How Vermonters, Austrians and Swiss launched skiing below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Yankee skiers often assume that Mount Washington is the highest peak in the eastern United States, but it ain’t. More than a dozen mountains in the southern Appalachians are higher, and they even host some 17 ski resorts. The base village at Beech Mountain, North Carolina, sits more than 1,000 feet higher than the top of Mt. Mansfield’s lift network, Vermont’s highest.
Ed King is well known among Sun Valley locals as the only African-American ski instructor in the history of the resort. Considered by most ski historians as the birthplace and role model of American destination ski resorts, Sun Valley built its ski school around European-trained managers, who seemed to have been uninterested in the diversity of skiing talent on hand in its major market, Seattle.
Photo above by David N. Seelig, courtesy Idaho Mountain Express
With medals in three different disciplines and a Ph.D., this multi-tasker is on her way to doing it all.
Within 13 years, Hedda Berntsen won a World Championship in telemark skiing, a World Championship bronze in slalom and an Olympic silver in skicross. That puts her in the versatility Hall of Fame along with Birger Ruud (won jumping gold, and the downhill half of Alpine combined, in the same Olympics) and Ester Ledecká (gold in super G and snowboarding). Now, at age 46, she owns a Ph.D. in sports psychology and still podiums in FIS races.
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.
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.
Dakin, LeMaster, Rietz, Thoren, Upham and Bleiler to be honored August 21.
The Colorado Snowsports Hall of Fame has announced its Class of 2022, to be formally inducted on August 21 at the Gerald. R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Colorado. They are:
At a certain point in life, it’s best to reward joy, not athletic achievement. That way, you can never lose.
Most of us these days refuse to accept the fact that our bodies are aging before our eyes. There was a time in college when I could play basketball for four hours straight and not get tired. I could paddle a hundred-pound redwood surfboard all day or ski summit to base from first chair to last and not take a break. As I look back on my modest athletic career, I realize that the way I measure success has changed as much as I have.
By 1950, the Union Pacific Railroad wanted Sun Valley, a playground for the rich, to run at a profit. That meant attracting middle-class skiers. The resort slashed prices: In 1952 you got a full week of skiing for $92, including meals and lodging, lifts and ski school lessons. In today’s inflated currency, that would be $1004. Add $73 (from Chicago) for a coach ticket on the Union Pacific, and you couldn’t afford to stay home. The train left Chicago at 5:30 p.m. and after 27 hours, you got off the bus in Sun Valley at 9:40 p.m. local time.
Berkshire East and Catamount Resorts are a generous corporate sponsor for ISHA's programs. We are grateful for their support!
On the Cover:
A 1970 promotional for Pan American World Airways billed Pan Am as the official carrier of the U.S. Ski Team, but that's not a ski team uniform. Artist unknown.
