Short Turns

St-Germain scores first Canadian gold in 31 years.

Špindlerův Mlýn is a charming resort in the Czech republic that holds special memories for Mikaela Shiffrin. She made her World Cup debut here in March 2011, at age 15. She returned in 2019, winning the race that her father, Jeff, captured from behind his camera lens.

This season, Shiffrin came to Špindlerův Mlýn with 84 World Cup wins and the potential, over two slalom races, to match Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time record of 86 World Cup wins. Fresh off double GS wins in Kronplatz, Italy, where she surpassed Lindsey Vonn’s female record of 82 wins, this was Shiffrin's last stop on the World Cup tour before the World Championships in Courchevel, France.

(photo top: Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates her 83rd World Cup win, a giant slalom at Kronplatz, Italy. Alain Grosclaude photo/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)

On Saturday, January 28, Shiffrin captured victory 85. On Sunday, fans sensed the inevitable, history-making event, and after winning the first run Shiffrin seemed poised to deliver. But then, as if to underscore the difficulty of the pursuit, German’s Lena Duerr claimed her first World Cup SL win. The .06 separating Duerr and Shiffrin meant that fans would have to wait until March for what is no longer if, but when Shiffrin will surpass Stenmark to become, by the numbers, the greatest skier of all time.

In the meantime, she had an eventful two weeks at the Alpine World Championships, winning three medals (one gold and two silvers) and parting ways with her long-time coach, Mike Day. With her gold in the giant slalom, Shiffrin equaled the modern-day World Championships record of seven victories, sharing it with Anja Pärson, Marielle Goitschel, Marcel Hirscher and Toni Sailer. 

Rewriting the Script

Since her last visit to the storybook venue of Špindlerův Mlýn, Shiffrin’s life has been anything but a fairy tale. Jeff Shiffrin died tragically in February 2020. After time off to mourn her father, Shiffrin returned to racing just in time for the World Cup season to be canceled due to the pandemic.

Despite the emotional upheaval, she maintained her winning form and rode into the 2022 Beijing Olympics beneath the weighty expectations of being a medal favorite or contender in all events. There, she publicly flamed out, leaving Beijing without any medals and leaving the world with an enduring image of her in defeat, curled into a ball at the side of the course.

Anyone who bet against Shiffrin in the long term, however, would fare poorly in Vegas.

So far this season, Shiffrin has claimed 11 victories across three disciplines—slalom, GS and super-G. With nine more World Cup races on her schedule this season, the all-time record is just one that Shiffrin is resetting.

She has already tied up the season-long slalom World Cup globe, making her the first woman to win seven slalom titles. Only Vonn, with eight downhill globes, has more discipline titles.

Shiffrin holds the all-time record for slalom victories (52), and in giant slalom her 19 wins are, in women’s skiing, second only to Swiss great Vreni Schneider’s 20. With already double her wins from last year, Shiffrin has the potential to match or exceed her own record, set in 2019, of 17 wins across four disciplines.

86 and Beyond

In some ways Shiffrin and Stenmark’s accomplishments are freakishly similar. Over her 241 World Cup starts, Shiffrin’s podium percentage is 56 percent. Over his 271 starts, Stenmark’s percentage was 57 percent. Shiffrin’s 83rd win came on her 237th start, while Stenmark’s 83rd win came on his 238th start.

In other ways, they are very different. Shiffrin’s victories have come across all six Alpine disciplines—slalom, GS,
super-G, downhill, combined and parallel. Stenmark, who did not compete in downhill (except in one combined) and super-G (an event that predated most all of his career), collected all his victories in slalom and GS.

Shiffrin is reaching this record-breaking point in her career at the peak of her stride. It took Stenmark three seasons to get his final three wins. Vonn, as she told commentator Steve Porino, “literally bled for that record,” patching her broken body together to get back in the gate during her final years competing.

Vonn’s last victory was at age 33 and Stenmark’s at age 32. Shiffrin is 27, and to this point her body has sustained no major injuries. Stenmark and Vonn have both gone on record predicting Shiffrin will eclipse their records and go on to a hundred or more victories.

The way Shiffrin has gotten to this point is, ironically, by focusing on the process rather than the numbers. “I don’t feel a lot of pressure to get his record,” says Shiffrin. “Now I am so close. I am trying to take a moment to enjoy it. I’m not worried about it. I can enjoy the competition for what it is and do my best.”

At the February break for the World Championships, Shiffrin led the overall World Cup standings with 1,697 points to Petra Vlhova’s 966. When World Cup racing resumes in March, Shiffrin will have nine more races to set the record, including two in Stenmark’s home country of Sweden.

83 Wins—and 83 Roses

Skiing History contributor Patrick Lang sent along some thoughts about Shiffrin’s record season, based on his conversations with
Mikaela and Eileen Shiffrin on January 24 and 25 at St. Vigilio-Kronplatz, Italy, where Shiffrin scored her 83rd and 84th World Cup victories, exceeding Lindsey Vonn’s victory record of 82. Lang
arranged a gift of 83 roses for Shiffrin after Tuesday’s GS win. She told reporters she needed time to figure out what to say.

Lang reports: Shiffrin is very clearly happy and relaxed, focused on her skiing rather than on numbers and records. On January 24, after winning the first of back-to-back giant slaloms, she was more interested in the details of her day. “The snow surface was perfect and I can just focus on the skiing,” she said. “That’s way more fun. Between the meeting, and inspections, and runs, I was able to get in four naps. It’s important to get rest now, with three more races over the next four days.”

She now feels that she has the support not only of her mother, Eileen, but of boyfriend Alexander Aamodt Kilde. At the World Championships break, Kilde had won five World Cup speed events, including the Lauberhorn and Hahnenkamm downhills. “Watching Alex is so inspirational,” Shiffrin said. “We talk every day, about skiing, and his energy is a big part of my success.”

 After 63 Years, A Canadian Gold in Slalom

On February 18, lightning struck 28-year-old Quebecoise Laurence St-Germain. An NCAA star for the University of Vermont, and Canadian national slalom champion, in eight years on the World Cup circuit, St-Germain had never podiumed, and she finished eighth in the 2021 World Cup slalom standings. But in the second run of the World Championship slalom, she beat Shiffrin by an astonishing 1.18 second, to win the gold medal by a two-run total of .57. It was Canada’s first gold medal in slalom since Anne Heggtveit took the Olympic win at Squaw Valley in 1960, and the first in any Alpine event since Kerrin Lee-Gartner won the downhill in 1992.

Warren Miller: Annual Film Not Dead

With apologies to Twain, the recent reports of the death of the annual Warren Miller ski film have been grossly exaggerated.

After acquiring the Warren Miller franchise in 2020, Outside Inc., ran into the brick wall of Covid-19. With theater-audience events canceled, the 2020 film was only available in a pay-per-view streaming format. And Outside reduced the number of tour stops in 2021. The brand took a hit, and the financial damage was considerable.

In an Instagram post in January, longtime (and now former) film director Chris Patterson noted that “due to financial challenges at Outside, the executives have chosen to assemble the future movies entirely with ‘existing footage’—no need for a camera crew, plane tickets, lift tickets and for that matter, no need for athletes or snow.”

Caught off-guard by the social post, Outside scrambled to set the public record straight. “We are not ending the film and we are not just trotting out archival footage moving forward,” Micah Abrams, Outside’s vice president of digital content development, told Skiing History in an interview. “We are absolutely continuing to tour the world with the film.”

What caused the confusion after the social post is a 75th-anniversary two-film bookend plan—not public at the time—that starts with a look back at the Miller legacy in 2023–24, followed by a look forward at the future of the sport in the 2024–25 season.

According to Abrams, the 2023–24 film will be “a love letter that looks back at what got us here,” with archival footage and a new narration that celebrates Miller’s legacy, his more than 70 films and his embrace of exotic locales and the skiing lifestyle. The following season will be the big blowout. The 75th film will showcase “new faces, new athletes, new locations” as part of the “evolution of the film tour,” Abrams says. “The 75th will focus on what skiing and boarding will be for the next generation.”

With the release of Deep and Light in 1950, Miller took the ski-film genre to a wider audience. A born promoter, Miller tirelessly built his brand on his insights into the then-fringe sport, finding a pitch-perfect blend of outdoor wholesomeness and athletic sex appeal.

