Whatever the on-course fortunes of the USST, it's a gold medalist as a fundraising organization.— Rick Kahl, “U.S. Billboard Team” (Skiing Magazine, October 1990)

2011 YUP
“Skiers make the best lovers because they don’t sit in front of a television like couch potatoes. They take a risk and they wiggle their behinds. They also meet new people on the ski lift.” — Cal Fussman, “Ruth Westheimer: What I’ve Learned” (Esquire, January 2011)

2016 THE GREEN MONSTER AND BIG AIR
Fenway Park has been the home of the Boston Red Sox since 1912. While baseball is the main focus of the stadium, it has hosted other events such as concerts, football, soccer and even hockey. Now the 104-year-old stadium can add a couple other winter sports to its resume: skiing and snowboarding. Standing high above the Green Monster, a 140-foot ski jump has been constructed in centerfield, sloping down to home plate, for the Big Air at Fenway U.S. Grand Prix event. Starting from the top of the man-made slope which stands at about the height of the upperdeck seats, competitors will descend on a 38-degree slope to 52 feet before launching into the air to do their stunts before landing near home plate. — Shawn
Ramsey, “Fenway Park transformed for Big Air freestyle ski and snowboarding jump event” (Fox Sports, February 12, 2016).

The World Cup Finals come to Sun Valley in March—and should host some astounding races. 

The World Cup returns to Sun Valley this spring for the first time since the final Harriman Cup was held there in 1977. In 1937, Dick Durrance (above) won the inaugural Harriman Cup, the first international ski race staged in North America. Right: Marcel Hirscher, the eight-time overall World Cup champion from Austria, recently announced he’ll return to the World Cup this season to race for the Netherlands, his mother’s native land.

Photo top: Marcel Hirscher is back, racing for the Netherlands. Salzburgerland photo.

On April 24, four years after retiring from ski racing, 35-year-old Marcel Hirscher announced his return to the World Cup circuit. The eight-time overall champ (with 12 discipline titles) will ski not for Austria, but for the Netherlands, his mother’s homeland. And if his points put him in the top 25 in any discipline, we’ll see him race at the World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, beginning March 22, 2025. (See “Is He the Greatest?”, November-December 2019).

It will be the first World Cup race at Sun Valley since the final running of the Harriman Cup in March 1977, when Phil Mahre won the slalom ahead of Ingemar Stenmark and Steve Mahre, and Stenmark won the GS ahead of Swiss brothers Christian and Heini Hemmi (Perrine Pelen won the women’s slalom, and Lise-Marie Morerod won the GS ahead of North Americans Kathy Kreiner and Abbi Fisher.)

Hirscher, who has kept busy as a television commentator, Red Bull athlete and creator of Van Deer/Red Bull skis (Hirsch is German for "deer"), said he missed the thrills and spills of slalom and GS. And he’ll ski for the Dutch team because he doesn’t want to deprive a young Austrian of a World Cup berth.

The winner in 67 single World Cup races, with nine gold medals, and tied with Lindsey Vonn with a total of 20 overall and specialty globes, Hirscher has put together a strong support team, financed by Red Bull. Over the summer he’ll race in New Zealand with the goal of securing enough FIS points to get a start in the World Cup. While he’s never stopped training, he’s cautious about his prospects. “I’m a busy man with my two companies and my kids,” he says. “My main goals in the coming winter will be to have fun and enjoy the moment. The results by themselves are not the key issues this time, what will mostly matter are the emotions I’ll feel.”

Only a handful of former stars have made successful comebacks after a layoff of more than one year. Hermann Maier did it in January 2003, 16 months after nearly losing a leg in a motorcycle accident. Annemarie Moser-Proell gave up racing in 1975 to stay with her dying father, skipping the high-pressure experience of the 1976 Olympics at Innsbruck. She came back in December 1976 to win on the World Cup tour and score several gold medals in 1978 and 1980.

