Media Review

 Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow

By Heather Hansman

As rich people evict poor people from ski-town digs, writers have mourned the fate of the ski bum since the late 1960s, in magazine articles, books and films. Heather Hansman is one of those ski bums forced to write for a living (not necessarily a career advancement), and she does so with talent and perception. In Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow, Hansman dissects the ski bum phenomenon, finding it the source of the sport’s authenticity, and traces its history. Then she brings the story up to date. She focuses on the time-honored themes (static wages, soaring real estate and rental prices, the erosion of social status for those who work on the mountain), then examines the 21st-century threats to bummage: corporate monopoly and a price structure that bars entry to the sport, absentee management, even climate change. It’s a great read, full of colorful characters and stories, heroes and villains. You’ll come away understanding why the mood of today’s ski bum (unless they've inherited grandma’s ski-town Victorian) is more likely to be frustration and rage than exhilarated delight. —Seth Masia

Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow, by Heather Hansman. Hanover Square/Harper-Collins, New York (2021). 272 pages. Hardcover $23.99, paperback $18.99, Kindle $15.99.

Traveling the Old Ski Tracks of New England

By E. John B. Allen

John Allen has written about the culture and practice of skiing around the world, but his latest work, Traveling the Old Back Roads of New England, is focused on his own New England.

A short introduction to current Alpine skiing nomenclature such as snowsports centers, snow guns, base lodges, giant condo developments and $150-a-day lift tickets, to name just a few, leads back in time to the initial influence of the Norwegian immigrants in ski jumping and ski manufacturing, and the role of well-to-do students at Dartmouth and other New England colleges in adopting the Germanic approach to Alpine skiing.  

The problem for a reviewer of the book is that there is such a wealth of information that it is difficult, if not impossible, to summarize it in any meaningful way. Hundreds of individuals make appearances and ski clubs and skiing competitions abound.

To take just one example: Alpine skiing increased dramatically in the 1930s. The growth in Alpine skiing domestically is very well presented, including the role of the Boston & Maine Railroad snow trains, the development of numerous regional ski areas such as Cannon Mountain, the first indoor consumer winter sports shows and much more.

The strong domestic growth in Alpine skiing also led to the arrival of a number of talented central European Alpine instructors and, eventually, to the arrival in North Conway of Hannes Schneider and his wife on February 11, 1939 (the latter step being presented in much more detail in the “Schneider Phenomenon” chapter).

In short, Allen’s book opens the door to stroll through the ski history of New England all the while under the guidance of the country’s foremost ski historian. I am confident that copies of this book will soon find their way into homes throughout New England’s snow belt. —Einar Sunde

Traveling the Old Ski Tracks of New England, by E. John B. Allen. Bright Leaf/University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst (2022). 320 pages. Hardcover $90, paperback $24.95, Kindle $19.99.

Trail to Gold: The Journey of 53 Women Skiers by the U.S. Women Cross-Country Skiers 1972–2018

Edited by Sue Wemyss

This important and handsome book chronicles the challenging journeys of 53 American women cross-country ski racers over a period of some 50 years, from the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics in Japan, when the U.S. fielded its first Olympic XC Team, to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, when the team’s Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins won the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing in the Women's team sprint free event.

The original idea for this history came from the team’s coach, Matt Whitcomb, who suggested to the 2013–14 team that they contact and interview their sister Olympians of earlier Games while the golden opportunities still existed—and that a book might result. The process began and valuable interviews were recorded and transcribed, but after a period of time, the project began to languish. Fortunately, in 2018 the effort was revived and a book committee was formed, composed of team members Sue (Long) Wemyss (who spearheaded the new effort), Dorcas DenHartog, Jessie Diggins, Nancy Fiddler, Rosie Frankowski, Leslie (Thompson) Hall, Kikkan Randall and Lynn Spencer.

Divided into two parts, the book tells the story of these athletes largely in their own words. Part One describes the many obstacles these women faced simply while acquiring training and attending venues. Funding was essentially non-existent at first, and this negatively affected the acquisition of proper equipment and many other things. Along the way, the mysteries of obtaining good waxing and proper training and technique are encountered and solved. Slowly teams were built up, and the synergy of these groups began to show results.