Miller’s timing also was serendipitous. His films' popularity tracked with the explosion of skiing in the 1960s and 1970s. The Warren Miller movie soon came to be seen as the unofficial start of the ski season for many skiers. Miller, who died in 2018, sold the company to his son, Kurt Miller, in 1988. The brand went through several changes in ownership before arriving in Outside’s portfolio.

Abrams emphasizes that the two-film strategy isn’t about looking to the past, but rather a bridge to the future. “People don’t buy a ticket to a Warren film like they buy a ticket to the latest Marvel movie,” he says. “It’s a tradition that we’re bringing to the next generation.”  — Greg Ditrinco

SHORT TURNS

1924 “Absolute Supremacy” ­—In Jumping or Judging?

In the inaugural Winter Olympics, in Chamonix, France, Norway topped the list of medals overall, showing “absolute supremacy in the ski events,” The Times reported. American Anders Haugen (born in Telemark) jumped farther but scored lower than three Norwegians. The judges said the form and style of the Norwegians were superior, and American officials decided not to appeal. In 1974, Norwegian historian Jacob Vaage found an error in the scoring calculations, and Haugen was promoted to the bronze medal. — “Norway Wins Title in Olympic Games” (New York Times, February 5, 1924)

1957 Baby Boom
The size and ages of skiers have changed. Family skiing is becoming so popular that many centers advertise baby-sitting service or well-equipped nurseries, and rapidly expanding junior programs are turning out daredevil kid racers who can out-ski most adults. Family skiing is encouraged by the fact that some slopes not too distant from large cities are overcoming unreliable winter weather by manufacturing their own snow. — “New Sights on the Slopes”
(Life magazine, February 1957)

1970 Saturday Night Fever
If you haven’t tried night skiing, don’t knock it. For one thing, it’s more of a social thing. In the daytime, couples may go to a ski area together, lunch together, and leave together, but rarely will they ski together. At night, usually because the slopes with the biggest challenges and longest runs aren’t open, the man is contented to ski at a different pace. Besides, at night, he is more apt to regard his girl—even if she’s his wife—as his date. And there are more frequent stops at the bar—to ward off the cold, of course. — “Night Skiing,” Al Greenberg (Skiing Magazine, Spring 1970)

1982 Such a Deal
The price of lift tickets is up again this season. It costs you $20 to ski at Squaw Valley or Vail this year, $21 at Stowe, $22 at Aspen. But before you throw the boards and boots into the back closet, think about this: Where else can you get seven hours of mountain beauty, acres of snow groomed for you, an intense social atmosphere, trained first-aid experts looking after you and unlimited rides up a mountain so you can come flying down? Compare [the cost of skiing] to a night on the town in New York, Los Angeles or London. — Chaco Mohler, “Such a Deal,” Letters (Powder Magazine, January 1982)

1998 One Board or Two?
Snowboarding’s cool image has been co-opted by every kid-targeted, mass-market product, from the Ninja Turtles to the Muppets. So it’s no surprise that even 3-year-olds are begging to ride. But while parents often start their kids on skis as early as age 3, experts say it may be best to wait before letting them try snowboarding. “Children under 7 are very ‘gross body,’” says James Patterson, children's ski-school supervisor at Killington in Vermont. “It's hard for them to coordinate independent movements, which are crucial to snowboarding." — Moira McCarthy “The Right Age to Ride” (Snow Country, December 1998)

2010 Hard-Headed
A reader in November’s letters said she was “appalled” that SKI Magazine testers were shown skiing without helmets. Is wearing a helmet safer? Sure, but wearing a helmet in your car every day would keep you safer, too. People have been skiing without helmets for a long time; I wear a helmet when I race, but I appreciate having the right to make my own decisions. — Dallas Anderson, St. Paul, Minnesota, Letters (SKI Magazine, January 2010)

In 2019, long-distance runner and ski mountaineer Kilian Jornet—with the goal of just testing “how his body will perform”—completed 51 laps on Tusten ski area in Molde, Norway, in 24 hours. He climbed 78,274 feet, crushing previous 24-hour records by a ridiculous margin. To be clear, Molde is at sea level. Jornet climbed 1,535 feet, 51 times, on roughly a one-mile piste. That works out to skinning up at about 2.25 mph for 25 minutes and resting a couple of minutes during a 36-mph schuss. Fifty-one times.

Photo above: Kilian Jornet has been rewriting the record books for ski mountaineering and high-altitude running for more than a decade, sometimes merely as a result of his training regimen. Right: An early ski-endurance competition, the 24 Hours of Aspen attracted elite athletes, television audiences and sponsorship dollars in the 1980s-1990s. YouTube photo

That’s nothing for the Catalan Jornet, who grew up in Chamonix. For more than 15 years he’s been methodically assaulting the records for high-altitude marathons and ski mountaineering. In his recent five-year “Summits of My Life” project, he set the fastest known times (or FKT) for the ascent and ski descent of major mountains including Kilimanjaro, Denali, Aconcagua, the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, at times shaving hours off previous records. Some of his records have since been broken by Ecuadorian mountain guide Karl Egloff.

Climbing and skiing massive verticals has become a passion with today’s endurance athletes, who are repeatedly blowing by many of the world's best times. Which begs the question, when did vertical-feet-skied become a thing?

Before smart watches and phone apps made vertical-feet scorekeeping easy, it was possible to estimate your numbers from the number of runs completed. Heliski operators charged by the vertical foot, and kept accurate count. You could keep track of your bragging rights whether for 24 hours, a week, a season or a lifetime. Heliski operations certified guest accomplishments with pins and special million-foot prizes, like Mike Wiegele’s silver belt buckles and limited-edition powder suits at Canadian Mountain Holidays.

One of the first vertical-foot-based competitions was the late 24 Hours of Aspen. After 13 events in 16 years, declining television ratings scuttled the show in 2003. But it left behind a slew of records. Chris Kent of Canada did 83 laps for 271,161 feet for the men’s mark in 1991. That’s 216 miles of skiing at an average 66 mph. Kate McBride and Anda Rojs set the women’s vertical record of 261,360 feet in 1997.

Once the genie was out of the bottle, lift- and rotor-assisted records started to topple. In 1994, Canadian speed skier and Chamonix resident Mark Jones logged 212,000 vertical feet in just 12 hours at Les Grands Montets. Next, Dr. Mark Bennett racked up 294,380 feet in 14 hours in the Yukon in 1997 for a new “daylight” world record. Fourteen months later, former U.S. Ski Team racer Rusty Squires chartered a specialized high-altitude helicopter and recorded 331,160 vertical feet in 10 hours and 15 minutes at Big Sky, Montana.

In the meantime, the guides at Wiegele’s were determined to set a record based on the normal constraints of commercial heli-skiing, with a full group of skiers and a single machine. In 1998, Swiss extreme skier Dominique Perret, Chris Kent and Austrian guide Robert Reindl, with Edi Podivinsky and Luke Sauder of the Canadian Alpine Team, logged 353,600 vertical feet in 14½ hours.

By this point recognition was growing that assisted vertical-foot records were as much about money as skill and endurance. As ski mountaineering boomed (it’ll be a full medal event at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics) interest focused on self-powered athletes. In 2009, Austrian Eckhard Dorschlag set a 24-hour world record of 60,350 feet. Ultra-marathoner Mike Foote broke that in 2018 with 68,697 feet. A few months later Norwegian Lars Erik Eriksen took it to 68,697 feet. Then Jornet obliterated that.

Born in 1987, Jornet has captured more Skyrunner World Series and Skimo (ski mountaineering) World Championship medals than we have room to list. He still holds the mark for the Innominata ski traverse on Mont Blanc linking Chamonix and Courmayeur (8 hours 42 minutes), as well as the fastest ascent/descent of Mont Blanc from Chamonix (4:57) and of the Matterhorn from Breuil-Cervinia (2:52).

As for why all the fuss over vertical speed records advancing every season, Nick Heil, writing in Outside, quoted Foote: “How many push-ups can I do in a minute? How long can I hold my breath? How far can I ski in a day? In the end, it’s all arbitrary and contrived, but it gets people to ask, what am I capable of?” 