Meanwhile, Norwegian Lucas Braathen, the 2023 World Cup slalom champion, has announced his own comeback after a year away from skiing. At Soelden, in October 2023, the 24-year-old suddenly informed the media that he would be ending his career after tense discussions with his federation, which refused to allow him to choose his own supplier in matters of dress and uniform. He said he wanted to follow his passions for fashion design, music and freedom. Braathen hit the fashion circuit in Paris, London and Milan, often modeling on stage for J.Lindeberg, where designer Neil Lewty noted he was the “perfect guy to close the show. He’s got the energy; he’s got the vibe. He’s transitioning over to the fashion world, and he’s got an amazing history and heritage in sports. He’s our guy.”

Braathen seemed a happy man traveling around the globe until returning to see his friends at Kitzbühel, scene of his first top result four years ago, when he finished fourth in slalom after leading the first leg. He realized he really missed ski racing and his comrades. A few weeks later, with the support of Red Bull, he organized a press conference at Salzburg to share his decision to get back on his Atomic skis and achieve another great dream: competing for his mother’s native Brazil. Born in Oslo, Braathen spent some of his younger years in Brazil before joining his father, Bjoern in Norway. Over the years, he’s returned to Brazil frequently. Braathen will have a strong group around him, coordinated by his father. British racer Charlie Raposo, who retired last winter at age 28, is on board to help with marketing.

Braathen should have less trouble returning to form than Hirscher—he’s younger and hasn’t been away from racing as long. He continued to train last winter, and even to test skis for Atomic. In March he trained hard at Hafjell, near Lillehammer, on the slopes of the 1994 Winter Olympics. Like Hirscher, he’ll race in New Zealand this summer—his mother now lives there.

Braathen has already written Hirscher to express admiration. “I have analyzed your performance throughout my career and tried to integrate some of it into my movement,” he posted on social media. “I’ve always said that it’s a big wish of mine to have the chance to race against you. I can’t wait to race against you. See you soon.” 

Snapshots in Time

1926 Dress for Success

When one goes into the heights in America, one leaves behind the fittings of the lower plains. Not so in the Alps. You may have visions of spending your days scrambling over the jagged field of a glacier or shooting down the mountainside—almost flying—on a pair of skis. But if you make the blunder of forgetting your tuxedo, you will spend your evenings as a social outcast. — “Ski and Fashion Vie in the Alps” (New York Times, February 21, 1926)

1969 Best Sports Movie—Ever

Some of the best moments in “Downhill Racer” are moments during which nothing special seems to be happening. They’re moments devoted to capturing the angle of a glance, the curve of a smile, an embarrassed silence. Together they form a portrait of a man that is so complete, and so tragic, that Downhill Racer becomes the best movie ever made about sports—without really being about sports at all. — Roger Ebert, “Downhill Racer” (Chicago Sun-Times, December 22, 1969)

1981 Short, Balding Swingers

I enjoyed your article “The Ski Bum Lives.’” However, I am a dentist, when not acting the ski bum role, and would like to remind your readers that most of us are short, balding, bespectacled family men in little white coats. If I see any more remarks about dentists charging exorbitant fees and having swinging lifestyles I am going to drop my subscription to SKI and subscribe to Golf instead! — Ken Clemons, DDS,
Mercer Island, Washington, “Bum Rap” (Letters, SKI Magazine, September 1981)

1990 One for the Road

Utah, long known for dry snow and drier liquor laws, is finally getting wet. This winter, you’ll be able to order a mixed drink in a restaurant—and you won’t have to join a club, order an airline mini-bottle or bring your own liquor to do it. The system was so confusing that it drove some vacationers to abstinence and others clear to Colorado. Not anymore. — Rob Lovitt, “Utah on the Rocks” (Skiing Magazine, October 1990)

2016 Climate Change Cools Cold-Gear Sales

Last year, a member of Stephen Sullivan’s design team at Jackson, Wyoming, outdoor-apparel brand Stio approached him about producing a heavy winter jacket. Sullivan stopped her. “I said, ‘It doesn’t get that cold anymore. And when it does, it doesn’t stay cold very long,’” says Sullivan. “‘We need to concentrate on midweight jackets.’” What Sullivan meant is that global warming has forced Stio to adjust its business strategy. To that end, the company has gone from producing lots of gear designed to be used in extremely cold situations to garments built for milder conditions, a move that reflects consumer demand for multi-season apparel. — Gordy Megroz, “Global Warming Is Radically Changing Winter
Jacket Design” (Outside Magazine, November 2016)

2024 Fast Company

Skiing power couple Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde have announced they’re engaged to be married. Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic champion, has won a record 97 World Cup races. Aamodt Kilde is a former overall World Cup champion and two-time Olympic medalist. They’ve been dating for several years. — Associated Press, “Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde announce their engagement” (Denver Post, April 5, 2024)

Hosting 2024 and 2025 FIS events, the resort reclaims freestyle's origin story.