In Part Two, we get to meet each one of these 53 Olympians, through their own words, as they describe their individual struggles, failures and triumphs. This book is truly an invaluable addition to the skiing history canon, proving how important it is to continue the effort to seek out and record these stories to remember the past and inspire the future. —Bob Soden

Trail to Gold: The Journey of 53 Women Skiers, by the U.S. Women Cross-Country Skiers 1972-2018, edited by Sue Wemyss. Pathway Book Service (2021). 160 pages. Hardcover $34.99

Provenance in the Snowfields: 60 Years of the Dulmison Ski Club Australia

By Donald Johnston

Author Donald Johnston’s 2020 Hotel Kosciusko (2021 ISHA Skade Award winner) told of the origins of skiing in the Diggers Creek region of the Perisher Valley in New South Wales, Australia, beginning with the construction of the hotel in 1909. This grand edifice in the Snowy Mountains, about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, served as the focal point for skiers there for more than 20 years before its slow decline and ultimate loss by fire in 1951.

In his latest book, Johnston traces the story of the
Dulmison Ski Club, one of a handful of ski clubs that arose virtually from the ashes of the Kosciusko Hotel, south and west of Diggers Creek, in the Perisher Creek region.

In 1961, when the Kosciusko State Park Trust (KSPT) decided it was time to stimulate the growth of skiing, they turned first to the Dulmison Australia Pty. Ltd., a Sydney aircraft company, to solve the inadequate power situation in the region.

Dulmison’s managing director, Philip Dulhunty, accepted the challenge of bringing in electrical power about four kilometers south from Guthega.
Dulhunty solved it, employing the inspired suggestion of his onsite supervisor, Clive Mackness, by laying heavy electrical cable on top of the snow and then running high current through it, which heated it, thereby sinking the cable into the snow, to be permanently entrenched in the ground the following season.

As a direct result of being involved with this project, a number of Dulmison employees expressed interest in creating a ski club in the region. The KSPT accepted the company’s proposal, and by 1962 the Dulmison Ski Club had constructed its Perisher Lodge, first called the Dauphine Lodge (and nicknamed the “Hunk of Cheese”), on a north-facing prominence within easy access of the new Sundeck Hotel and the valley’s first T-bars.

In 1977 the club constructed a second ski lodge twenty kilometers to the east, near Lake Jindabyne. In 1992, a third, larger, ski lodge was built in Thredbo, about twenty kilometers southwest of the original lodge (the sale of the Jindabyne Lodge was a condition for proceeding with construction of the new Thredbo development).

Today, the club’s 300-plus members enjoy high-quality, family-oriented and well-located and managed lodges at the center of Australia’s premier ski fields in the Perisher Valley.  —Bob Soden

Provenance in the Snowfields: 60 Years of the Dulmison Ski Club Australia, by Donald Johnston. Published by the Dulmison Ski Club, Ltd. and Hogan Print Australia (2022), hardcover, 288 pages, AUD$65

Three of the ten books honored at the 31st Annual ISHA Awards Banquet

Heroes in Good Company

The newest addition to the vast body of 10th Mountain Division literature is Skyler Bailey’s Heroes in Good Company. It tells the harrowing experiences of a combat group within Company L of the 86th Mountain Regiment. The book may be short on the details of ski mountaineering and high-altitude military training, but its value to our community is an intimate account of the wartime tribulations of the very young soldiers who later became ski industry pioneers.

Among those are Bob Carlson, Ben Duke, David Brower, Norm Goldenberg, Jack Hay, Bob Johnson, Bill Morrison, Robert Krear (who wrote the book’s foreword) and Bill “Sarge” Brown, of Vail fame. The cast of characters also includes heroes who did not make it home, among them Stuart Abbot and Louis Wesley. Full disclosure: My uncle Norm Gavrin served proudly as a member of Company L of the 86th as well.

Bailey pulls no punches in describing the brutality of war, relying on the writings of the late battalion surgeon Dr. Albert Meinke and other physicians, medics and combatants to fill in the gruesome details of battlefield injuries, both physical and emotional. Nor does he shy away from the poignant stories of those left behind at home to worry and, sometimes, to grieve. One painful passage describes the fainting of Louis Wesley’s father when officers arrived at his house bearing the news of his son’s death. Even the strongest reader may bite his or her lower lip.

