I was intrigued with the January-February 2024 issue of the magazine. I found the article “1964: Breakthrough at Innsbruck” fascinating. In 1958-1959 I lived with my family in St. Anton. My parents were friends of Pepi Gabl, who was also a patient of my father’s. We were from Portland, Oregon, where my father was an orthopedic surgeon and Pepi was head of the ski school at Timberline Lodge. Pepi had built a small pension in St. Anton and was thrilled that my parents rented the entire place since Austria was really struggling after its brutal occupation after World War II. Paying guests were a rare commodity.
One day a patient of my fathers, Ron Funk, showed up with most of the U.S. Ski Team. Ron asked if they could live with us because we had room and they had no money. My father thought that was a great idea so long as some of them skied with me when they were in St. Anton during breaks in the racing schedule. All I can say is what an experience I had as a young ski racer from the States skiing with Buddy Werner who was living with us. That was the year Buddy won the Hahnenkamm downhill, which was an absolutely spectacular achievement. He fell in the slalom, and I remember walking down the street in St. Anton and seeing the headline of the newspaper saying, “Werner loses Hahnenkamm slalom”—not “Molterer wins slalom.” The Austrians absolutely loved him. I later went on to be (for what it is worth) the No. 1 Alpine skier for Williams College. Nothing, however, from a skiing point of view was as special as that winter with Buddy Werner, Max Marolt and some of the others.
Jock Kimberley
Portland, Oregon
Oscar Hambro ad, 1938
Oscar Hambro Company Revisited
I liked the back cover feature advertisement of Oscar Hambro Co. (“Ads from the Past,” January-February 2024). From some Norwegian skier research I did years ago, I found that Oscar opened his store in Boston in 1927, behind the Copley Plaza Hotel (now Fairmont Copley Plaza). It was one of the main ski stores in New England until World War II. He also added a store in New York City and opened the second ski factory in New Hampshire in 1937, just after Carl Lund established the Lund Ski factory in Laconia. Skis made in Oscar’s factory bore the Ski-Craft marking, which he patented.
Oscar’s real name was Oscar Pedersen Hamre, born in 1894 to a fishing family on a farm near Stavanger, Norway. He migrated to Montreal in 1926, bringing a consignment of skis, boots and poles to sell. In the winter of 1927, he came to Boston and set up his ski-import store near the Carver Plaza Hotel. In the off season he worked as a sail maker for the yachting and fishing communities around Boston. His store was quite successful. The back cover of the American Ski Annual hosted his ads every year from 1934 through 1940. After World War II he closed the ski shop and bought a 75-foot retired Coast Guard boat he used for commercial fishing. In 1954 he moved to Seattle and later to LaConner, in Skagit County, where he was a well-known part of the commercial fishing community until his passing in 1971.
Kirby Gilbert
Bellevue, Washington
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Editor Seth Masia and authors Paul Hooge (“The Odyssey of Walter Neuron”) and Andreas Praher (“Skiing in Nazi Austria”) are deserving of enormous credit and thanks for finally helping bring to light in the November-December 2023 issue of Skiing History the long-ignored subject of National Socialism’s entanglement with the skiing and mountaineering communities of Austria and Germany, beginning in the earliest days of Nazism. Moreover, the virtual erasure from history of the strong Jewish presence in both those communities prior to the Aryan race laws and regulations being implemented starting in the ١٩٢٠s is also finally coming into focus.
(Photo above: Walter Neuron in Chamonix, 1940)
Of the many facts and stories related to these issues that researcher Jason Williams and I have uncovered in our 15 years of research (which will soon be the subject of a book tentatively titled The Snow Angel) is the crusade in the 1920s and ’30s of Austrian Alpenverein officer Eduard Pichl to eliminate the historical record concerning Jewish free-climbing progenitor Dr. Paul Preuss (acknowledged by Reinhold Messner as perhaps the greatest mountaineer in Austria’s history), the Alpenverein’s close association with Hitler going back to Munich prior to the failed 1923 beer hall putsch, the life-saving ski and mountaineering escapes to Switzerland and Bohemia organized by Jewish skiers in Germany and Austria in the 1930s, and the fact that British skier Sir Nicholas Winton (son of Jewish parents from Germany) used the pretext of a ski trip to the Czech-German border to organize the kindertransport program that saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children and teens in Prague just prior to the start of the Second World War in Europe (the subject of a forthcoming major motion picture).