As the story goes, in late 1970, two of skiing’s top influencers of that era were enjoying cocktails at an industry event in Boston and debating, naturally, who were the best skiers on any given day, on any given mountain.

Tom Corcoran, four-time national Alpine champion and two-time Olympian who founded New Hampshire’s
Waterville Valley Resort in 1966, was having a time with Doug Pfeiffer, the editor of Skiing magazine and an
iconoclastic ski instructor.

“Tommy said, ‘Obviously, it’s the ski racers,’” Wayne Wong explained at the John Fry Lecture during Skiing History Week in Park City. “And Doug Pfeiffer, who was one of the founders of PSIA, said, ‘Tommy, I beg to differ. What about the guys that are doing stunts and skiing bumps?’”

Corcoran wouldn’t hear it. So Pfeiffer pushed all of his chips in. “Doug said, ‘Put your money where your mouth is, Tommy. You’ve got a brand-new ski area. Here’s an opportunity to showcase Waterville Valley,’” Wong recalled. ‘“Let’s have a competition.’”

Challenge accepted. In 1971, Corcoran organized the Hot Dog Competition: National Championships of Exhibition Skiing at Waterville. It was arguably the first major freeskiing competition anywhere. And it even came with Chevrolet as a title sponsor. Wong recalled that there was a robust $10,000 in prize money and that the winner received a new Corvette. This was an offer that Wong and other elite—but often ignored—hotdoggers couldn’t refuse.

“I came all the way from Vancouver to Waterville Valley to compete in this event, not knowing really what I was getting myself into,” said Wong, who was 21 and needed to drum up $200 to make the journey. “Nobody knew what anybody was getting into at that time, because it was all, you know, the first time ever.”

The competition reflected the no-rules ethos of the hot-doggers. “There was a start gate and a stop gate,” Wong said. “And what you did in between was up to you to impress the judges.”

The timing was right. The event was a huge success, attracting thousands of spectators to True Grit, Waterville’s signature mogul run. The competition tapped into skiing’s growing rebel rejection of that era’s strict, Eurocentric standards of instruction and technique. “The establishment really was the Alpine ski racers. They were the stars of the ski industry,” said Wong. “All of a sudden, all these radical, rebellious, unorthodox guys were coming onto the scene and getting a lot of notoriety.”

Future U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Famer Hermann Gollner took home the Corvette. Gollner, a former ski racer and beloved coach, was also a trained gymnast who had pioneered aerials on skis, so his victory didn’t exactly settle the question. Wong finished third. The future of freestyle looked bright.

And it seemed that freestyle skiing had found its natural habitat at Waterville Valley, which opened the first freestyle instruction program in the United States in 1969 and later launched the Boneyard, the first terrain park in New Hampshire. Yet despite a splendid record of supporting freestyle competitions and instruction programs over the past 50 years, along with being recognized as an early adopter of the freestyle revolution, Waterville Valley had never hosted an actual World Cup freestyle event.

Until last season. In January 2024, Waterville hosted the FIS Waterville Freestyle Cup, which included moguls and dual-moguls competitions. Better yet, the Freestyle Cup is scheduled to return to Waterville next season. The flashy “Birthplace of Freestyle Skiing” sign that has long welcomed visitors to the resort now has updated verification for its claim.

Wayne Wong attended the Freestyle Cup in January. History might not repeat itself, but it often does rhyme, as Mark Twain said.

“This World Cup is a great opportunity for Waterville, and to reinforce that this was the birthplace in the United States for freestyle skiing,” Wong told SKI magazine’s Brion O’Connor. “It’s all coming full circle.” 