Snapshots in Time

1958 Be Careful What You Wish For
A penetrating statistical study of the ski industry in Colorado and New Mexico has been published by the University of Colorado. Pointing out that a great many more tourists visit Colorado and New Mexico in June, July and August than in the other months of the year, the authors ask if it is not possible to develop the winter tourist industry so that tourist facilities can be used all year. — “Skiers Under Scrutiny in Colorado and New Mexico” (SKI Magazine, October 1958)

1970 The Continuing Death of the Ski Bum
Once upon a time, the ski bum was the ultimate ski insider. As neither an entrenched member of the ski-area management nor a local profiteer, he enjoyed a free-swinging life with lots of time to ski and unlimited access to the inner circles of the ski establishment. It is, therefore, ironic that as the need for ski workers grows, the reputation of the ski bum diminishes. Ski bums, industry management will tell you, are bad news; the title is now synonymous with “hippie.” Many employers won’t consider hiring ski bums, even for temporary jobs. As a result, there are fewer of the old-time ski-bum types than ever before. — Janet Nelson, “But They’re Employed” (SKI Magazine, January 1970)

1978 Risk v. Reward
I have been skiing o.b. for many years. Skiing out of bounds is extremely dangerous. Inevitably some crazy powder addicts (myself included) will continue to leave the “safe” confines of patrolled areas. After reading Lou Dawson’s account and subtle hints (“... how far can you crawl with a spinal fracture?”), I realized certain steps must be taken to ensure the safety or at least the survival of o.b. skiers. Education is what is needed on this topic. — Steven Harrison, Central Valley, New York, “Whistling in the Dark" (Letters, Powder Magazine, Spring 1978)

1981 Crowds and Crashes
The rapidly increasing skiing population has led to an alarming increase in inconsiderate and out-of-control skiers who are a serious menace. Last season, an out-of-control skier crashed into me. He never so much as asked if I needed help. I’ll have a scar I’ll carry for the rest of my life. For too long ski areas have allowed Bonzai Bombers to endanger others on the slope without adequate punishment. It’s time something was done to protect the rest of us from these slope-side criminals. —Thomas F. Warda, Rochester, N.Y., "Slope menaces" (Letters, Skiing Magazine, October 1981)

2007 Bode Rules
Call them the Bode Rules. This year every athlete on the U.S. Ski Team is required to stay in official team housing. Every racer on the team is also prohibited from having a celebratory drink with the coaches after a big win, because it’s a slippery slope from that to, say, being photographed carousing with Miss March 2002 draped on your arm during the Olympics. U.S. Ski Team chief Bill Marolt implemented the stricter guidelines after the strongest American squad in decades limped away from the 2006 Torino Games with only two medals—neither of them won by the phenomenally gifted Bode Miller. —Nathaniel Vinton, “Ski Fast but Party Slow”(SKI Magazine, February 2007)

2021 A Woman’s Place Is On Patrol
“When there are women on a team like this, it lends an important voice and perspective to the job. I can say that having women on patrol keeps everyone connected. Men muscle their way through the job and women do it with finesse,” said Addy McCord, 64, one of the longest-standing professional patrollers in the industry. — Shauna Farnell, “A Surge of Women in Ski Patrols, Once Nearly All Men” (New York Times, February 11, 2021)

In 1985, the 7th Heaven T-bar expanded Blackcomb's vertical to a statute mile, and tripled the skiable acreage.

One midwinter day during the 1984–85 season, Blackcomb’s avalanche forecaster and ski patroller Peter “Zhiggy” Xhignesse, came to my office with an idea. He had been looking at the south side high on Blackcomb Mountain and thought there was some very nice, open, skiable terrain there. To me, “south side” meant direct sun, while “high” and “open” meant very high winds. But I agreed to go with him the next day to take a look. The area was about a mile from the top of the Jersey Cream chair, then the highest top station on the mountain. That meant a long traverse to get skiers out there. But Zhiggy extolled the open chutes and glades, plus access to the Horstman Glacier. Together, they would double our total skiable terrain and add significant backcountry skiing. The marketing kicker was that this would give Blackcomb a full mile of vertical drop, the greatest in North America. 

I agreed to try to make this bold idea happen. At the time, the shareholders wanted to sell Blackcomb and were uninterested in making any further investment on the mountain. So I was faced with the challenge of acquiring and installing a lift without spending much money. That eliminated any chairlift options. Our small sister resort, Fortress Mountain, just west of Calgary, had a T-bar that had seen very little use over recent years. It could be put to much better use at Blackcomb.

No ski area wants its skiers to know that a lift is being taken away. Also, there could have been a bunch of red tape—and, hence, delays—around moving an asset from Alberta to British Columbia. So everything had to happen quietly and quickly. The whole lift was dismantled over one night and a day under the leadership of Blackcomb’s VP of Operations, Rich Morten, and loaded on a flatbed truck. Within two days it was unloaded, ready to be reconstructed on Blackcomb.

The board’s approval was still needed to complete the installation. The support was just not there. It was a hard no on spending the small amount of extra money to install the T-bar and cut a few trails. I countered by re-emphasizing the full mile of vertical skiing—yes 5,280 feet! “By promoting a vertical mile of skiing, we can sell enough additional season passes to recoup the cost,” I promised. After much hesitation, the board eventually gave the green light.

We had an exceptionally cold and snowy fall, delaying construction, but we got the T-bar open for Christmas—just eight months after Peter broached the idea.

We needed a name for the new lift and all the new terrain. The T-bar was the seventh lift on Blackcomb, but we had moved on from just numbering our lifts. About 20 years previously I had been skiing at Steven’s Pass outside of Seattle in a heavy, wet snowstorm. I was riding up a steep double chairlift, all bundled up under my hood, trying to stay warm and dry. At the top, a liftie with a big, black beard came out of the shack and in a very deep voice rumbled “Welcommme to 7th Heavennn.” I never forgot that voice.

So the new terrain, and T-bar, were named 7th Heaven. The increase in season-pass sales that season more than paid for the new lift. Skiers loved being able to get to the very top of Blackcomb, with its vast high-alpine terrain and views for miles of peaks and glaciers, then ski a full mile vertically to the base. The exposure was a key factor in attracting our new owners, Intrawest, the following summer. Along with massive lift and facilities upgrades, the T-bar was replaced with a detachable quad in 1987, and the 7th Heaven Express remains a signature lift at the resort. 

Hugh Smythe, previously CEO of Blackcomb and president of the Intrawest Resort Operations Group, retired in 2009.

Veteran whaler John Bertoncini, known as Johnny the Painter, brought the rigors of the Arctic and the whaling industry to life in his art work. Here, ice-bound crews exit their whaling ships in the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean.

Swedish-American artist John Bertoncini was born in Stockholm in 1872, to a Swedish mother who had married an immigrant Italian theater-scenery painter. We do not know when he emigrated to the United States, but it appears his first Arctic voyage was in 1892. He signed on for whaling and trading voyages for another 38 years, eventually going aboard as captain and mate, occasionally. His many paintings—he was known as Johnny the Painter—provide a major view of Arctic life and now may be viewed in a number of museums, most prominently in the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.

This oil-on-canvas painting documents ice-bound whalers at play on Herschel Island (Inuit: Qikiqtaruk) in the Beaufort Sea, some three miles off the Arctic coast of the Yukon. Favored by the whaling fleets, various supply and trading companies, and local Inuits, the island often harbored 1,000 people. Most whalers preferred to sleep in their boats rather than in the ramshackle huts on the ice. The painting shows seven whaling ships, the community storehouse, freshwater ice on stages and two piles of coal. And the men? There they are playing football, baseball and (top right) skiing.

There cannot be many ship’s logs that report “Great excitements. Coasting and Skeing.” The date was Sunday, February 18, 1894, when Captain Hartson H. Bodfish of the barkentine Newport, of West Tisbury, Massachusetts, recorded the day’s events. The sports described include fun-of-the-fair three-legged races and sack races—nothing too serious and all meant to counteract the winter boredom which could so easily lead to alcoholism and bad, often bloody, behavior.