Some of those older children ended up returning to Europe as elite combat troops in the US 10th Mountain Division. These stories need to be told and remembered. By assisting in that process, Skiing History is fulfilling a vital service not only as a repository of historical data, but as an important torch illuminating both the proud legacy—and the occasionally not-so-proud deviations from
egalitarianism—that marks the story of skiing around the world.
Charles J. Sanders
Briarcliff Manor, New York
Connecting Continents
The November-December edition of Skiing History published my article “Pan-American Championships,” discussing the ski competitions between the Esquiadores Yanquis from the U.S. and South American skiers for the Championship of the Americas from 1937–1950. There was great hope that the competitions would continue to further connect skiing in North and South America.
Despite the good will developed between the skiers from the two continents, World War II prevented future reciprocal visits. Only one more Pan-American Championship was held after the war. No attempts were made to continue the Pan-American Championships, even though interest in Alpine skiing grew substantially on both continents. During the short time the championships were held, they showed that skiing is a way to open bridges between different countries.
John Lundin
Seattle, Washington
Correction
We omitted mention in the November-December issue of the vintage fashion show in our overview of the upcoming Skiing History Week in Park City, Utah, March 20-23, 2024. One of the week’s most popular events, the fashion show is scheduled for the bar to open at 5 pm, with the show at 5:45 pm, on March 20, at the Alf Engen Museum.
Thank you for honoring the late, great Doug Pfeiffer by reprinting one of his many articles (“Revolution in Ski Teaching,” September-October 2023).
Here’s an extra dash of trivia for Doug’s remembrance: He was an early adopter and instructor of snowboarding. At a time when prejudice against snowboarders ran high and many ski areas would not allow “knuckle draggers” on lifts, Doug dropped in. He taught snowboarding at Snow Summit, California, in the late 1980s.
Doug was skeptical at first. In a February 1990 article for Snow Country
magazine, he described snowboarding as “the art of going downhill while standing sideways with feet cast in concrete.” Whatever inefficiencies he saw in the fledgling sport were overcome by his curiosity and perseverance. “A year ago, had anyone told me—a skier of long standing—that I’d actually become joyfully addicted to snowboarding, I’d have fallen off my skis laughing,” he wrote.
He developed a system to teach snowboarding with three basic moves for edge control, pressure control and turning control, promising proficiency in eight hours or less. “I logged 16 hours on a board before white-knuckled terror, even on intermediate runs, was replaced by mostly pleasurable rides. Now I’m able to teach the sport, and my students learn in five to eight hours what took me 16.” The man not only knew how to get down a hill on multiple conveyances, but he shared his knowledge and wrote about it with flair.
Ron Rudolph
Fairfield, Connecticut
Skiing’s Mark Twain
Doug was very special to me. He and Ginny were so welcoming and solicitous to me and my wife, Corinne, on our many trips to Park City/Deer Valley for veteran ski instructors reunions in the early 2000s. He introduced us all around, took us to parties of skiing’s movers and shakers and other friends, made sure we were teamed up with a group for skiing for the next day and skied with us on many, many runs. He loved to do his “Pfeiffer Tuck,” “Royale Christies” and the “Mambo.”
When I mentioned to Doug that I couldn’t believe how well Stein Eriksen skied at Deer Valley, even though Stein at that time was 80, Doug replied to me, “I’m older than Stein!” And Doug was skiing like a teenager.
The year I nominated John Fry and Doug to the Laurentian Ski Museum Hall of Fame, John gave a great acceptance speech, entitled “I Remember/Je me Souviens.” But Doug’s brought the house down. He was witty, funny and historical. I used to call John the dean of North America’s ski history; I often said that Doug was skiing history’s Mark Twain.
Doug was inducted into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1987; the Canadian Ski Museum Hall of Fame in 2000; and the Laurentian Ski Museum’s Hall of Fame in 2016.
Bob Soden
Montreal, Quebec
Be a Holiday Hero
Impress your family and friends by immersing them in the history of our sport for the holidays. A subscription to Skiing History magazine is the ideal gift for the discerning skier or rider—and conveniently suitable as a great stocking-stuffer. Go to skiinghistory.org/join to send a subscription to a friend or family member at a discounted holiday gift rate.