The details of the horrific actions on Mount Gorgolesco and in the tunnels above Lake Garda at war’s end are particularly welcome additions to the historical record. Bailey is forthright about the issue of SS troops being embedded within the German mountain groups to ensure that the vicious killing would go on until the moment of Wehrmacht surrender in Italy. Among the many who died needlessly, two days before the surrender, was Col. Bill Darby, founder of the U.S. Army Rangers, who joined the 10th as a replacement officer and led the final push into the Po Valley. The atrocities committed by SS troops against Italian civilians (including the children with whom the members of the 10th often shared their rations) could have been more directly focused upon, but that is a quibble over an otherwise solid historical effort.

How many more books do we need to recount the sacrifices of the U.S. ski troops? Heroes in Good Company answers that question bluntly: As many as it takes to educate new generations about the true nature of the sacrifices made by these very young skiers, mountaineers, scholars and athletes. Forced into a global maelstrom, their courage remains the bedrock upon which our own freedoms rest today. — Charles J. Sanders

Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, 1943–1945. By Skyler Bailey. Rucksack Publishing, 2022. 303 pages. Hardcover $35, paperback $25, Kindle edition $9.99 from Amazon, Winner, 2022 Ullr Award.

Ski Jumping in the Northeast:
Small Towns and Big Dreams

Ariel Picton Kobayashi’s Ski Jumping in the Northeast is a well-written and deeply researched history, augmented by her reflections on the present state of the sport.

The author was introduced to ski jumping in 1999, at age nine, by the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA). She later served as the jumping coach for SWSA, from 2016 to 2020. She clearly is in love with the sport of ski jumping and the communities that support it.

Part I begins with a quick introduction to the basics: what is ski jumping, why do people jump and how are ski jumps measured and scored, followed by a look at the history of the sport in the U.S.

Kobayashi describes the sport’s development in Norway during the latter half of the 19th century, a period that saw a major migration of Norwegians to the U.S. Most of those immigrants were familiar with the use of skis, and wherever they settled in the northern tier of states they built ski jumps. The Northeast was no exception.

The earliest ski club in the Northeast was the Berlin Mills Ski Club, founded by Norwegians in 1872 and later renamed the Nansen Ski Club. It hosted both the 1939 U.S. Olympic trials and the 1940 National Championships. Over the course of decades, hundreds of jumping hills, large and small, were built in the Northeast, including nine jumps within the New York metropolitan area. Festive competitions drew fans by the thousands.

The number of jumpers began to drop in the 1970s. Kobayashi highlights NCAA’s decision in 1981 to drop ski jumping as a sanctioned sport (which, in turn, led many high schools to drop ski jumping); the elimination of the all-around “skimeister” discipline, which honored the best four-way skier (cross-country, jumping, slalom and downhill); and ABC’s decision to showcase Vinko Bogataj’s spectacular inrun crash to exemplify the “agony of defeat” on the intro to Wide World of Sports.

But Kobayashi also focuses on the positives: the growth in the number of female jumpers, the International Olympic Committee’s inclusion of women’s jumping and the continued sense of tradition and community support. That said, she knows that while jumping has a strong and dedicated following in certain places, it takes constant effort to sustain that community.

To survive at the local and regional levels, clubs must continue to recruit volunteers, and everyone has to help out in all sorts of ways, from coaching to repairing facilities to preparing food at events. How organizers treat those volunteers will literally make or break clubs. As a member of the SWSA put it, “The community of ski jumping is a model of commitment and volunteerism. . . . Everyone pitches in to shovel, judge, pick up skis and support the jumpers. Giving back is part of the culture. The small, close-knit community supports all its members, no matter the competency or age.”

Part II consists of detailed listings and photos of, plus commentary on, active and dormant jumps. Kobayashi identifies 11 active clubs and jumping hills in three states and 17 dormant jumps in six states. A graphic appendix, by Walter Malmquist, shows active and dormant ski jumps by location and size. Sources are footnoted, and there’s a comprehensive bibliography. The book also includes excellent photo illustrations from individuals and archives. Locals interested in ski jumping will be well served by this book, and hikers will enjoy discovering abandoned and overgrown ski jumps hidden in Northeastern forests. — Einar Sunde

Ski Jumping in the Northeast: Small Towns and Big Dreams. By Ariel Picton Kobayashi, with foreword by former U.S. Ski Jumping Head Coach Larry Stone. Published by the History Press, Charleston, South Carolina, 2021. Softcover, 173 pages with illustrations, $21.99. Hardcover, $29.69. Winner, 2023 ISHA Skade Award.