Snapshots in Time

1926 SWISS ALPS BECKON

Many citizens of the United States are no doubt familiar with the scene at a Swiss mountain railway station during the Winter sports season. A real holiday feeling is in the air, the English language predominates, hotel and even railway porters displaying remarkable fluency, and even those who have been traveling twelve or twenty-four hours on a stretch, from Paris or London, begin to feel invigorated by the keen Swiss air and the friendly welcome they receive. The mountain railway end of the journey is usually enjoyed by all. The playground has been reached and dull care is left behind in the mists which frequently obscure the low-lying regions. — “Alps Winter Sports Attract Americans. Keen Air and Friendly Welcome in English Contribute to Visitor Enjoyment.” (New York Times, December 19, 1926)

1975 MYTH BUSTING

You have stereotyped housewives, students and secretaries (female occupations?) as sub-affluent groups compared to “well-heeled professionals” who frequent Vail (February, “Demographically, I Love You”). Bravo for perpetuating the myth and the phony elitism associated with skiing. We teachers are as hard-working and well-educated as any “professionals” earning more. — Shirley Hieber, Madison, Wis., Letters, “Professionals? Yawn” (SKI magazine, September 1975)

1989 NEVER DOWN

“One thing about real estate in Stowe is the price never goes down,” says Peggy C. Smith-MacDonald of Carlson Real Estate. “There are occasional sales from those investors who want to get out quickly, but even they will usually make money. During down periods, people hold on and prices make a lateral move for a year or two. In some cases, they drop down to their true market value, which is still usually more than the seller paid,” she said. What doesn’t exist in Stowe anymore “is your typical New England farmhouse on 25 acres for $60,000. Now it’s $550,000 or $850,000.” — Ann Lyons, “Stowe Real
Estate” (Snow Country magazine, July 1989)

1990 SNUFF IT!

“NO SMOKING” signs have gone up in the marketing offices of the Aspen and Jackson Hole ski areas, which have both decided to pull out of racing and other skiing programs sponsored by cigarette companies. Both concluded that tobacco is an inappropriate affiliation for a business linked with athleticism, family participation, good health, and clean air. A Marlboro Ski Challenge spokesman countered: “We are sponsoring skiing, not smoking.” But the two areas’ new policy may well signal the beginning of the end for smoke on the slopes. — Claire Walter, “More Tobacco Bans” (Skiing Magazine, October 1989)

2024 NO MOUNTAINS, NO PROBLEM

Marcel Hirscher, one of the most successful ski racers of all time, is planning to return next season after five years in retirement. And the record eight-time overall World Cup champion is going to compete for the Netherlands—his mother’s country—instead of his native Austria. The Austrian winter sports federation, known as the ŐSV, announced Wednesday that it had released the 35-year-old Hirscher and endorsed his nation change. While there have been Dutch skiers who have competed on the elite level, never has the Netherlands—a country with no mountains—had a top racer anywhere near Hirscher’s caliber. — Andrew Dampf, “Marcel Hirscher retired from skiing at the top. He’s back to race for a country with no mountains” (Washington Post, April 24, 2024)

But no plans yet for a birthday party

The Fédération Internationale de Ski, or FIS, was formally founded on February 2, 1924, during the first Winter Olympics at Chamonix, by 14 national ski associations (see “1924: The First Winter Games” in the January-February 2024 issue). They wanted a stronger governing body for skiing to succeed the 10-nation International Skiing Commission, established in 1910 in Oslo. FIS now controls more than half of Winter Olympic competitions with its dozen different disciplines in skiing and snowboarding.

The original organization was meant to regulate competitions in the traditional Nordic disciplines (jumping, cross-country and Nordic combined) in an era when only Scandinavian populations conducted major events such as the Nordic Games (Stockholm, as of 1901), the Holmenkollen Ski Festival (Oslo, from 1892) and numerous annual—and popular—jumping meets in North America (beginning around 1887).

International competition required coordination of national ski associations (NSAs). The first of these, the
Bohemian Ski Association and Ski Club of Great Britain, were founded in 1903, followed by clubs in Switzerland (1904); Austria, Germany and the United States (1905); and the Scandinavian countries (1908).