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In late July, a celebration was held for the life of Freda Langell Nieters at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Colorado. Old-timers learned new tales of Freda from other old-timers. Freda had a lifetime of skiing and of contributions to her sport, from girlhood in Oslo to the collegiate team of the University of New Hampshire and winning the intercollegiate downhill championship. She missed an Olympics only because of an injury, yet soon after beat the entire Norway national team. Years later her daughter Ingrid would make up for her mother’s missed Olympics as a cross-country skier in the Lillehammer Olympics. Freda taught as a Nordic instructor and examiner, then in Alpine, primarily at
Keystone and Arapahoe Basin resorts. My understanding is that she was also an Alpine examiner for the Professional Ski Instructors of America .
Hank Thiess, former ski school director at Keystone, where he knew Freda, and at several other resorts, explained about Freda, “An organizer, she developed a cadre of older instructors that took sessions with her and young instructors/coaches with the intent of assuring the ski school’s veterans stayed current in their style and knowledge, calling the group “Freda’s Flying Fossils.” And to instructors she coached regarding their students: “They will never care how much you know until they know how much you care!”
It occurs to me that Skiing History readers who knew of Freda would appreciate knowing of her passing, at 91. And those unfortunate enough to not have known her would also appreciate learning of the legacy of a dedicated life-long skier who brought the meaning of camaraderie and joy to the sport for so many.
William R Jones
Silverthorne, Colorado
Russ Amick with Dad's trophy.
Better Late than Never
During the 1947 Silver Skis race on Mt. Rainier, confusion about the location of the finish line led to a delay in awarding trophies. Don Amick left for home before learning he’d won third place. Early this year, a family in the Yakima Valley sent the engraved platter to the Washington State Ski & Snowboard Museum, which sent it on to Russ Amick, shown here, a mere 76 years after his father finished the race.
Kirby Gilbert
Seattle, Washington
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Just got the May-June 2023 issue and saw the short piece on Colorado’s oldest ski lift. It did start as Chair 3 at Aspen, installed by Bob Heron in 1954 from Spar Gulch to the Sundeck, relieving pressure on the old, slow Number 2 single. But now it’s mostly a much newer Riblet lift. When the chair was moved to Sunlight in 1972, Riblet was called in and made major modifications. Most of the lift dates from 1973: Those are all Riblet chair carriers with Riblet clips securing chairs to cable. The lift is powered by a 1973 Riblet 150 hp vault drive at the top terminal. Only the steel lattice towers, and the return tension station at the bottom, are
original 70-year-old Heron components from 1954.
Kirby Gilbert
Seattle, Washington
Terry Peak poster
The Mighty Terry Peak
Regarding the cover art of the March-April 2023, I would guess the skier is meant to be skiing at Terry Peak, in Deadwood, South Dakota since, as far as I believe, it is the only ski area located near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Interesting tidbit: The top of Terry Peak is at 7,100 feet and, as the area notes on its website, that makes Terry Peak the highest point between the Alps to the east and the Rockies to the west!
Bernie Weichsel
Wayland, Massachusetts
Great reads
Decisions, Decisions
I get up here to Whistler, and I have the best choices for reading material. Just the best ski magazine ever.
Nigel Jones
Seattle, Washington
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Just got the May-June 2023 issue and saw the short piece on Colorado’s oldest ski lift. It did start as Chair 3 at Aspen, installed by Bob Heron in 1954 from Spar Gulch to the Sundeck, relieving pressure on the old, slow Number 2 single. But now it’s mostly a much newer Riblet lift. When the chair was moved to Sunlight in 1972, Riblet was called in and made major modifications. Most of the lift dates from 1973: Those are all Riblet chair carriers with Riblet clips securing chairs to cable. The lift is powered by a 1973 Riblet 150 hp vault drive at the top terminal. Only the steel lattice towers, and the return tension station at the bottom, are
original 70-year-old Heron components from 1954.
Kirby Gilbert
Seattle, Washington
Terry Peak poster
The Mighty Terry Peak
Regarding the cover art of the March-April 2023, I would guess the skier is meant to be skiing at Terry Peak, in Deadwood, South Dakota since, as far as I believe, it is the only ski area located near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Interesting tidbit: The top of Terry Peak is at 7,100 feet and, as the area notes on its website, that makes Terry Peak the highest point between the Alps to the east and the Rockies to the west!