Essays from the 2020 Neuchâtel Symposium

Surmonter les frontières à ski/Grenzen überwinden mit Ski (Overcoming Borders on Skis) is a worthy and timely addition to the ski history library. Thomas Busset and Peter Engel have done an admirable job editing this collection of 14 essays, the fruit of an international symposium held in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in February 2020. The collection also represents a partial response to a study by the Swiss Federal Office of Sport that stressed the positive influence of skiing on the economy and region. Six of the essays are written in French, six in German and two in English.

The 14 authors—Susan Barton, David Bäuerle, Andreas Brugger, Thomas Busset, Sébastien Cala, Peter Engel, Steve Hagimont, Annette R. Hofmann, Christian Koller, Rudolf Müllner, Constance N. Pomp, Sébastien Stumpp, Christof Thöny and Laurent Tissot—address different aspects of the phenomenon of skiing (Busset and Engel’s paper looks at growth limits of the “flagship Alpine sport”), acknowledging that as an activity for the wealthy, skiing is challenged by slowing participation and environmental concerns.

Thöny (a member of ISHA’s board of directors) examines the early development of ski culture around Germany’s Lake Constance. Hofmann’s piece, “Collective Memory of Skiing and its Lieux de Mémoire,” looks at the sport through places, museums, films, ski pioneers, athletes, forgetfulness (memory), lost ski areas and forgotten women of the sport. She suggests we must re-examine places and groups that were formerly neglected. — Bob Soden 

Surmonter les frontières à ski/Grenzen überwinden mit Ski, a compilation of essays, edited by Thomas Busset and Peter Engel. Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Centre International d’Etude du Sport (https://shop.cies.ch/int/en/19-all-publications), 2021. 242 pages, softcover. 33€, Winner, 2022

A passion for Nordic skiing drove the sport in the Upper Midwest

In the winter of 1841, Wisconsin farmers spotted some strange markings in the snow. They had been made by skier Gullit Laugen, a Norwegian immigrant, while on his way to purchase flour.

In Winter’s Children: A Celebration of Nordic Skiing, Ryan Rodgers tells of the development of Nordic skiing in the upper Midwest, from Laugen’s shopping trip to recent times. The great strength of the book is its focus on individual stories, from tragic to triumphant.

The first chapter, “Just Add Norwegians,” covers the 1840s to 1900 during the great wave of Scandinavian immigration. By the 1880s, some of the very best Norwegian skiers had emigrated to the U.S. (including Sondre Norheim and brothers Mikkel and Torjus Hemmestveit). Ski clubs were formed, the first St. Paul Winter Carnival staged (1886), regular jumping and cross-country competitions established, and ski factories founded. An 1890 attempt at an umbrella organization to sponsor tournaments failed to survive the Panic of 1893. Fast forward to 1905, when Carl Tellefsen launched the National Ski Association (today’s U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association).

Each chapter covers two decades. The period from the 1890s to the 1910s saw growing enthusiasm for ski jumping, while public interest in cross-country racing declined (the 1917 National Championships were cancelled because not a single entry was received). New ski companies were launched, notably by Martin Strand, who suffered two devastating factory fires but persevered until 1947, and Christian V. Lund, who turned Northland Ski Mfg. Co. into the world’s largest ski maker.

Ski jumping remained very popular through the 1930s, in good part because of the talent of young jumpers like brothers Lars and Anders Haugen and, later on, brothers Alf, Sverre and Corey Engen, plus the amazing Torger Tokle. On the other hand, cross-country skiing competitions remained in the doldrums and the invention of the Kandahar binding in 1929 by Guido Reuge, a Swiss ski racer and engineer, was a harbinger of the future growth of Alpine skiing. Rodgers also highlights significant improvements in the manufacture of laminated skis and ongoing debates concerning the participation of women in both cross-country and jumping events.

Neither the 1936 National Ski Association’s tournament nor the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch helped the cause of cross-country per se, but talented Midwestern Nordic skiers continued to make their mark, including Peter Fosseide, Eric Judeen, George Hovland and others. Skiers also undertook notable expeditions, such as the 100-mile Colorado trek in April 1926 from Estes Park to Steamboat Springs made by Erling Strom and Lars Haugen, Strom’s 125-mile 1930 expedition and the winter 1932 Denali expedition organized by Strom and Al Lindley.