The sport was expanding beyond Nordic into what would become the Alpine disciplines. In January 1905, Matthias Zdarsky invented the Torlauf, or “gate run,” an untimed descent around obstacles that is now regarded as a precedent for the timed slalom, which was created in 1922 by Arnold Lunn. According to the local newspaper Kitzbüheler Bote, the first real Alpine competition took place at Kitzbühel, where a series of open-field downhill competitions was held in January and April of 1906.

The winner of the main event on April 8, Sebastian Monitzer, needed more than eight minutes to descend 2,050 feet (625m) over two miles (3.2 km) of unprepared track at an average speed of 14 mph (22.5 kph), including his probable crashes. According to historian Michael Huber, president of the Kitzbühel Ski Club, that route later became the women’s downhill course once the Hahnenkamm races began in 1931.

Twenty-five years after its founding, FIS finally agreed to sanction Alpine racing. While the first recognized FIS Nordic World Championships took place in 1925 at Janské Lázně, Czechoslovakia, Lunn had to fight hard, with the support of Swiss skier Walter Amstutz, to convince FIS to recognize downhill and slalom (see “Alpine Revolution,” January-February 2021).

Finally, in 1931, the Swiss resort of Mürren, in the stunning Jungfrau region, hosted the first Alpine FIS Championships—and that event would only be retroactively declared a World Championships, in 1937, a year after an Alpine combined event was part of the fourth Winter Olympic Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

TV Drives Growth

Each year, new NSAs were created and then joined FIS. The organization developed a wider and more modern vision after 1951, when Swiss lawyer and former ski coach Marc Hodler was elected president, after 26 years of management by Swedish and Norwegian army officers. Hodler remained at the helm until 1998.

Thanks to the rapid rise of television coverage in the
mid-1950s and the arrival of skiing legends like Toni Sailer, Stein Eriksen, Andrea Mead Lawrence, Anderl Molterer and Othmar Schneider, a handful of existing classic events started to attract huge crowds.

Under Hodler’s guidance, the 1967 FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon, adopted the idea of a World Cup series, conceived by Honoré Bonnet, Bob Beattie and Serge Lang. This revolutionized Alpine ski racing, which swiftly became a better-organized international sport.

In turn, racers who earned fame on the World Cup circuit drew more interest to skiing in the Olympics. ABC Sports paid $10 million for rights to telecast the 1968 Winter Games at Grenoble, but by 1988 the price rose to $309 million for Calgary.

FIS soon launched World Cup series for jumping, cross-country and freestyle/snowboard. World Cup circuits overseen by FIS came to dominate competition in all snowsports disciplines, pulling in powerful corporate sponsors to offset the expenses incurred by NSAs and local organizing committees.

Everything became more professional in the 1980s. NSAs, as well as FIS, had to hire more experienced people to run their programs and take better care of their commercial interests. By 1975 FIS made enough money from sponsorships to hire its first full-time manager, St. Moritz native Gianfranco Kasper, who efficiently ran day-to-day operations at FIS as its first director, and then as its fifth president, from 1998 to 2021. Early in 1990, FIS was able to move out of Hodler’s law office into its own beautiful headquarters at Oberhofen, Switzerland, near Thun Lake.

Step by step, FIS continued to grow at the end of the last century. Today it sanctions about 7,000 international competitions each year. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 750 representatives from more than 100 NSAs attended annual FIS congresses. Around 60 people now work full time at Oberhofen, and dozens more on the slopes, coordinating the World Cup and Continental circuits. FIS runs its own in-house travel agency, helping teams to travel abroad and organizing international meetings.

FIS now generates several tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Most of the Olympic TV-rights money flows through FIS to the NSAs, for sending athletes to the Winter Games. Newly reelected FIS president Johan Eliasch is now working to extend that TV deal to World Cup competition. Since the early 1990s, individual NSAs have owned and negotiated their own TV rights with the help of various groups, such as Halva/Media Partners (now Infront) or Eurovision.

Eliasch is convinced that by centralizing the bargaining process, FIS can ramp up revenue earned and increase the pot available to NSAs worldwide. For the moment, a few leading NSAs such as Switzerland, Austria and Germany are not convinced by this strategy, preventing a smooth transition of power. They are looking for stronger guarantees from FIS to remain able to cover the high costs of their own organizations. In years past, the leading NSAs only needed to take care of a handful of snowsports, but now more than a dozen disciplines need their help in financial and structural matters. Some of those NSAs have dozens of employees and yearly turnover reaching more than $70 million.