Bernie Weichsel
Wayland, Massachusetts
Great reads
Decisions, Decisions
I get up here to Whistler, and I have the best choices for reading material. Just the best ski magazine ever.
Nigel Jones
Seattle, Washington
07/06/2023 - 1:08 PM
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Support Telemark Racing as an Olympic Discipline
In “Where Are They Now? Hedda Berntsen, Norwegian Triple Threat” (July-August 2022), Aimee Berg writes that the amazing skier/athlete Hedda Berntsen in 1997 won gold at the Telemark World Championships. What an amazing champion in multiple disciplines! It made me ask why has telemark ski racing not made it to the Olympics when there are so many ski disciplines included, while telemark racing has a deep ski history and a strong current international FIS race circuit? After the
classic course, with gates, skating and jump, Hedda said, “I have never been more tired in my whole life on the course or after.”
Back in 2006, Schweitzer Mountain hosted the Telemark World Championships. Our five-year-old daughter was the forerunner for the classic race and went on to considerable success at the USA Telemark National Championships.
Telemark is a FIS sport and the FIS did go to the IOC and ask that telemark ski racing be included in the Beijing 2022 Olympics as a demonstration sport, but the IOC denied the request. Telemark is close to being part of the ski racing Olympic family. Support from Skiing History and readers would probably go a long way to seeing this through. It’s a valid discipline when you see the dedicated athletes and how it connects many ski disciplines into one. Reading the article about Hedda got me revved up to try and get more support for telemark racing in the Olympics.
Tim Boden
Sandpoint, Idaho
A Beer and a Backstory at Totemoff’s
Your story about Pete Totemoff (“New Mexico’s Indispensable Man,” March-April 2023) really hit home with my wife and I, who have skied 15 days this season at Ski Santa Fe, a great little mountain near our home.
Tipping a few at Totemoff’s is always a special part of the mountain experience. A “throwback” true mountain pub if there ever was one. We, like many, had no idea where the name came from or the deep ties it has to the ski tradition of New Mexico—this includes most of Totemoff’s employees.
So, thank you for the wonderful historic article and the deep dive into the man Pete Totemoff himself. This is another example of the part ISHA plays to keep the ski tradition alive. All involved are to be complimented for their efforts.
Duane and Susan Larson
Santa Fe, N.M.
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Support Telemark Racing as an Olympic Discipline
In “Where Are They Now? Hedda Berntsen, Norwegian Triple Threat” (July-August 2022), Aimee Berg writes that the amazing skier/athlete Hedda Berntsen in 1997 won gold at the Telemark World Championships. What an amazing champion in multiple disciplines! It made me ask why has telemark ski racing not made it to the Olympics when there are so many ski disciplines included, while telemark racing has a deep ski history and a strong current international FIS race circuit? After the
classic course, with gates, skating and jump, Hedda said, “I have never been more tired in my whole life on the course or after.”
Back in 2006, Schweitzer Mountain hosted the Telemark World Championships. Our five-year-old daughter was the forerunner for the classic race and went on to considerable success at the USA Telemark National Championships.
Telemark is a FIS sport and the FIS did go to the IOC and ask that telemark ski racing be included in the Beijing 2022 Olympics as a demonstration sport, but the IOC denied the request. Telemark is close to being part of the ski racing Olympic family. Support from Skiing History and readers would probably go a long way to seeing this through. It’s a valid discipline when you see the dedicated athletes and how it connects many ski disciplines into one. Reading the article about Hedda got me revved up to try and get more support for telemark racing in the Olympics.
Tim Boden
Sandpoint, Idaho
A Beer and a Backstory at Totemoff’s
Your story about Pete Totemoff (“New Mexico’s Indispensable Man,” March-April 2023) really hit home with my wife and I, who have skied 15 days this season at Ski Santa Fe, a great little mountain near our home.
Tipping a few at Totemoff’s is always a special part of the mountain experience. A “throwback” true mountain pub if there ever was one. We, like many, had no idea where the name came from or the deep ties it has to the ski tradition of New Mexico—this includes most of Totemoff’s employees.
So, thank you for the wonderful historic article and the deep dive into the man Pete Totemoff himself. This is another example of the part ISHA plays to keep the ski tradition alive. All involved are to be complimented for their efforts.
Duane and Susan Larson
Santa Fe, N.M.
