ISHA Benefit, Essex Junction, Nov 21

A BENEFIT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SKIING HISTORY ASSOCIATION
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21: 5:20 PM
ESSEX CINEMAS
Essex Outlet Shops, Essex Junction, Vt.
A private screening of “THE EDGE OF NEVER”
Followed by Italian dinner at RUSTICO’S
$65 PER PERSON
Send check to 
ISHA
P.O. BOX 4236
SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT 05406-4236
Include your email address for ticket delivery
The International Skiing History Association is a 501 (c) (3) organization.

Jake Moe on Jean Claude Killy

I just received John Fry's sales pitch letter and the reference to Jean Claude.

 

And, immediately my mind races back to 1969 - a couple of years before I started Powder.  I was one of the professional ski patrolmen on the Sun Valley Ski Patrol.  One afternoon, the patrol director pulled Richie Bingham and me into a meeting and informed us that we were not going to be patrolling the next day.  He had chosen us to do avalanche control workfor Jean Claude Killy in the back country.  Killy was starring in a Disney film and the film crew needed to have some pre-skiers attack the slope to make sure that it wasn't going to slide on him during the filming.  Talk about being honored with a most incredible project - hanging out with Killy for a day?  Obviously, it was impossible to sleep with all that excitement.

 

We arose early and got all of our gear for the helicopter ride - and, with Olympic Champion Killy on board we were dropped at the top of a high ridge.  Over the radio, we heard the film director say - "send the patrolmen"!  We jumped off the cliff and immediately were shocked to be in the middle of the most impossible breakable crust that we had ever experienced in Sun Valley  The wind apparently had hit the slope hard the night before and turned a perfectly awesome powder field into 'sheet of crust' three inches thick - and a foot of fresh snow stuck underneath.  We would get some speed up and just barely start to make a turn and our skis would break through and as a result the hard crust would just kill our shins like ice driving into our legs and bringing us to a complete stop creating somersault after somersault.  After falling atleast seven times each from the top of the ridge to the specially built filming platform far down the slope, we slid up to the director and announced that it was no use filming because the slope was completely and totally UN-SKIABLE!  "Like @#$%" he said, "I didn't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to cancel this!"  And, with that he waved for Killy to launch into the slope and ordered film to roll.

 

We had never seen Killy fall in the days that he ripped the slopes of Sun Valley - and, we almost couldn't keep our eyes open knowing that our hero was about to do headers just as we had done multiple times each.  To our surprise, Killy blew through the crust with such power and grace from top to bottom that it left our mouths wide open.  Richie and I turned to each other with the look that said "Did he just ski the slope we skied?"  Later, when reviewing the footage shot that day in slo-motion, it looked as though blocks of snow the size of rail cars were exploding off his ankles and shins.  I have never seen such execution in such impossible conditions in my life.

 

He is definitely my hero

 

Jake

Historic storm opens Colorado season

Great snow at Copper: From Sunday to Tuesday, a storm of historic proportions pounded across the Great Plains. Its western edge brought blizzard conditions to the Colorado Rockies, with strong winds drifting snow up to two feet deep in places. On Thursday, PSIA and AASI demo team members had clear skies for their final day of pre-season training, and Copper mountain lift operators were still digging out. Midwinter snow on Oct 28: Very sweet!

Entries for ISHA Awards

Authors of ski histories published in 2010, and makers during the past year of films and videos about the sport’s past, are invited to submit work for judging. Deadline for entries is Dec. 15, 2010. Three copies of the work should be sent to Rick Moulton, Chairman, ISHA Awards Committee, Box 97, 109 Moulton Drive, Huntington, VT 05462. Winners will honored at Skiing Heritage Week in Sun Valley, Mar. 31, 2011.


See http://skiinghistory.org

Stratton photos from Kimet Hand

Stratton ski school director Emo Henrich, and his daughter Benzi, around 1968.

Frank and Jessie Snyder in 2004.

From Ken Moore

Has Skiing Heritage done a piece on Fritz and Moo-Moo Wiesner? They spent a season in Aspen. a lot of fun and Moo-Moo never took off her fur coat. Their xmas card had a photo of their two very good looking kids.


Did you ever use HuxFlux on your x-country skiis? Dick Durrance gave me some a long time ago. I was with the rescue party that went up Snowmass Creek with Charlie Houston when he discovered that some high altitude sickness was a heart, not a lung, condition. We used skins but Dick used wax and beat us all to the victim.
This rescue began around 5 am on new year's day which meant no partying for the group. Our wives were not too happy about this. I had a medical book with this story in it but moved and lost it. It had a  photo of the rescue group on the trail. Maybe Bob Craig has a copy?

Also, has Skiing Heritage done an article on  the New England college ski team competitions after the Durrance years?  I was skiing for Williams in 1940-41 & 42. Dartmouth and New Hampshire were strong. Great bunch of guys  in those years. That's when Percy Rideout put Beat Me Daddie Boogie on a victrola before anyone was awake and the Dartmouth team ran across all the lined-up cots the teams were sleeping on in the Middlebury gym.


I am more or less house bound and working to keep my memory alive. Skiing Heritage is a great help in this endeavour.


--Ken Moore