Where’s the Party?

A relaxed celebration of FIS’s 100th anniversary might help to create a better and more positive atmosphere. Plans have been discussed at the highest level to find the best ways to arrange this. In a January interview, FIS Secretary General Michel Vion, Alpine combined World Champion in 1982 and past president of the French Ski Federation, explained some possible directions.

“To organize a big party with 1,500 guests from all over the world doesn’t make sense in our times, considering our concerns related to sustainability and ecological impact,” he explained. “We plan some presentations next spring during the FIS technical meetings at Portoroz in Slovenia in May and the FIS Congress at Reykjavik, Iceland, in early June. We also aim to publish stories in various media during this year and also wish to create attractive ways and communications to attract younger generations towards snowsports.”

A dedicated website, 100.fis-ski.com, was launched on January 1, presenting some of the highlights and top champions in the history of FIS and winter sports. A specific logo has also been used during the broadcasting of major competitions during the past World Cup season.

Unfortunately, this recent winter has also been marked by less cheerful moments. Many events were cancelled, first because of storms in Colorado in early December 2023 and then due to warm weather and snow drought in the Alps in January and February 2024. Nearly 15 races were called off or postponed in the first part of the season.

Then many scoring leaders were seriously injured, including World Cup champions or gold medalists such as Aleksander Kilde, Corinne Suter, Petra Vlhova, Sofia Goggia, Marco Schwartz and Valerie Grenier. Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a bad crash in the downhill at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where the 2026 Olympic women’s races are planned, and injured her left knee. The American star, winner of seven more races by then for a total of 95, was forced to rest for several weeks, while Lara Gut-Behrami overtook her in the overall World Cup standings. At least it brought some real competition in the final weeks of the 2023–24 season! 

European correspondent Patrick Lang wrote about the 2013 FIS Congress in the July-August 2023 issue.

Snapshots in Time

1949 Arnold Lunn Resigns from the FIS Council

The inclusion of a Russian on the FIS Council is the immediate reason for Arnold Lunn’s resignation as British representative to FIS. Lunn’s resignation reads, “The FIS Council received an application from the USSR Sport Federation Ski Section, coupled with the demand 1) that Russians should be given a seat on the council; 2) that Russian should be recognized as one of our official languages and 3) that the Spanish Ski Association should be expelled. This application was an insult to the FIS and never should have been submitted to the council.” “Lunn Quits FIS Seat. Protests Ski Politics” (SKI Magazine, November 1949)

1969 The Dawn of the Plastic Ski Boot

Don’t be misled—leather boots are not ready for the museum yet. Plastic is still new. Thus leather will continue to be a volume seller. Skiers who don’t want to experiment with new plastic designs and are prepared to pay the higher prices will continue to use leather boots. The prices of most leather boots are $30 to $60. If you’re prepared to pay something more, ski shops this year are offering plastic-leather laminated boots in which a layer of plastic bonded to the leather gives the boot some lateral rigidity. —Jeffrey Garlick, “Are Your Ski Boots Obsolete?” (Ski Magazine, September 1969)

1974 Reading the magazine not just for the articles

I read Skiing for two reasons: First, the articles are interesting; second, the photographs and ads picture some very nice-looking guys. I wonder if there is some sort of correlation between the sport and good looks? — Mary-Ellyn Golinson, Vernon, Conn., “Are Skiers Handsomer? (Skiing Magazine, Spring 1974)

1989 hotdogger advice

Among the things that would motivate us hotdoggers to take a ski vacation are: a mean mountain with plenty of steep, mogully terrain and a few cliff jumps, a resort that doesn’t frown upon jumping and one that doesn’t allow novices to clutter up the expert trails. — Ann Ingersoll, Berlin, N.H. “On behalf of hotdog skiers everywhere” (Letters, Snow Country magazine, February 1989)

2023 Denim Heaven

On December 9, 2023, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort set the record for the most people skiing or riding in jeans at one time. The final count was ٣,١١٤ denim-clad guests, shattering the previous record of ١٠٢ that was set at The Remarkables Ski Area in New Zealand earlier this year. To aid in setting the record, the resort offered $25 lift tickets, $25 rentals, and $100 off group lessons.­ — Brent Thomas, “Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Sets Record for Most Skiers and Riders Wearing Jeans” (SnowBrains, December 10, 2023)