The late 1930s through the ’50s confirmed the ascendancy of Alpine skiing. Here, Rodgers focuses on Tony Wise of Hayward, Wisconsin. After earning Bronze and Silver Stars for service in WWII, Wise skied in the Alps and was inspired to replicate that experience back home. He opened Mount Telemark in late 1947 and, as Rodgers puts it, “cross-country skiing went from being a niche activity to a niche within a niche.” Alpine skiing quickly pushed cross-country to the periphery. In the National Ski Association’s 1947 Ski Annual, “all of its 50 pages of advertisements are for downhill—clothes, hills, skis, and even portable chairlifts,” writes Rodgers.

Cross-country skiing rebounded strongly at all levels starting in the mid 1960s. By 1973, Wise was able to make a success of Wisconsin’s American Birkebeiner race, and Glen Johnstone launched Mora Vasaloppet in Minnesota. It was followed by races like the Snowjourn (1976), the Minnesota Finlandia (1979), the Pepsi Challenge in Biwabik (1985), the Noquemanon Marathon (1998) and the City of Lakes Loppet (2003) in Minneapolis. The era witnessed Bill Koch’s silver medal at the 1976 Olympics, the skating revolution and the arrival in the Midwest of World Cup cross-country races.

The final chapter, “A Thriving Ski Scene,” celebrates the present state of Nordic skiing in the Upper Midwest. For the 2019–20 season, Minnesota had 96 schools with ski teams, plus some that joined with others to pool resources. Jumping is a special case, “kept alive by a combination of individual passionate coaches and the pull of clubs with rich histories,” Rodgers writes. Growth of both cross-country and jumping are driven, in part, by Title IX; after a century of exclusion, there are now about as many girls jumping as boys. The only cloud on the horizon: our warming climate.

This is a sprawling book with fascinating characters. This short review cannot do it justice. Also featured are an outstanding selection of photos and illustrations, an extensive section of sources and a good index. 

Winter’s Children: A Celebration of Nordic Skiing by Ryan Rodgers, Published by University of Minnesota Press (2021), 388 pages, hardcover, $35

These films were honored at the 30th Annual ISHA Awards in Sun Valley.

In Pursuit of Soul

Teton Gravity Research

The timing of this 34-minute film is prescient. In a year when skiers across the country have been frustrated by overcrowded and overpriced “corporate” resorts, In Pursuit of Soul portrays ski areas that have chosen to remain independent, relaxed and, perhaps, underdeveloped. These resorts, many of them family owned, seem rooted in an earlier time, one for which many skiers feel deep nostalgia.

The producers interviewed skiers, employees, managers and owners at Saddleback, Maine; Cannon Mountain and Black Mountain, New Hampshire; Bolton Valley and Magic Mountain, Vermont; Berkshire East, Massachusetts; Lost Trail, Montana; Brundage Mountain, Idaho; Snow King, Wyoming; and Mission Ridge and 49° North, Washington.

The typical independent resort is vital to the local economy. Without seasonal employees and visiting skiers, restaurants and retail stores fail, property values sink, and the tax base evaporates. These areas also teach local kids to ski, often for free through public school programs, assuring a new generation of customers and resort employees.

Some of these resorts have closed, then reopened. The challenges are many: snow drought, insurance premiums, capital investment and maintenance costs. They can’t afford to compete with destination resorts on luxurious lodges and high-speed lifts. But they can offer $40 daily lift tickets and affordable season passes. Local skiers forge friendships with resort staff and become loyal supporters, often over two or three generations. While some 60 percent of mom-and-pop ski resorts have disappeared over the past two or three decades, the roughly 400 survivors are beloved by their communities. Their owners are determined to persevere despite 100-hour work weeks.

The independent local ski hill is a sweet concept, and this is a sweet movie. 

View at skiinghistory.org/resources/video/pursuit-soul

Spider Lives: The Untold Story of an American Skiing Super Hero

From the Bob Beattie Ski Foundation

An hour-long tribute film, Spider Lives is a journey into the rich history of ski racing. It chronicles Spider Sabich’s career trajectory from racing phenom to Olympian to World Cup victor to pro racing luminary, including the epic season-long battle with Olympic triple-gold-medalist Jean-Claude Killy for the 1973 World Pro Ski title. Previously untold stories recount the talent, charisma, generosity and celebrity of a once-in-a-generation superstar who seemed destined to become an industry icon in his post-competitive life. He was tragically killed in his home in Aspen at age 31.