A few captains brought their wives and, occasionally, daughters on voyages, and the ladies leavened the social life with homely teas. Sometimes they joined the men skiing. As at home, women’s fashion was a hot topic, and the ladies’ trousers were “cut with legs quite loose and very full aft” as one captain wrote admiringly. Bertoncini was witness to the tough life of the seamen, their successes, failures and their freedoms, seen here in the sporting activities. 

From a poor man’s wind tunnel to insane world records. 

If riding your skis while they’re attached to the roof of a fast car seems like a stupid stunt that could kill you, you’re right. You may be surprised to learn that it’s an actual sport. Kind of.

Canadian downhiller "Jungle Jim" Hunter is credited with the first cartop speed run in the early 1970s. While training for the 1972 Olympics, he built a rack on the roof of his dad’s old pickup, strapped his skis to it and climbed on board, riding on all kinds of roads and reaching a top speed of 62 mph. At Sapporo, he won the FIS bronze in combined.

(Photo above: In 1985, Sean Cridland recruited land-speed racer Rick Vesco as chauffeur and headed to Bonneville Salt Flats. The result: a 162mph world record, which still stands. Wade McCoy photo/Cridland collection.)

Cartop world-record holder Sean Cridland notes, “What Jim was doing was different from what we did later. He liked bouncy dirt roads for downhill training. We were going for speed records.”

When Steve McKinney and Tom Simons went to their first Flying Kilometer speed skiing trials in Cervinia, Italy, in 1974, they knew it would be useful to experience some wind-tunnel time. But wind tunnels are scarce and spendy. So they found a straight stretch of the Italian Autostrada and, along with Finnish speed legend Kalevi Häkkinen, took turns roof-riding “just to feel what it was like going 100 mph.” It may have helped, because McKinney set a new world record of 117 mph (188 kph) on snow later that year.

Häkkinen, considered the father of speed skiing, continued to train on cartops for several years and set a highway speed record in 1978 of 118 mph (190 kph), aboard a rally-equipped Saab as a promotion for his sponsors. Swedish downhiller Benny Lindberg also did an ad, on a Saab 900 Turbo driven by Ingemar Stenmark. A few years later Lasse Nyhlen officially upped Häkkinen’s mark to 122 mph on an Alfa Romeo sedan.

In 1985, British brothers Graham and Stuart Wilkie convinced an English car-racing team to put them aboard a Jaguar for some gear testing. They reached 125 mph. Two years later Graham set a new world record on snow, at 132.1 mph (212 kph).

Around that time, American Sean Cridland, while competing against the Wilkie brothers on snow, decided to try the vehicular version and take it up a notch. The cartop skiers achieving the fastest speeds rode production cars at racetracks and airports, both of which limited their top-end numbers. So Cridland went to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. There, land-speed racer Rick Vesco agreed to work with Cridland, and developed a special chassis for his 335 mph "Little Giant 444” car. Kirsten Culver, who held the women’s speed skiing record in 1983 through ’84, had been training on an airport runway near Reno and joined Cridland in Utah. “We really don’t get to train between races because there aren’t any real speed training facilities,” she explained to me at the time. “You end up just sort of training during the race.”

Their first day on the salt flats, in Fall 1985, proved enlightening, “These cars are geared so high they have to get pushed for about half a mile before they’re going fast enough to drop into gear,” says Cridland. Any Bonneville car is timed for a full mile, then coasts a long way to scrub speed and roll to a stop—with the skier still in a tuck for most of it.

Cridland torched his legs on a practice run, so for his official run, “my legs started cramping and I was screaming into my helmet,” he says. He clocked at 148 mph, and Culver went 152. The next morning, September 29, Cridland went back out and turned in a 162-mph run. The Wilkie brothers were some of the first people he informed. His record (for men) and Culver’s (for women) still stand, 37 years later. And Culver’s record also beats all men other than Cridland.

The use of cartops for speed-skiing training has continued sporadically. In 2000, Brazilian Christian Blanco was photographed doing it at São Paulo Interlagos racetrack while training for the 24 Hours of Megève ski race. And in 2018, speed skier Jan Farrell posted video with the caption, “I raced on top of a BMW M2 in the Jarama circuit in Madrid.” He reached 111.85 mph (180 kph) while doing “aerodynamic training.” He observed, “It was really fun!” 

Snapshots in Time

1982 Consider the Correct Comps
The price of lift tickets is up again this season. It costs you $20 [ed: $61 in today's dollars] to ski at Squaw Valley or Vail this year, $21 at Stowe, $22 at Aspen. But before you throw the boards and boots into the back closet, think about this: Where else can you get seven hours of mountain beauty, acres of snow groomed for you, an intense social atmosphere, trained first-aid experts looking after you and unlimited rides up a mountain so you can come flying down? Compare [the cost of skiing] to a night on the town in New York, Los Angeles or London. — Chaco Mohler, “Such a Deal” (Powder Magazine, January 1982)

1990 Alien Life Forms on the Mountain
A 40ish skier in California looked down at some boarders from his lift seat and grumbled, “The ski area built ’em a halfpipe. Why can’t they stay over there?” A ski patrol director at a big Rockies resort confided that some of his staffers considered boarders “an alien life form.” And then there was the lift attendant who muttered, “Here comes another knuckle-dragger” as I scooted up to the loading area. What gives me bad dreams is the possibility, however remote, that ski areas might reexamine their snowboard decision and ban the sport again. I believe that, ultimately, what’s good for snowboarding is good for skiing. — Dana White, “Border Crossing” (Skiing Magazine, October 1990)

1996 The Revolution is Here
The Shaped Ski Revolution is here and it will make skiing more fun. It’s a revolution that will free thousands of skiers from the drudgery of the skidded turn, and thousands more will ski longer, stronger and faster. — Jackson Hogen, “Revolution” (Snow Country, October 1996)

2007 40-Year-Old Hot Dog
It was 25 years ago this winter that a Hollywood crew settled at Squaw Valley, Calif., for 52 days to produce the seminal sex and ski flick. Hot Dog opened in January 1983, finishing No. 2 at the box office. The ’70s ski world plays out on the big screen: mogul hotdogging, riotous downhilling, wet T-shirt contests, gondola nookie, dope smoking, cavorting girls, beer drinking and hot tubbing. Lots of hot tubbing. Shannon Tweed, Playboy Playmate of the Year at the time, in her screen debut, had three minutes (soaking wet) that launched the hot tub industry—and thousands of lifelong skiers. — “A 25-Year-Old Hot Dog?” (SKI Magazine, February 2007)

2014 Skiing v. iPad
“Skis and snowboards are not like an iPad, not intuitive at all. With this new generation, their need is for constant stimulation. They go up to the mountain, and it’s complicated, so they drop out. Skiing doesn't just happen. Instruction is really important.” — Emily Brennan, Q&A with Joe Hession of Snow Operating, “How to Make Skiing Fun for Beginners” (New York Times, December 9, 2014)

2022 The Ultimate Liftie
Peter Landsman started documenting chairlifts when he was 10. Last month, the now 32-year-old lift supervisor at Jackson Hole flew to Saddleback, Maine, to ride its new T-bar. Landsman now has ridden and photographed 2,381 lifts at about 480 resorts in the U.S. That is every chairlift, gondola, tram, platter and T-bar in the country. “Twenty-two years. I can’t believe I’m finished,” he said. — Jason Blevins, “America’s chairlift savant finishes 22-year quest.” (Colorado Sun, March 3, 2022)

Chief of Sport Anouk Patty engages the team’s legacy. 

In August 2022, more than 100 former U.S. Ski Team athletes, coaches and techs gathered in Park City, Utah, for an unofficial reunion. Attendees represented teams from 1968 (Robin Morning) through 2021 (local Ted Ligety), with heavy representation from the 1990s. The 1994 Olympic team got the gold with 16 athletes attending, while the 1988 and 1992 teams tied for silver, each with 13 athletes present.

Other than a brief run of Return of the Champions events in the 1990s, when designated Olympic teams were invited, U.S. Ski Team reunions have been a notoriously tough sell. Many, if not most, alumni did not retire by choice and are wary of events that carry a hierarchy or a fundraising agenda. Consequently, three-time Olympian Heidi Voelker (’88, ’92, ’94), who conceived of the event, used the term “unofficial” to lure former teammates to attend. From there, the list grew organically by word of mouth.

