ISHA members, ISHA Award honorees and nearly 1,000 of the country’s best recreational racers will gather at Squaw Valley from March 21–24 for parties, lectures, the ISHA Awards banquet, and a celebration of NASTAR’s golden anniversary.
ISHA will hold its 26th annual ISHA Awards banquet on Friday, March 23, in conjunction with NASTAR’s 50th anniversary and its annual NASTAR Finals at Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, California.
ISHA plans a multi-day program spanning March 21 to 24, including lectures and reunions celebrating Squaw Valley’s ski racing tradition, the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, and 50 years of citizen racing through NASTAR. ISHA members are invited to compete in NASTAR’s Team Race on Thursday, March 22, a fundraising event to benefit U.S. Ski Team development athletes. ISHA expects to enter at least one team. We hope to hold the awards banquet in the historic Olympic Village Dining Hall, where the athletes ate in 1960.
The National Standard Race series, created by John Fry and SKI Magazine and first sponsored by Schlitz Brewing Company, launched in 1968. The first national pacesetter was Squaw Valley’s Olympic medalist Jimmie Heuga, and the first pacesetting trials were held at Waterville Valley in December of that year.
A group of ISHA members, including several directors, will return to Squaw Valley April 13–14 to support the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame’s annual induction banquet.
“We’re delighted to partner with NASTAR for this event,” said ISHA president Seth Masia, who taught skiing at Squaw Valley from 1984 to 1993. “By moving our banquet up from April into March, we expect to find more winter-like skiing conditions. March is the best time to ski at Tahoe, with plenty of sunshine, immense snowpack and lots of new snow. I’m eager to organize tours of the 1960 Olympic courses, with folks who were there at the time.”
First established in 1993, the annual ISHA Awards honor the year’s best ski history books, films and other creative media, as well as lifetime achievement for outstanding contributions to the sport’s heritage. For more information on the ISHA Awards, go to skiinghistory.org/events. For full information on ticket sales, lodging and more, see the upcoming September-October issue of Skiing History.
For more information on the ISHA Awards, click here.