2024 Just Another Swiftie

As Mikaela Shiffrin plans the next phase of her career as a skier, she is looking to the example of another female megastar who has experienced kindred highs and lows and highs in her career: Taylor Swift. They have both been teenage sensations lavished with praise and profit. While Swift, named Time magazine’s person of the year for 2023, might right now be the most famous human on the planet, Shiffrin, celebrated at home, has bona fide rock star status in Europe, where ski racing is the national sport of several countries. — Bill Pennington, “As Mikaela Shiffrin Considers How to Top Herself, She Studies Taylor Swift” (New York Times, January 2, 2024)

At the end of the run, does it really matter?

Photo top: Vallee Blanche/Mer de Glace above Chamonix. Chamonix-Mont Blanc photo

In this day of perpetual social media marketing hooks, “extremes” sell: hottest, tallest, biggest, fastest. Ski resorts are not immune. However, determining a superlative like the longest ski run on the planet is not as simple as it would seem.

This exercise is rife with caveats. Are we talking about vertical feet or length? Lift-served or not? Off-piste or maintained? Perhaps the most mainstream solution is to determine the longest runs by using both vertical and length—further sorted by some sort of lift service. Or perhaps just consider it a skier’s bucket list.

Guinness Book of World Records says that a run at Davos, Switzerland, from the Weissfluhjoch to Parsenn, is “the longest all-downhill ski run in the world” at 7.6 miles in 6,692 vertical feet (12.3 km and 2,034 m). Many may disagree, partly due to the ambiguous “all-downhill” criteria, designed to exclude anything with a hike or another lift ride in the middle. Or a bus ride at the end. And we won’t delve into Guinness’s definition of lift-served.

One of the best-known lift-served long runs in the world is Chamonix’s Vallée Blanche, which helps explain why we feel a little mystical about such endless terrain. Its most far-flung route is 13.67 miles (22 km), all of it off-piste and bedecked with chamois, blue-ice caverns, crevasses, lurching seracs and stupefying mountain views. Its full 9,200-foot vertical (2,797 m) goes all the way to the Chamonix valley floor, though
climate change has increasingly made that a rare reward.

Zermatt, Switzerland, features what is marketed as the longest red (intermediate) run in the world. The 13.6-mile (22 km) trail from the Klein Matterhorn to the Italy's Valtournenche measures 7,739 vertical feet (2,353 m) and delivers you to another country. It does require a lift ride in the middle, however.

Alpe d’Huez, France, describes its famous Sarenne route as “Europe’s longest black run.” The nearly 10-mile (6.2 km) descent in 5,872 vertical feet (1,785 m) can be done, according to the resort, “without having to take a lift.”

North America looks to Revelstoke, Canada, for bragging rights. Revelstoke claims the Last Spike as the longest maintained ski run in North America at 8.3 miles (13.4 km). As a plus, the run descends the resort’s full vertical, which at 5,620 feet (1,708 m), is tops on the continent.

Netflix Co-Founder Buys North America’s Resort-Acreage King

Powder Mountain, Utah, Tries Again to Be the Resort of the Future

Tech money has joined forces with the largest ski resort (by skiable acres) in North America, in what may have been an inevitable marriage. On September 6, 2023, with a $100 million investment, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings became the majority owner of Powder Mountain. Hastings had already acquired a minority stake in the Eden, Utah, resort, which covers over 8,464 acres—roughly 16 percent broader than Park City.

Hastings has only started his re-imagining of the resort in what he has termed “Powder Next.” To that end, he recently pulled all available residential lots at Powder off the market. “That’s a big step that you do when you have confidence that it’s going to be a lot more successful in a year,” Hastings told the Salt Lake Tribune. “So we kind of don’t want to sell those lots at current prices.” Hastings said he envisions the reworked resort as being a “premium place in the world for being and doing.”