Voelker made it a point to welcome the entire U.S. Ski and Snowboard family—employees and coaches as well as equipment service techs. In an era before cell phones and the Internet provided a constant connection to home, this extended family played a critical role in creating a positive team dynamic.

“I think by having it all together, it’s a big family instead of just the athletes,” says Voelker.

The main event took place on a Saturday afternoon, with an outdoor gathering at the Park City Peaks Hotel’s Versante Hearth and Bar. The following morning, ski team alumni and current U.S. Ski and Snowboard Chief of Sport Anouk Patty led a tour of the Center of Excellence (COE), the organization’s headquarters since 2009.

Getting Up to Speed in a New Era

For Patty, the reunion served as an opportunity to reconnect with teammates and update them on today’s U.S. Ski Team and the COE. The center opened long after most attendees had retired and has been a source of friction; its launch coincided with a sharp drop in athlete funding, accompanied by the creation of a “pay-to-play” model that many feel limited development.

In addition to running through a wide range of current U.S. Ski and Snowboard issues—ranging from development and doping to mental health and evolving gender policies—Patty and Director of Alpine Sport Science Per Lundstam walked the group through the latest performance initiatives and equipment. These include a ski simulator used by injured athletes in the early stages of rehab; a full-body scanner that creates avatars of each athlete, then searches for aerodynamic advantages that can be gleaned through race-suit materials; a new SEGR leg press, designed to prep the body for ski racing’s uniquely punishing eccentric loads; and an extensive rehab facility.

For both Lundstam and Patty, this is their second stint with the U.S. Ski Team. A graduate of Green Mountain Valley School, Patty was on the national team from 1985 to 1987, then left to attend Dartmouth, where she won the NCAA GS championship in 1988. After graduating from Dartmouth and earning a graduate business degree at Harvard’s Business School, she ran tech enterprises at major Silicon Valley firms.

Lundstam was head strength coach for the U.S. Ski Team from 1994 to 2010. He returned to the team last year after 11 years as director of performance for Red Bull.

Many of Lundstam’s athletes attended the reunion, including Daron Rahlves, the 2001 World Champion in super G and winner of nine World Cup downhills. Rahlves retired in 2006, three years before the COE opened, and says he sees many benefits of the center. During his era, athletes had to travel to other training facilities throughout the off-season. “Now the resources at the COE can keep the team centralized,” says Rahlves. He also likes the rehab facilities and the new return-to-snow protocols in helping injured athletes come back stronger and better prepared. “I would have definitely taken advantage, and it would have made a difference,” he says.

Rahlves returned to the COE in October 2022 to appear in a speaker series created by Lundstam, and Patty has enlisted Olympic champ Picabo Street to communicate with current athletes. Both programs are intended to engage today’s athletes with the team’s history. “We have an incredible legacy of success,” says Patty. “In my role, I want to tap into that legacy to help our current athletes—the knowledge transfer is invaluable.”

Former U.S. Ski Team members can opt into the alumni outreach effort by contacting U.S. Ski and Snowboard athlete outreach and engagement manager Mackenzie St. Onge at mackenzie@usskiandsnowboard.org. --Edith Thys Morgan

Jay Peak Resolves EB-5 Visa Scandal

Vermont resort joins PGR empire.

On September 8, 2022, Vermont’s Jay Peak Resort was purchased at auction by Pacific Group Resorts for a reported $76 million. Jay thus joins a small, far-flung empire consisting of Mount Washington, British Columbia; Powderhorn, Colorado; Ragged Mountain, New Hampshire; Wintergreen, Virginia; and Wisp, Maryland. No changes in local management or operations are planned for the coming winter.

The sale brings the resort out from under a financial and legal cloud. In 2008, Jay Peak was purchased from its Canadian owners, Mont Saint Sauveur International, by a local investment group led by Ariel Quiros and Jay’s COO, Bill Stenger. The new owners saw potential for growth by using the U.S. government’s EB-5 visa program, under which foreign nationals can earn a green card by investing $500,000 into a new business employing at least 10 Americans. The partners proposed an indoor waterpark and NHL-sized ice rink, several grand hotels, lift upgrades, a golf course and many other amenities, and they attracted around $250 million in foreign investment. The projects were mostly completed, but it all unraveled in 2016 when agents of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the resort. They accused Quiros of stealing approximately $50 million from investors (that number would increase as the investigation proceeded) and put Jay Peak into receivership. This became the most prominent of a half-dozen EB-5 fraud actions across the country.

The mountain sits in a natural powder pocket and claims the best average annual snowfall (359 inches) in eastern North America. The resort began in the mid-1950s as a gleam in the eye of a Kiwanis Club booster, Harold Haynes. It was brought to reality, in true bootstrap fashion, by an irrepressible local priest, Father George St. Onge, and his clever pitch of $10-a-share sales.

By 1966, Austrian ski-technique guru Walter Foeger had grown the one-slope, one-lift ski area into a 30-trail, five-lift phenomenon. Foeger’s popular Natur Teknik, a program that taught guests to ski parallel in a week, had a lot to do with producing the area’s positive balance sheet.

That caught the eye of Weyerhaeuser Company, a neighboring landowner. The forest-products company saw an opportunity to repurpose its logged-out land and cash in on the real estate boom. It bought Jay Peak’s outstanding shares, planned a $10 million investment and installed Vermont’s first aerial tramway in 1966. —Bob Soden

Don’t Read This Story

Yvon Chouinard stays true to his environmental mission.

In November 2011, the outdoor clothing company Patagonia purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times that featured its best-selling product with the headline: “Don’t buy this jacket.” It was an audacious call to (in)action on Black Friday, the annual start of the Christmas shopping season.

The ad explained that producing the jacket required 36 gallons of water (enough to fill the daily needs of 45 people), and emitted 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (24 times the weight of the garment). In addition, two-thirds of the jacket’s weight in waste was discarded during the manufacturing process.

Cynics touted the “Don’t Buy” campaign as a brilliant stroke of counterculture marketing, and, indeed, Patagonia’s sales increased a reported 30 percent. Supporters replied that it was merely a public continuation of founder Yvon Chouinard’s long-standing commitment to support the environment, established when he founded the company in 1973, as a pioneering rock climber, alpinist and half-hearted capitalist.

All doubts about his green cred were resolved in September 2022. Patagonia announced that in passing the torch, the 83-year-old Chouinard and his family had transferred ownership, valued at about $3 billion, to a new trust and a nonprofit organization, both created to ensure that Patagonia’s profits—some $100 million annually—will be used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe. Donating the company conferred no tax benefit to the family.

“Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,” Chouinard told the New York Times. “We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet.” 

Snapshots in Time

1940 Good Advice Never Gets Old
Ski-patrol service is voluntary and unpaid, but membership is limited to accomplished amateurs who have passed the Red Cross 20-hour first-aid course. Patrolmen instruct novices in safety precautions and promote ski ethics like walking up the side of trails and refilling sitz-marks (the divots of skiing). Their studies reveal that mishaps befall over-zealous tyros and tired skiers in the late afternoon. Their advice to beginners: “Don’t try to do too much.” To all skiers: “Never ski alone. Stop when you’re tired.” — “National Ski Patrol Makes Perilous Rescues High on Slopes of Mt. Hood” (Life Magazine, March 18, 1940)

1980 Inconceivable Prices
What most noticeably will hit skiers’ finances this winter are the increases in lift ticket charges. The $20 lift ticket, once totally inconceivable, has been conceived at Stratton. In the Rockies, $2 increases seem in fashion and put lift tickets at Aspen and Vail at $18, and Steamboat at $16. — Jeff Frees, “The High Cost of Skiing,” (Powder, December 1980)

1978 Risk v. Reward
I have been skiing o.b. for many years. Skiing out of bounds is extremely dangerous. Inevitably some crazy powder addicts (myself included) will continue to leave the “safe” confines of patrolled areas. After reading Lou Dawson’s account and subtle hints (“... how far can you crawl with a spinal fracture?”), I realized certain steps must be taken to ensure the safety or at least the survival of o.b. skiers. Education is what is needed on this topic. — Steven Harrison, Central Valley, New York, “Whistling in the Dark" (Letters, Powder Magazine, Spring 1978)