05/06/2023 - 2:14 PM
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Justice Served: Jim Thorpe’s 1912 Gold Medals Restored
In my article “Pro vs. Am” (July-August 2022), I discussed the historic conflict between the concepts of amateurism and professionalism in skiing and Olympic sports. The most tragic victim of this conflict was Jim Thorpe, who won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympic Games in the decathlon and pentathlon, two of the most difficult of all sporting events.
Thorpe dominated the 1912 Olympic Games, with Swedish King Gustav V telling him at the medal ceremonies, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” However, Thorpe had earned $25 a week while playing semi-professional baseball before his Olympic career, and in 1913, he was stripped of both medals by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the era’s strict rules governing amateurism. Historians consider this action to be a combination of racism against Thorpe, who was Native American, and a rigid adherence to the idea of amateurism.
In 1982, the IOC partially restored Thorpe’s 1912 successes by declaring him co-winner of the two medals. But that partial victory is now complete. In July, the IOC announced that Thorpe is now officially recognized as the sole winner of the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games, while the two athletes who received the medals after they were stripped from Thorpe will be recognized as co-silver medalists of their events. When Thorpe died in 1953, the New York Times called him “probably the greatest natural athlete the world had seen in modern times.”
John W. Lundin
Seattle, Washington
Avery Brundage in 1912. He
competed with Jim Thorpe, and
lost.
Amateur Athletes? Hardly
John Lundin (“Pro vs. Am,” July-August 2022) is right to point out Avery Brundage’s hypocritical stands on amateurism in Olympic competition. But Brundage’s hypocrisy went beyond the unfortunate examples Lundin cites. Even though most Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc Olympians (and other top athletes) were supported by their governments, Brundage saw no problem in their participation in the Olympics. The value of that government support far exceeded the value of prizes or endorsements that led Brundage to disqualify famous athletes such as Karl Schranz. Athletes from the Soviet Union and the states it dominated were often paid by the military or other state institutions without having to do much other than train and compete. Some amateurs!
Ivo Krupka
Former President
Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum
Ottawa, Canad
T-Bar Timeline
I have a correction to make about the Sugarloaf poster in the “Many Gems at Swann’s Winter Auction” (May-June 2022). Those are all T-bars, not chairlifts, on the poster. The poster was created later than 1955. The lower of the tandem T-bars was built in the summer of 1956; the upper T-bar was built the next summer. The lower left T-bar was built later.
Jean Luce
Carrabassett Valley, Maine
Correction
Due to an editing error, we reported in the July-August issue that Hedda Bernsten and her husband, Tyler Conrad, spend summers in New England. In fact, they live near the ski resort of Hemsedal, Norway, in the winter and in coastal Tønsberg, in the summer.
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Justice Served: Jim Thorpe’s 1912 Gold Medals Restored
In my article “Pro vs. Am” (July-August 2022), I discussed the historic conflict between the concepts of amateurism and professionalism in skiing and Olympic sports. The most tragic victim of this conflict was Jim Thorpe, who won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympic Games in the decathlon and pentathlon, two of the most difficult of all sporting events.
Thorpe dominated the 1912 Olympic Games, with Swedish King Gustav V telling him at the medal ceremonies, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” However, Thorpe had earned $25 a week while playing semi-professional baseball before his Olympic career, and in 1913, he was stripped of both medals by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the era’s strict rules governing amateurism. Historians consider this action to be a combination of racism against Thorpe, who was Native American, and a rigid adherence to the idea of amateurism.
In 1982, the IOC partially restored Thorpe’s 1912 successes by declaring him co-winner of the two medals. But that partial victory is now complete. In July, the IOC announced that Thorpe is now officially recognized as the sole winner of the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games, while the two athletes who received the medals after they were stripped from Thorpe will be recognized as co-silver medalists of their events. When Thorpe died in 1953, the New York Times called him “probably the greatest natural athlete the world had seen in modern times.”
John W. Lundin
Seattle, Washington
Avery Brundage in 1912. He
competed with Jim Thorpe, and
lost.
Amateur Athletes? Hardly
John Lundin (“Pro vs. Am,” July-August 2022) is right to point out Avery Brundage’s hypocritical stands on amateurism in Olympic competition. But Brundage’s hypocrisy went beyond the unfortunate examples Lundin cites. Even though most Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc Olympians (and other top athletes) were supported by their governments, Brundage saw no problem in their participation in the Olympics. The value of that government support far exceeded the value of prizes or endorsements that led Brundage to disqualify famous athletes such as Karl Schranz. Athletes from the Soviet Union and the states it dominated were often paid by the military or other state institutions without having to do much other than train and compete. Some amateurs!