The film, along with Sabich’s recent induction into the Hall of Fame, places the legendary skier in his rightful place among the pantheon of great American ski champions. According to the producers, the film was created because of the great love Sabich’s friends still hold for him. While financial constraints have made this production rough, it meets ISHA’s criteria for an award because of its oral-history content. A dizzying array of skiing colorfully illuminates not only Sabich’s life but explains the spirit of the decade during which he was at the top of our sport.

Dear Rider: The Jake Burton Story

An HBO Documentary
Director: Fernando Villena
Producer: Ben Bryan

This 90-minute documentary recounts the life and work of Jake Burton Carpenter, who turned the Snurfer snow-toy into the billion-dollar snowboarding industry. After bailing on a Wall Street career, Burton began making laminated hardwood snowboards in a backyard shed in 1977. He learned that in order to sell product, he needed to build a sport and set out to do just that by organizing snowboard competitions and signing young athletes.

With wife and partner Donna, he realized that his target market was teenagers. Then, facing institutional inertia at ski resorts, the company cannily seized on the rebellious spirit of a new generation as Burton’s marketing theme. Today, two years after Burton’s death at age 65, Donna runs a company with annual revenue of about $400 million.

Jake and Donna loved shooting home movies. The documentary makes great use of intimate family footage, handheld scenes of early snowboarding and, notably, high-quality audio interviews with Burton himself. What comes through, in addition to his passions for family life and riding, is his focused, territorial approach to commercial competition. This manifested in his feud with Tom Sims, a grudge against mainstream media and pugnacious opposition to letting FIS and the IOC take charge of snowboarding competition. Burton was a creative force of nature on a par with a character like Yvon Chouinard—able to strike out in a new direction, unify a culture and pull millions of customers along for the ride.

The title “Dear Rider” comes from the salutation Burton used at the top of his annual letter to snowboarders, published in the company catalog and read in the film by Woody Harrelson. 

Stream Dear Rider on HBO

120 Years Ski Club Arlberg

Blue Danube Media

In German, with English subtitles

Founded by six passionate mountaineers in 1901, the Ski Club Arlberg became the cradle of Alpine ski teaching and racing in Austria.

In 1907, at age 17, Hannes Schneider joined St. Anton’s Hotel Post, and the area’s ski club, as the first professional instructor in town, and after World War I his influence spread worldwide. With Arnold Lunn, Schneider organized the first Arlberg-Kandahar downhill race in 1928, when Alpine skiers still free-heeled on edgeless skis. As ski equipment improved and the sport grew popular, Schneider sent disciples across the globe—particularly to North America—to spread the gospel. When American friends liberated him from a Nazi jail in 1938, Schneider fled to New Hampshire.

This 24-minute film begins with a color portrait of the ski club as it exists today—as a training ground for local kids headed for international competition and as a social center for more than 9,000 skiers around the world. It then paints the history of skiing in Lech, St. Cristophe and St. Anton in broad strokes. Along with old footage of the Schneider days and of champion racer Karl Schranz, the film features interviews with Olympic champions from Trude Jochum-Beiser to Patrick Ortlieb. 

See the film at skiinghistory.org/resources/video/120-years-ski-club-arlberg

Ski Jumping in Washington State
A Nordic Tradition
By John W. Lundin

Ski jumping, once Washington’s most popular winter sport, was introduced by Norwegian immigrants in the early 20th century. In the Pacific Northwest, competitive jumping began at Rossland, British Columbia, in 1898. The sport migrated to Spokane’s Browne’s Mountain in 1913 and Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill in 1916, moved to midsummer tournaments on Mount Rainier in 1917 and expanded statewide as new ski clubs formed. Washington tournaments attracted the world’s best jumpers—Birger and Sigmund Ruud, Alf Engen, Sigurd Ulland and Reidar Andersen, among others. In 1941, Torger Tokle set two national distance records there in just three weeks. Regional ski areas hosted national and international championships as well as Olympic tryouts, entertaining spectators until Leavenworth’s last tournament in 1978.

Big-hill ski jumping in the Northwest suffered a major blow when the Milwaukee Road Ski Bowl at Hyak burned down in 1949 and was not rebuilt. By the 1970s, public interest had faded and the Northwest’s historic facilities were all dismantled. Leavenworth’s really big jump was the last to go. Unsustainable maintenance and insurance costs contributed to the demise.