1985 hot or not?
Today, at resorts all over the Alps, mono-skiing is hot. Good skiers, ready for something new, are finding mono-skis especially good for wide-open powder bowls. — Bill Grout, “The Mono-Ski and Me” (Skiing Magazine, October 1985)

1990 Boarder Bigotry
As a snowboarder who lives in Vermont, I’m tired of the inane accusations that snowboarders knock snow off trails and ruin them. A good snowboarder does no more damage to a trail than a good skier, but novice skiers and snowboarders who don’t carve turns are the problem. — Dave Austin, Vergennes, Vermont, “Slip-Sliding Away” (Letters, Snow Country, February 1990)

1999 Marketing Misstep
In a scene from the 1990 film Home Alone, child star Macaulay Culkin escapes two robbers by tobogganing down a staircase and out the front door. The script originally called for Culkin to tuck the stairs on skis, but Rossignol chose not to participate, and the scene eventually evolved into a toboggan stunt. “We were concerned that kids would try to imitate the film and hurt themselves,” says Jeanne-Marie Gand, Rossignol’s vice president of communications. The movie, of course, became one of the most successful family films of all time. “Sometimes I kick myself over that one,” Gand admits. — “Cool Bond Stunt, but Look at Those Skis” (SKI Magazine, November 1999)

President Joseph R. Biden created his first national monument, and the country’s 130th, in October, protecting for future generations a rugged landscape in the heart of the Rocky Mountains where the legendary 10th Mountain Division trained for Alpine warfare during World War II.

Photo above: President Joe Biden at Camp Hale, with 10th Mountain veterans Robert Scheuer and Bud Lovett (seated right), and (standing, left to right) Sen. Michael Bennet, Ute tribal leaders, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse.

Biden traveled to Red Cliff, Colorado, for the designation of the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, standing with state officials not far from the ruins of the winter warfare training camp along Tennessee Pass and the headwaters of the Eagle River.

The president arrived at Eagle County Regional Airport on Air Force One, then was transported by motorcade to meet a crowd of about 200 VIPs and media waiting at Camp Hale in a temporary pop-up village that included Secret Service snipers in the hills behind the podium. Tenth Mountain Division Foundation historian David Little believes this is the first visit to Camp Hale by a sitting president.

According to a White House statement, “This action will honor our nation’s veterans, Indigenous people and their legacy by protecting this Colorado landscape, while supporting jobs and America’s outdoor recreation economy.”

The area lies within the ancestral homelands of the Ute tribe and is treasured for its historical and spiritual significance, stunning geological features, abundant recreation opportunities and rare wildlife and plants. “This is the story of America the beautiful,” Biden said before signing the declaration next to two of the few surviving veterans of the division, Robert Scheuer and Francis “Bud” Lovett. “You can just feel the power of this place,” Biden added, recalling the days when his family traveled to ski in Colorado. “It takes your breath away.”

Said Sen. Michael Bennet, one of the Colorado Democrats who pushed for the designation, “With every passing year, there are fewer World War II veterans who trained at Camp Hale left to tell their story, which is why it is so important that we protect this site now.”

The winter conditions were so tough that some of the soldiers nicknamed the area “Camp Hell.” All that remains of a military base that covered 1,500 acres with 245 barracks housing up to 15,000 soldiers and staff are crumbling foundations of an ammunition depot, field house and firing range.

In 1987, the National Association of the 10th Mountain Division designated the Denver Public Library and the Colorado Historical Society as joint repositories of its historical materials. The Colorado Snowsports Museum, based in Vail, hosts the largest 10th Mountain public exhibition in the U.S.

“This is a great day for the 10th who trained there, outdoor recreation and the Ute tribe,” said Denise Taylor, president of the 10th Mountain Division Descendants. Added Ellen McWade, Rocky Mountain chapter director of the 10th Mountain Descendants, “Becoming a national monument is a huge deal for us. It will help keep the history of Camp Hale alive and prevent their memories from disappearing.”

The 10th Mountain Division played a pivotal role in the European theater of the war by weakening Axis forces from their position in the Italian Alps, thanks to training acquired at Camp Hale. Scaling a 1,500-foot cliff during a night attack, they were able to push back elite units of the Axis forces. Their skills and grit were instrumental in the war effort. (See page 22 for a story about the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment training on Mt. Rainier.)

After the war, many of these soldiers returned to the mountains, lending their training and expertise to a burgeoning ski industry. More than 60 ski areas in the United States owe their origin and development to these veterans. Today, the outdoor industry, inspired and built by these vets, generates $374 billion in economic activity and supports tens of thousands of jobs across the country, according to the White House. 

ISHA Vice President Jeff Blumenfeld, a resident of Boulder, Colorado, is son-in-law of the late U.S. Army veteran Arnold R. Kirbach, who taught skiing and rock climbing at Camp Hale.

After 86 years, the magazine slashes its print run and hopes to persevere online.

After more than a decade of battling losses in subscribers and newsstand sales, SKI recently announced it will publish only one print issue a year. The magazine will continue to publish an annual print winter gear guide, but it will be a “unified” effort with its sister brands, which includes Outside and Backpacker.

In a May email to contributors, SKI editor Sierra Shafer explained that Outside Inc., owner of SKI, “made the difficult decision to reduce print by 80 percent across the company.” SKI will publish an annual print issue “for the foreseeable future,” Shafer writes. “SKI is still producing a traditional issue, our Destination Guide. Beyond that, our print plan for 2023 is still developing.”

After Skiing magazine shuttered just shy of its 70th birthday in 2017, and Powder scuttled in 2020 after nearly 50 years in print, SKI was the sport’s sole surviving mass-market publication. Before its advent, skiers read news of the sport in a variety of regional and club newsletters. The sole national publication was the American Ski Annual, published by the National Ski Association. In 1935 Seattle native Al Nydin had the idea for a national commercial magazine. The first issue of SKI appeared in January 1936, with four issues (November-February) pledged for the following season. SKI was later rebranded as Ski Illustrated and moved to New York City when World War II broke out; it was resuscitated in 1948 in Hanover, New Hampshire, by publisher William Eldred, who combined Ski Illustrated, Western Skiing and Ski News under the present title SKI. In 1962, under New York publisher Arnie Abrahamson, SKI incorporated Ski Life.

At its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, SKI published eight issues annually, including a summer issue for several years. For the 1988–89 season, a full-time editorial staff of 15 published 1,696 pages of national content, plus regional editions in the East, Midwest and West. The decline began in the mid-1990s, when readers discovered they could find more timely information, for free, on websites—including skinet.com, published by SKI and Skiing magazines, by then under the same corporate umbrella, AOL-Time Warner. Advertising revenue soon followed the audience. Like most surviving legacy media brands, SKI gradually transitioned largely to web publishing. “With a renewed focus on our digital content, we are still actively assigning and publishing work for the web,” Shafer wrote.

A long line of corporate owners fought a rear-guard battle to maintain the viability of the print edition. Most recently, Pocket Outdoor Media went on a buying spree in 2021 and acquired a handful of active lifestyle brands, including SKI, Outside and Backpacker. Pocket rebranded itself as Outside Inc. and refocused its business model with “Outside +” memberships, which provide access to content from the company’s 30-plus brands online. The monthly membership cost has recently been cut from $5 a month to $2.99 a month for the first year. Along with the decision to drastically reduce print runs companywide, Outside Inc. also announced it was laying off approximately 15 percent of its staff across all brands.

Is the party over for SKI and other print magazines? The advertising model for print seems irretrievable. The continued health of Skiing History proves that a small but devoted reading audience remains, perhaps filling the role of the original nonprofit American Ski Annual. Similarly, the quarterlies Ski Journal and Adventure Journal, along with the twice-a-year Mountain Gazette, make entertaining reading. But all charge subscription rates that allow survival without advertising support.

Aspen’s Birthplace of Skiing Preserved

Landowner deal balances development rights with protection for the Highland Bavarian Lodge

An often-forgotten slice of Aspen’s skiing history will be preserved in a deal that gives a landowner additional development rights as a tradeoff to protect the historic site.

