Category Columns

I moved to Vermont in 1968 and one of the few possessions I brought with me was my Barrecrafters ski rack. By the way, I did not bring any skis with me. My old Northlands with missing edge segments and… Continue Reading →

Earl Eaton was born December 10, 1922 in Eagle, Colorado. Like most families in the Eagle River valley, the Eatons scratched out a living through farming, ranching, and logging. In the early 1900s the valley was actually one of the… Continue Reading →

Forty five years ago from February 4-15 the 1976 Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck, Austria. Highlights included Dorothy Hamill winning the gold in figure skating and starting a worldwide hairstyle craze; Alpine skier Rosi Mittermaier coming oh-so-close to winning… Continue Reading →

First, some comments I received on my “guest column” by the late Bill McCollom. In that column, Bill described participating in one of the last hike-to-ski downhill races in the Northeast which was held on New Hampshire’s Mt. Tecumseh in… Continue Reading →

A few weeks back I wrote about how some friends shared digitized images from 40-50 years ago and that triggered so many memories. It also motivated me to have the movie I took of our 1970 ski trip to Aspen… Continue Reading →

I guess it was inevitable that one of my trivia questions would stir up a controversy! But I’ll get to that a little later in the column. Averell Harriman was a railroad magnate in the 1930s. He had seen the… Continue Reading →

Ski boots have always been a common complaint by skiers. That was certainly true in the Retro-Ski days of leather boots! The 1960s saw several companies experimenting with plastic ski boots, but Bob Lange emerged from the group with the… Continue Reading →

I’ve noticed an increase in popularity of the old-style ski rack on cars. That is, the kind that clamp skis either in a single layer or in pairs. In recent years ski boxes seemed to have taken over that market… Continue Reading →

Bill McCollom was a Vermonter, a Retro-Skier, a ski racer, a coach, a teacher, a writer, and a friend. He passed away unexpectedly in June. COVID, while it didn’t cause his death, robbed the rest of us of the opportunity… Continue Reading →

So what company was the first to offer a down parka? Tim “Griff” Griffin knew that it was Eddie Bauer! Eddie Bauer, the person, started Eddie Bauer’s Tennis Shop in Seattle in 1920. Gradually he expanded what the shop carried… Continue Reading →