Seattle-based lawyer, historian and award-winning author John W. Lundin re-creates the excitement of this nearly forgotten ski jumping heritage. The book was written in conjunction with an exhibit put together by the National Nordic Museum and the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum. This is the author’s third ISHA Skade Award: He was honored in 2018 for Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass and in 2021 for Skiing Sun Valley: From the Union Pacific to the Holdings. –Seth Masia 

Ski Jumping in Washington State: A Nordic Tradition by John W. Lundin, History Press, 226 pages. $32.99 hardbound, $23.99 softcover.

Celebrate Winter
An Olympian’s Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing
By John Morton

A Middlebury College graduate and Vietnam War veteran, John Morton participated in seven Olympics, twice as an athlete for the U.S. Biathlon Team. He served as chief of course for Biathlon events at the Salt Lake City Olympics, and for 11 years was head coach for the Dartmouth College Ski Team. In 1989 he founded Morton Trails, designing cross-country trail systems.

Much of this book is taken from Morty’s radio broadcasts for Vermont Public Radio. The chapters cover a range of topics, elucidating the history of American Nordic skiing in the 1970s and ’80s. Celebrate Winter is an encyclopedia of sorts. Morty writes of his adventures coaching and acting as a team leader at Olympic Games and World Championships. Much of this stuff is hilarious, including “Victory in the Sauna” and “The Joys of Roller Skiing,” while other chapters convey key aspects of cross-country, such as the “The Art and Magic of Waxing Cross-Country Skis.”

Morty is at his best when he waxes philosophical. Few authors describe so well the benefits of international competition. He writes about his friendship with the top Russian biathlete, Alexander Tikhonov. Morty raised money from his athletes to buy a U.S. rifle (of all things!) for his Russian friend. I, too, was very friendly with the Russians on their XC and Nordic combined teams, and even helped them out with some waxing needs. I’m sure we were both criticized by our conservative friends, but Morty covers the idea of friendship among athletes from different countries.

It’s a wonder that U.S. skiers ever moved ahead in the results during these years. “Nordies” had no full-time paid staff. Coaches were assigned as needed at the Olympics or the World Championships, given a plane ticket and sent on their way. Most of the money went to Alpine. I was the cross-country coach for the U.S. Ski Team during this period, and I can corroborate or even expand on Morty’s text.

This is a must-read for skiers of any sort. And you can find out what Morty has been doing all this time. –John Caldwell

Celebrate Winter: An Olympian’s Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing, by John Morton. Independently published. 6 x 9 inches, 260 pages. Paperback $14.95 (Kindle edition $2.99).

Written in the Snows
Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest
By Lowell Skoog

Written in the Snows is a comprehensive history of skiing—mainly of ski mountaineering—in the Northwest. Well-researched and sustained by a gripping narrative, the book takes the reader on an exhilarating ride as the backcountry skiing reaches ever higher elevations and levels of difficulties to the point where even the best practitioners are forced to recognize their limits.

Surmounted by Mt. Rainier, the high peaks of the Cascades trapped every drop of moisture brought by prevailing winds off the Gulf of Alaska. The profound snowfall was impassable in winter, until, in 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed Stampede Pass. The Great Northern crossed Stevens Pass in 1893, and the Milwaukee Railroad crossed Snoqualmie Pass in 1909. Seattle-area skiers, rich with Scandinavian immigrants, quickly pioneered ski trails branching off the rail lines, building small hotels and ski cabins in promising high meadows. In 1906, 151 women and men chartered The Mountaineers. The club has organized outings, winter and summer, ever since and served as a locus for jumping tournaments, racing, and exploratory expeditions.

Lowell Skoog, an ardent practitioner of high-altitude, self-propelled skiing, brings dozens of key events to vivid life, going so far as to replicate, on his own and with friends, some of the pioneering routes and early races. He explains how skiing has been shaped by larger social trends, including immigration, the Great Depression, war, economic growth, conservation and the media, and recounts the adventures of local characters like Milnor Roberts, Olga Bolstad, Hans Otto Giese, Bill Maxwell, Gretchen Kunigk, Don Fraser and John Woodward.

There are excellent photo illustrations throughout and a useful appendix covering ski mountaineering highlights, plus a very useful glossary, valuable listings of references and resources, and a superb index.