The Pitkin County commissioners in June approved an agreement that will preserve the Highland Bavarian Lodge and bunkhouse, the true cradle of skiing in the Aspen area. The structure will receive historic designation and be remodeled to restore its historical significance.

Property owners Meredith Loring and Sami Inkinen funded creation of a documentary film recounting the significance of the site in the development of Aspen skiing, according to coverage in the Aspen Times. The documentary will be donated to the Aspen Historical Society. A brochure on the history also will be created and a road plaque will be installed.

The Highland Bavarian Lodge was built at Ashcroft in late 1936 and opened in time to host Christmas guests. It was part of a grand vision for a ski area in the upper Castle Creek Valley (see “What Might Have Been,” March-April 2021). Ski trails were cut along the valley floor and hardier guests could ascend on climbing skins to Richmond Ridge. The owners’ grandiose plans lost momentum during World War II. After the war, development of Aspen Mountain eclipsed the Ashcroft project.

The Highland Bavarian Ranch covers 82 acres up valley from the confluence of Castle and Conundrum creeks. The property spills over to the east side of Castle Creek Road, but the owners have pledged to place a conservation easement on that section, and on 49 acres in total, the Aspen Times reported. The owners could have torn down the lodge because Pitkin County’s historic preservation program is voluntary.

As a tradeoff to the preservation of the lodge and bunkhouse, the county will grant 7,500 square feet of additional floor area for a home on the property. A home of up to 13,250 square feet can now be constructed. In addition, a density bonus was awarded for a second home of 5,750 square feet on the main ranch parcel. 

Snapshots in Time

1957 More (Not) the Merrier
To handle the army of skiing Americans that was passing last year’s record 3.5 million, slope operators were constructing luxurious lodges and higher capacity lifts, were scientifically grooming trails and putting snow on usually bare slopes. Old-line ski addicts who once welcomed the boom in the sport are now finding it a nuisance with the crowds at the slopes and inns they once had to themselves. — “NEW SLIGHTS ON SLOPES” (LIFE MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 1957)

1968 PHONING IT IN
A new 24-hour telephone service for the latest ski reports is in operation. By dialing LY4-7500, skiers can obtain information on snow conditions in the East. The 24-hour service is supported by the New York–New Jersey American Motors Dealers Association. — “24-Hour Phone Service Offers Latest Ski Reports” (NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 24, 1968)

1970 POWER PER POUND

Women racers are women, first and foremost. Very often I meet people who remark that they thought I would be much bigger. I suppose they expect us to be Amazons. Actually, the average female ski racer is the same size as the average girl. What is important is the strength per pound. This does not mean bunched muscles, either, because suppleness, gracefulness and balance are extremely important. — NANCY GREENE, “THE WOMAN RACER AS A WOMAN” (SKI MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1970)

1981 STEIN'S ADVICE
I don’t care what people say about nightlife and drinking. If you want to be on top of your skis, your mind has to be absolutely crystal clear, and you have to be in top physical condition. — STEIN ERIKSEN, INTERVIEW (POWDER MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1981)

1990 PLEASE STICK TO SKIING
The January issue of your magazine devoted six pages to snowboards and snowboarding. With all due respect to the interests of others, if I wanted a magazine about snowboards, then I would subscribe to Snowboarding Magazine, if it existed. Please stick to skiing. — DAVID R. SEGAL, REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA, “NO MORE SNOWBOARDS,” LETTERS (SKIING MAGAZINE, MARCH 1990)

2003 WHERE'S THE DISCOUNT?
I’m glad you recognize that there are people over 70 who still like to ski. How about an article called “The Top Resorts for Seniors?” With the current trend of not offering free lift tickets to seniors, I would like to know which resorts still value us. After all, what we don’t spend on hefty lift ticket prices, we make up for in food, beverages and a lifetime of dedication to the industry. — JIM MORGAN, MIDLAND, MICHIGAN, “SENIORS SKI,” LETTERS (SKI MAGAZINE, MARCH-APRIL 2003)

The celebrity artist visited Aspen for more than 20 years.

Andy Warhol died in 1987. But his cultural significance remains white hot, as his obession with fame, celebrity and personal branding is more relevant than ever in today’s media–dominated world. Perhaps predictably, Warhol mania is on the rise, with plays staged in London and New York and the airing of the Netflix series The Andy Warhol Diaries, all exploring the man and the myth. What isn’t commonly known about Warhol is that he was enchanted with Aspen, bought property there and visited often enough to be considered a part-time local.

(Photo above: credit Mark Sink)

The man who deified Campbell’s soup cans (to his lasting regret, he claimed) had been coming to Aspen off and on for about 15 years before he even learned to ski. That happened in December of 1981, when he and photographer Christopher Makos decided to take a lesson at Buttermilk. As longtime Aspen instructor Gerry Bohn recalls, “I was a supervisor at the time, and we ran out of instructors, so I gave him a two-hour private.”

Warhol wrote in his diary about the Powder Pandas slope and its T-bar: “We did about two hours of zigzagging and going up the handrail and you just sort of sit on the thing and go up the whole hill and it was really fun.” He also mentioned falling three times, which isn’t bad for a first-time skier.

Denver-based photographer Mark Sink lived part time in Aspen then and worked for Warhol at Interview magazine. He remembers meeting Warhol and Makos at Buttermilk that day. “We just talked at the base,” says Sink. “I asked if he had tried the ‘flying wedge’ down; he thought that was a funny term. He was done for the day, hurt his hand in a fall on the baby hill. His Rolex hurt his wrist, apparently. I remember him talking about Reggie Jackson and other stars in the lift line. His star-spotting was amazing anywhere we went.”

On that same visit, Warhol and Calvin Klein met Paramount heavyweight Barry Diller and his ski instructor for lunch at West Buttermilk. Then Warhol went for dinner with Diller, Italian film producer Marina Cicogna and Diana Ross at Andre’s, where Ross, as Warhol recalled in his diary, was wearing “a cowboy hat and big white shoes” and danced on top of the table. A media star himself, habitually surrounded by celebrities, Warhol was as star-struck as any skier who drove up from Denver for the day.

Warhol first came to Aspen in the mid-1960s at the invitation of locals John and Kimiko Powers, major modern art collectors and some of his biggest patrons. John was running the Aspen Center for Contemporary Art at a time when it was one of the most important avant-garde art communities in the country. Warhol participated in several Colorado exhibitions sponsored by Powers. And in 1966 he guest-edited the third issue of an experimental arts and culture magazine called Aspen (also known as Aspen in a Box), founded by part-time Aspenite Phyllis Johnson, a former editor at Women’s Wear Daily and Advertising Age. Warhol’s issue, like all of them, was bundled in a box, which he had designed to resemble one of his trademark cultural references, a package of Fab laundry detergent.

Far from just a casual visitor, Warhol during this period bought land just downvalley from Aspen. In the early ’80s he also bought a house in Aspen and devoted a chapter of his book America to the town.

In the summer of 1984, at the star-studded Aspen Tennis Festival fundraiser for the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation, Warhol arrived on the back of a Harley piloted by Jack Nicholson. Warhol offered to do a portrait of the highest bidder at the celebrity auction, and it drew so much interest that he agreed to do four of them at $40,000 each, raising a quick and generous $160,000 for the cause. It would be his last trip to town before his death.

The Powers Art Center near Aspen, which showcases John and Kimiko’s collection, continues to regularly display many of Warhol’s works. And his only major museum retrospective in North America in 2021-22 recently closed at the Aspen Art Museum. The cliché about Aspen is that real locals came for the skiing but stayed for the intriguing people. For Warhol, it was always about the people, and the skiing was mainly a way to meet more of them. 