Perhaps Powder Mountain will go full circle with that vision. It was purchased by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs out of foreclosure for $40 million in 2013. Their vision was to build a future-embracing, eco-friendly resort with 500 homes developed around a hub of education, research and alternative medical facilities. Various challenges ensued, and fewer than 10 percent of the homes were built. Hastings, who stepped down as CEO of Netflix last January and now serves as executive chairman of the company, already had a home at the resort before he bought in. —Greg Ditrinco 

 

Old Time Lift Safety

Snow King Mountain Resort, Wyoming, about a dozen miles and several thousand light years in attitude from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, remembers the good ol’ days. The resort also wisely recognizes that hazy nostalgia might cloud some of the darker aspects of those good ol’ days. For instance, this image, dated June 8, 1965, posted on Snow King’s Instagram feed, is headlined “Safety Standards in the 1960s.” Snow King wisely notes that “We have upgraded a bit since these days!” A Skiing History editor recalls riding that chair. Its towers were made of telephone poles, bolted together into tripods. They creaked.

Snapshots in Time

1924 And So It Began
The Winter sports of the eighth Olympic Games were officially opened today with the customary Olympic ceremonies, presided over by Gaston Vidal, Under Secretary of State for Physical Education. M. Vidal received the oaths of amateurism by the athletes entered for the competition. The teams of all the nations represented, bearing their national flags and emblems, then paraded from the City Hall to the skating rink, where the actual competitions will begin tomorrow. On the arrival at the rink Under Secretary Vidal declared the official opening of the sports. His voice, caught up by enormous amplifiers on top of the grandstands, was sent reverberating up the sides of the high mountains which give the Chamonix Valley its magnificent setting. — “The Olympics in Winter” (New York Times, January 25, 1924)

1975 Free-Heel Revolution
If you’re a cross-country skier in the West, you may well consider yourself a pioneer. Just as the frontiersmen had to adapt to the mountains of the West, so also do cross-country skiers have to adapt their methods and equipment. And since touring is just beginning to boom in the West, the field is wide open for search and discovery. Here in Crested Butte, the telemark turn has turned the sport upside down. A group of skiers will ski to the top of a mountain with the sole purpose of linking a hundred or so telemarks together down a virgin bowl. — Rick Borkovec, “Trendsetters” (Powder, November 1978)

1989 A Turn for the Worst
“Collisions have become the number one cause of injury in skiing,” said Linda Meyers Tikalski, a U.S. Ski Team member and an Olympian at the Squaw Games. “Skiers think control means ‘not falling.’ The new skiers don’t think ‘turning.’ They think ‘cruising.’ Unless we can convince skiers that good skiing is good turning, we’re in trouble.” — Mort Lund, “No-Risk Skiing” (Snow Country, February 1989)

1990 Olympic Need
I have enjoyed reading your magazine through the years. There is only one suggestion I have for you. Let’s see more time and money spent on our U.S. Olympic ski team and on Olympic racing worldwide. Even though it is two years away, there are athletes preparing. I feel it would be interesting to see what is happening in the Olympic world. — Lori Bucher, Aurora, Indiana, Letters, “More on the Olympics” (Skiing Magazine, October 1990)

2001 Bye-Bye Ban; Hello Boarders
The Aspen Skiing Company is looking to youth to lead it out of the wilderness of complacency and sagging skier numbers into a more prosperous future. Thus it was on April Fools’ Day, of all days, last season that the resort’s notorious anti-snowboarding walls came tumbling down on Aspen Mountain to great fanfare, if not the actual trumpets of Jericho. Because it’s Aspen and therefore good news copy, on April 1 the town is jammed with more satellite uplinks than after Ivana Trump spied Donald’s girlfriend during a family ski vacation. — Jay Cowan, “The New Aspen” (SKI Magazine, September 2001)

2023 Shrinking Prominence
Mont Blanc’s peak has been measured at 4,805.59 m (15,766 ft 4 in), which is 2.22 m shorter than in 2021. The mountain, which straddles France, Italy and Switzerland, is measured every two years to try and track the impact of climate change on the Alps. French chief geometer Jean des Garets said the shrinking could have been caused by less rain this summer. “We’re gathering the data for future generations,” he said. “We’re not here to interpret them, we leave that up to the scientists.” — “France’s highest mountain Mont Blanc is shrinking.” (BBC.com, October 5, 2023)