As a skier, climber, writer and photographer, Skoog has been a keen observer of Northwest mountaineering since the 1970s. He is the creator of the Alpenglow Gallery and founder of the Northwest Mountaineering Journal, websites that celebrate local mountain culture, and he was a key member of the team that launched the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum. Skoog is the chairman of The Mountaineers History and Library committee. He lives in Seattle.

This is the author’s second ISHA Award. He won the 2010 ISHA Cyber Award for alpenglow.org. –Seth Masia

Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest, by Lowell Skoog. Mountaineers Books, 7 x 9 inches, 336 pages. Paperback $29.95 (Kindle edition $14.99)

Thirty Years in a White Haze
Dan Egan’s Story of Worldwide Adventure and the Evolution of Extreme Skiing
By Dan Egan & Eric Wilbur

Dan Egan’s autobiography is a colorful inside look at the evolution of “extreme” skiing into what we now call big-mountain free-skiing. Dan was a multi-talented athlete with a good business head. Emerging from a large, devout yet unruly Catholic family, he found success in skiing, soccer and sailing. But sports, and the related party scenes, interfered with academics. It took a sporadically heroic effort of self-discipline to complete a college degree in marketing.

After joining his older brother John as a star of Eric Perlman and Warren Miller films, Egan’s talent for marketing enabled him to line up lucrative sponsorships. He seized on emerging VCR technology to become a video-distribution mogul as president of Egan Entertainment Network. Twenty-five years later, after digital technology made VCR distribution obsolete, Dan had to reinvent himself. He went on to careers in ski resort management and marketing; coaching skiing; soccer and sailing; journalism; and consulting on a wide range of video and sponsorship projects in skiing and sailing.

Sibling rivalry was brought to a crisis in 1990, after Dan survived a fatal 38-hour storm high on 18,500-foot Mt. Elbrus in the Russian Caucasus. The brothers went on to collaborate on many more projects, including their X-Treme ski clinics held across North America, and in Chamonix, Val d’Isère and other European destinations. Dan and John Egan were elected to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2016.

Co-author Eric Wilbur is a journalist who has been covering the New England sports, travel and skiing scenes for nearly three decades. His written work has appeared in the Boston Globe, New England Ski Journal, Boston.com, Boston Metro, and various other publications. He fell in love with skiing at an early age, a dedication to the sport that only increased upon moving to Vermont during his college years. He lives with his wife and three children in the Boston area. This is his first book. –SM

Thirty Years in a White Haze: Dan Egan’s Story of Worldwide Adventure and the Evolution of Extreme Skiing, by Dan Egan & Eric Wilbur. Degan Media, Inc., 6 x 9”, 418 pages, paperback. $39.95 (Kindle edition $9.99)

Ski Jumping in Washington State
A Nordic Tradition
By John W. Lundin

Ski jumping, once Washington’s most popular winter sport, was introduced by Norwegian immigrants in the early 20th century. In the Pacific Northwest, competitive jumping began at Rossland, British Columbia, in 1898. The sport migrated to Spokane’s Browne’s Mountain in 1913 and Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill in 1916, moved to midsummer tournaments on Mount Rainier in 1917 and expanded statewide as new ski clubs formed. Washington tournaments attracted the world’s best jumpers—Birger and Sigmund Ruud, Alf Engen, Sigurd Ulland and Reidar Andersen, among others. In 1941, Torger Tokle set two national distance records there in just three weeks. Regional ski areas hosted national and international championships as well as Olympic tryouts, entertaining spectators until Leavenworth’s last tournament in 1978.

Big-hill ski jumping in the Northwest suffered a major blow when the Milwaukee Road Ski Bowl at Hyak burned down in 1949 and was not rebuilt. By the 1970s, public interest had faded and the Northwest’s historic facilities were all dismantled. Leavenworth’s really big jump was the last to go. Unsustainable maintenance and insurance costs contributed to the demise.

Seattle-based lawyer, historian and award-winning author John W. Lundin re-creates the excitement of this nearly forgotten ski jumping heritage. The book was written in conjunction with an exhibit put together by the National Nordic Museum and the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum. This is the author’s third ISHA Skade Award: He was honored in 2018 for Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass and in 2021 for Skiing Sun Valley: From the Union Pacific to the Holdings. –SM 

Ski Jumping in Washington State: A Nordic Tradition by John W. Lundin, History Press, 226 pages. $32.99 hardbound, $23.99 softcover.