Ivo Krupka
Former President
Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum
Ottawa, Canad
T-Bar Timeline
I have a correction to make about the Sugarloaf poster in the “Many Gems at Swann’s Winter Auction” (May-June 2022). Those are all T-bars, not chairlifts, on the poster. The poster was created later than 1955. The lower of the tandem T-bars was built in the summer of 1956; the upper T-bar was built the next summer. The lower left T-bar was built later.
Jean Luce
Carrabassett Valley, Maine
Correction
Due to an editing error, we reported in the July-August issue that Hedda Bernsten and her husband, Tyler Conrad, spend summers in New England. In fact, they live near the ski resort of Hemsedal, Norway, in the winter and in coastal Tønsberg, in the summer.
Your recent article “Lifts that Went Nowhere” (May-June 2022) reminded me of an uphill lift I experienced in 1959. The nearest big mountain close to my home in upper Austria was the Feuerkogel. Once one took the gondola up the mountain you ended up on some snowfields with several huts. I walked about two hours to the Rieder Hütte, named after the town I lived in. After an overnight stay I toured back. But then I approached a lift that reminds me now of a T-bar. The main difference was its size. There was space for about 10 people, lining up next to each other. In front of us was a wooden beam on the ground attached to a cable. We all grabbed the beam, and after a nervous wait an attendant gave the command: los geht’s! (let’s go!) and off we went, similar to the Roca Jack lift in Portillo, Chile. Whoever was not alert was left behind or was being dragged along for a while. After a few hundred meters travel we reached the top. I assume that beam was then dragged back for the next load of daring skiers. I survived it and am still skiing at the age of 81.
Heino Nowak
Manchester, Vermont
Coach Schaeffler
Celebrating Willy
I would like to add to “The Original Rebel” story (May-June 2022) about Willy Schaeffler. The airbags used around towers and other immovable objects on or near the course of the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel are today still called Willy Bags. This came about when Willy was setting the course in 1982. He designed the bags after realizing the tower protection had been hay bales, which could freeze at night,
turning them into cement.
During my nearly 30 years in the ski industry with Roffe Skiwear our paths would cross, and we would dine together. His stories were fascinating. He told me he was in front of a firing squad three times. Your story told of one of them. And he told me he loved pork because Dr. Michael DeBakey, the famous heart surgeon, put a pig valve in his heart.
Shortly before his death, I attended a private celebration of life for him at the Fairmont Hotel in Denver. Many of his past University of Denver and U.S. Ski Team members were there. The last speaker was one of his team members and spoke for all of them. He relayed that Willy would make them run up the stairs of the university grandstand with a fellow team member on their backs. If someone failed to do it, the punishment was sucking a raw egg. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out an egg. “Suck this, Willy,” he shouted. It was a solid gold egg!
Wini Jones
Bainbridge Island, Washington
T-bars, not chairlifts.
T-Bar Timeline
I have a correction to make about the Sugarloaf poster in the “Many Gems at Swann’s” (May-June 2022). Those are all T-bars, not chairlifts on the poster. The poster was created later than 1955. The lower of the tandem T-bars was built in the summer of 1956; the upper T-bar was built the next summer. The lower left T-bar was built later.
Jean Luce
Carrabassett Valley, Maine
Correction
The photo of Killington’s customized Skyeship gondola cabin in “Lifts that Went Nowhere” (May-June 2022) was taken by Mark D. Phillips.
The November–December 2021 issue’s “Whatever Happened To” explored the ruade technique, developed in France in the 1940s and introduced to the U.S. by Emile Allais. There is an interesting story about Allais, ruade and Sun Valley.
(Photo above: Emile Allais (second from left) at Squaw Valley, 1949, with instructors Dodie Post, Warren Miller, Charlie Cole and Alfred Hauser. Courtesy Palisades Tahoe.)
In 1947, Otto Lang became head of the Sun Valley Ski School. In his autobiography, A Bird of Passage, Lang said it was time to revitalize the ski school and it needed “a celebrity with the charisma of a superior ski racer who could also teach.” In 1948, he brought in four-time world champion and Olympic medalist Allais, famous for devising the French direct-to-parallel teaching technique, in opposition to the stem-based Arlberg system that was the mainstay of the Sun Valley school. Hannes Schneider, godfather of Arlberg, approved the hire, since “only time will tell which of the techniques deserved to last.” Allais worked out well and was a popular instructor.