SNAPSHOTS IN TIME

1952 Voice of Experience
No one knew better than Coach Émile Allais what the team was up against. Once the greatest of all racers in Europe, he had lost his front teeth years ago at Chamonix in the French Alps and shared this deficit now with most of his boys who had lost theirs at places like Reno, Aspen and Whitefish, Mont. He not only knew all the tricks but invented most of them himself, including a special racing crouch, ventilated goggles that would not fog up and even a new method of skiing. — Marshall Smith, “Hell on Snow,” on the American downhill team training for the 1952 Oslo Olympic Games (Life Magazine, February 11, 1952)

1970 Timeless Tuning Tip
It’s a great day. Great snow. You feel great. But your new skis seem to have a mind of their own. So you tighten your boots, loosen your bindings, have your poles shortened. But your skiing is still going haywire. Before you pack the whole shebang into the attic, take a look at your ski bottoms. Minor problems there often cause major problems in your technique, even with new, high-priced skis. — Editors, “Sure, Why Not Blame Your Skis?” (Skiing Magazine, February 1970)

1974 View from Texas
The important point to remember about skiing is that until the basic skills are mastered, the sport is not to be enjoyed. —
Suzanne O’Malley, “Who is That, Lying in the Snow in a $200 Ski Outfit?” (Texas Monthly, December 1974)

1980 Not So Special
With the extreme specialization we see today, a good downhiller cannot be a good slalom skier the way it was when I raced. — Jean-Claude Killy, interview (Powder Magazine, September 1980)

1998 Mountains of Opportunity
Now at least I can get my vacuum cleaner fixed in Ketchum and I certainly couldn’t do that when I moved here 20 years ago. New entrepreneurs are filling up business niches I didn’t even realize existed. Tourism might just be a phase in the economic growth of mountain towns. —“State Rep: In Search of Common Ground,” Wendy Jaquet, interview (Snow Country Magazine, February-March 1998)

2000 Can You Hear Me Now?
I would like to ski in the fantasy land with the three gentlemen who wrote against cell-phone use on the slopes. I am lucky enough to live and work 10 minutes from a great ski area and if I can steal a few hours from work to go skiing, then the cell phone is a small price to pay. It sure beats being stuck at your office desk waiting for that one call that might bring in a huge deal. I would imagine that skiers—real skiers, anyway—will agree that skiing is better than working. I also enjoy calling my friends and telling them what they are missing. — Steven Strauss, Coplay, Pa., “Pro Phone,” Letters (SKI Magazine, May-June 2000)

A new and improved bidding process might give Utah the edge.

Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, has begun a bid process to bring back the Games as early as 2030, according to Susanne Lyons, chair of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).

“We are already in dialogue with the IOC–not yet for a specific year,” Lyons said at the USOPC’s press conference in Beijing, per Reuters press coverage. “Depending on what the needs of the overall Olympic movement are, that could happen as early as 2030 or it could happen after that.” Park City officials held a public meeting on February 15 to hear proposals from the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.

After criticism of its bidding process, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is working to streamline the process. With costs soaring and public support waning, the IOC now prefers previous host cities with venues already in place. This gives Salt Lake an edge, Lyons indicated.

Vancouver, which hosted the 2010 Winter Games, has also expressed interest, as has 1972 host Sapporo. Public opinion in both cities appears split over proposed budgets around $2.5 billion. The Barcelona-Pyrenees region has also prepared a bid.

Host-city hesitance became evident with the 2024 Summer Games: Of five initial bids, only Paris and Los Angeles stuck it out. With no alternatives, the IOC gave Paris the 2024 event and L.A. got 2028. Only one city bid for the 2032 Summer Games: Brisbane, Australia got the IOC nod by default.

By the numbers, the 2022 Beijing Games hosted 2,900 athletes over 109 competitions. While reusing some venues from the 2008 Summer Games, Beijing still reported costs of $4 billion for Olympic-specific necessities. That doesn’t include new permanent infrastructure, such as the $9 billion high-speed rail line linking Beijing to the two Olympic-venue ski resorts. After the athletes leave, the high-speed train remains. Will tourist traffic make it pay? No one knows.

Approving 10-figure budgets is a tough sell these days for host cities, especially with reports of chronic corruption tainting the awarding process. Oslo, Norway, reported a 55 percent voter opposition to hosting the 2022 Winter Games, and pulled out of the bidding process.

In order to attract more host cities, the IOC no longer requires elaborate bid proposals costing millions of dollars. Instead of holding multiple votes to thin the candidates, the IOC now works to identify a “preferred bidder” and positions itself as a partner in the process.

IOC’s new focus on cities with existing venues appears to be working. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, per press reports, will be 95 percent staged in venues that already exist. More than 90 percent of the events for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games will be held at venues already in place.

As Lyons noted, the USOPC hopes that gives Salt Lake a leg up—both with the IOC and with the local community. “Salt Lake City has made it very clear to our partners at the IOC that they are ready and able to go as soon as we are needed,” Lyons said. –Greg Ditrinco

Dave Ryding, meet Mouse Cleaver

When, on January 22, Dave Ryding aced the Hahnenkamm slalom to become the first British skier to win a World Cup race, he joined an exclusive club. Ninety-one years ago, another Brit, Gordon “Mouse” Cleaver, won the very first Hahnenkamm combined trophy.

At the time (March, 1931), Austrian skiers were astonished that they’d been bested by an Englishman who wasn’t even a member of the British team (they assumed he hadn’t qualified, and that the “team” skiers must be even better.). That “team” consisted of members of the Kandahar and Downhill-Only Ski Clubs from Mürren and Wengen. Cleaver’s combined victory was based on finishing ninth in the downhill and second on a slalom course set by Bill Bracken, winner of the first-ever Lauberhorn slalom and combined held in February 1930.

No British subject topped a podium again in a premier race until Ryding’s victory. Konrad Bartelski came close, with a second-place finish in the 1981 Val Gardena downhill. The Scot Alain Baxter claimed bronze in slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics—only to have his medal revoked after a still-controversial drug test.

Mouse Cleaver joined the RAF in 1937 and became an ace, flying Hurricanes in France and in the Battle of Britain. In August 1940, his canopy was shattered by gunfire, sending plastic shards into his face and eyes. Near blind, he bailed out. He never flew again. While Cleaver lost the right eye entirely, and most of the sight in his left, an ophthalmologist noted that the plastic fragments didn’t inflame his eyes. This insight led to the invention of plastic lens implants. –Seth Masia

Snapshots in Time

1952 Heaven on Earth
When warm winds and spring sunshine put an end to skiing in the rest of the U.S., the season is just beginning at New Hampshire’s Tuckerman Ravine. Although there are none of the usual comforts available to skiers, such as warming huts and ski towns, Tuckerman skiers have other compensations. As the sun gets warmer in the valley, it turns the icy crust to crumbly “corn” snow, and skiing on “corn” is considered by fanatics as close to heaven as they will get on earth. — “Spring Skiing,” Life Magazine (March 10, 1952)

1968 Dial a Run
A new 24-hour telephone service for the latest ski reports is in operation. By dialing LY 4-7500 skiers can obtain information on snow conditions in the East, including New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The service is supported by the New York-New Jersey American Motors Dealers Association. — “24-Hour Phone Service Offers Latest Ski Reports” (New York Times, December 24, 1968)

1975 Biting Commentary
As a dentist living and practicing in a ski-oriented community, I treat hundreds of adolescents who are ski enthusiasts. For many years I have had SKI and Skiing magazines in my waiting room for my young patients to read. Your February article “The American Pros” is so electrifying with bar-room language, however, that I had to cut out most of the pages. — David R. Williams, Boulder, Colorado, “Take the Teeth Out of It” (Letters, SKI Magazine, September 1975)

1980 Redford’s One Run Too Many

I always make the mistake of skiing past what I should in terms of my fatigue. I’ll take a run right after the run that’s been so perfect, but the legs just won’t hold up and you won’t be quite as quick. Then you get mad so you go back and do it again to prove you can do it and you’re worse yet. —Robert Redford, “Who is that Guy?” (Powder Magazine,
November 1980)

1990 Easiest Way to Improve

Probably the single most common mistake skiers make is believing that their skis don’t need to be waxed. Properly waxing your skis is the easiest way to improve their performance on the slopes. New skis are normally iron waxed at the shop where they were purchased. If not, you can wax them at home. —Jim Deines, “Tuning Tips” (Skiing Magazine, February 1990)

1996 The Revolution Starts Now

Promises are cheap, but are they believable? Well, this time it’s true. The Shaped Ski Revolution is here and it will make skiing more fun. It’s a revolution that will free thousands of skiers from the drudgery of the skidded turn, and thousands more will ski longer, stronger and faster. —Jackson Hogen, “Revolution” (Snow Country, October 1996)