Lang described ruade as “a christiania with the skis held parallel, and in order to initiate the change of direction, one lifted the tail ends of both skis off the snow and started the turn in midair to head the skis in the opposite direction.” He found it “a physically taxing maneuver, but very useful under certain conditions, such as a crusted or deeply rutted snow surface. The sight of a bunch of skiers doing the ruade reminded me of a flock of bunny rabbits hopping around and frolicking in the snow.”
That spring, Allais was hired to launch the Squaw Valley Ski School. When Lang saw Allais years later, he asked “What about ruade?” Allais replied, “Extinct as the dodo bird.”
John W. Lundin
Seattle, Washington
Cover Blurb Blunder
Ingrid Christophersen has delivered a valuable anthology to the international skiing community with To Heaven’s Heights. She deserves the recognition of ISHA’s Ullr Award for her extensive research and translation achievement and this addition to the skiing literature canon.
Readers of Skiing History also should know that the back cover of the volume highlights an entry by Leni Riefenstahl, the German filmmaker best known for glorifying Hitler and the Nazi regime. The 438-page volume contains entries from 100-plus authors. Singling out Riefenstahl for the back cover suggests a naivety or tone-deafness, especially during this time of growing anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism. To the author’s and publisher’s credit, the Riefenstahl reference, included in the book’s early publicity materials, was removed from subsequent promotional materials when the issue was brought to their attention. It remains on the back cover.
Jon Weisberg
SeniorsSkiing.com
Salt Lake City, Utah
Correction
Due to an editing error, on page 20 of “The Legacy of Spider Sabich” (March-April 2022), the site of Spider’s first WPS race—and victory—was misidentified. The race was held at Buffalo, New York, not Hunter Mountain. A caption on page 22 misidentified the woman in the photo. It’s Missy Greis, Spider’s daughter, not her mother Dede Brinkman.
Ties That Bind: The Origin Story of Sport Obermeyer
When I saw the photo of Friedl Pfeifer, Walter Paepcke, Herbert Bayer and Gary Cooper in the November-December issue all wearing my Koogie pom-pom ties (“Heavy Lifting: Aspen Under Construction,”) I thought I would tell the story.
As a young boy in Bavaria in the early 20’s, skiing was a formal sport. People wore shirts and ties and wool overcoats. The tie for skiing was called the ‘koogie pom–pom’. Koogie in the Bavarian dialect is the German word for Kugel which means ball. The ties were made of yarn. I remember men would come to our house wearing the Koogie tie on their way to go skiing. I asked my mother to make one for me, which she did. Then my friends wanted one, too. So my mother taught me how to make them.
I arrived in Aspen in 1947 to teach for Friedl Pfeifer. The following spring, as there was no work in Aspen, I bought a Ford car for $350 and headed back to Sun Valley. I bought some yarn in Hailey and made some samples of the koogie pom-pom ties. Pete Lane’s Ski Shop ordered three dozen. The retail price was $1.75 each. I gave him a 10 percent cash discount because I had spent all my money on yarn. He paid me in silver dollars. A few days later he ordered 6 dozen more!
Averell Harriman gave some to the employees.
In Aspen in the fall of 1947, there were just seven instructors. Because the ski business was often slow, I played chess with Walter Paepcke, sometimes all night. Gary Cooper liked coming to Aspen. One day he said to me, “Klaus, I hear you started a business selling pom-pom ties. Maybe it would help your business if I wore one.”
“I would be happy to give you one Gary,” I said.
“No, I will pay retail” he insisted.
That was the first Sport Obermeyer product and the beginning of our company.
Klaus Obermeyer
Aspen, Colorado
Cover Story
The cover of the magazine’s November-December 2020 issue shows my old ski school director Luggi Foeger, who I worked for from 1947-1952 at Badger Pass Ski Area in Yosemite, California. The cover, from a photograph, shows him making a turn at Ostrander, near Badger Pass. It was a favorite place to show students the perfect position while making a turn. You came down a fairly steep hill and near the bottom there was a drop off so the skier had to move his upper half of his body forward to keep proper balance. So it showed him quite forward in his turn. This was vogue at the time. Several ski instructors and me were working on a film in 1950 or 51 and the filmmaker chose that spot.
Jim McConkey
Denman Island, British Columbia
Skiing with Stein
When the November-December 2021 issue arrived, the first thing I saw was the Jantzen ad on the back cover with Stein Eriksen’s photo and the history of Stein and his brother Marius’s sweaters knitted by their mother.
I was reminded of that memorable time in April 1989, when I traveled with Stein to Norway, as a writer for SKI. Other journalists and I skied with Stein in Hemsedal, and it was there that Stein gave me a red, white and blue sweater knitted by his mother. I also met his brother Marius.
I dared not wear the gifted sweater, because it seemed too precious. A couple of years ago, however, I gave it to a relative. An avid skier, she loves it and wears it with pride.
Laurel Lippert
Truckee, California
Legacy of the Kokanee Camps
Regarding the story about the birth of the Canadian National Ski Team (January-February issue): The Canadian Ski Team program at Notre Dame University beginning in 1964 was a success but the academic calendar was a bad fit with the World Cup tour (1967), so the program ended in 1969. It did inspire the creation of high-school level ski academies across North America.
Many of the program’s athletes became successful professionals. We learned resilience and determination by overcoming injuries or defeat. We forged a lifelong bond of friendship. That was a gift over and above all the medals and success stories.
I would like to honor Emily Ringham-Beauchamp, who kept the Nelson group in contact for years by organizing reunions and gatherings. She annually hosted an event to support the Ernie Gare athletic scholarships, named to honor one of program’s founders. For the 50th ski team reunion in 2005, she organized a nostalgic trip up to Kokanee glacier to visit the beautiful new Alpine Club cabin and check out our carved names on the walls of the old Kokanee cabin. Emily passed away in 2018, before our most recent reunion.
Eva Kuchar, PhD
Pointe-Clair, Quebec
Correction
In “Aspen Under Construction” (November-December 2021 issue), an editorial error misstated the name of Greg
Poschman’s Swiss-born grandfather, who designed some of the Lift 1 components. His name was Paul Purchard, and he was an engineer and patent attorney. We regret the error.
ISHA Awards
The best works of skiing history published during 2021.
Awards Banquet March 24, 2022
Lifetime Achievement Award
Jeff Leich, executive director, New England Ski Museum, for Research, Writing and Museum Stewardship
Ullr Book Awards
Celebrate Winter: An Olympian’s Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing by John Morton (Independently published)
30 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)
Skiing: In the Eye of the Artist by E. John B. Allen (Egoth)
To Heaven’s Heights: An Anthology of Skiing in Literature, compiled by Ingrid Christophersen, MBE (Unicorn)
Skade Book Awards
Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast: 50 Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in New England and New York by David Goodman (Appalachian Mountain Club Books).
Ski Jumping in Washington State: A Nordic Tradition by John W. Lundin (Arcadia Publishing)
Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest by Lowell Skoog (Mountaineers Books)
Harris Hill Ski Jump: The First 100 Years by Kevin O’Conner and the 100th Anniversary Book Committee (Harris Hill Ski Jump Inc.)
Mount Assiniboine, The Story by Chic Scott (Assiniboine Publishing) – John Fry Award for Excellence
Baldur Book Award
Way Out West: The Skiing Years by Paul G. Ryan (Cape Cod Cinema)
Film Awards
Spider Lives. Executive Producers: Christin Cooper, Mike Hundert, Mark Taché, Edith Thys Morgan, Hayden Scott
120 Years Ski Club Arlberg. Blue Danube Media: Alessandra Ravanelli and Hadmar Charlie Mayer, Markus Knaus
In Pursuit of Soul. A TGR Film. Director: Jeremy Grant. Producer: Drew Holt
Dear Rider: The Jake Burton Story. An HBO Documentary. Director: Fernando Villena. Producer: Ben Bryan. For Burton: Abby Young, Mike Cox.
Honorable Mentions
La Grande Histoire du Ski (film)
Skiing in New Mexico by Daniel Gibson and Jay Blackwood
Better Late than Never
A Beer and a Backstory at Totemoff’s
Your story about Pete Totemoff (“New Mexico’s Indispensable Man,” March-April 2023) really hit home with my wife and I, who have skied 15 days this season at Ski Santa Fe, a great little mountain near our home.
