Category Columns

A couple of weeks ago a news story caught my attention about the Mahre brothers winning gold and silver in the slalom at the 1984 Olympics. Actually the story was about the celebration of the 40th anniversary of that event… Continue Reading →

At least once every ski season when I’m skiing the gondola, I hear somebody say “Let’s take Perry Merrill, whoever that was?” The wording may be slightly different, but the meaning is the same. If they are unlucky enough to… Continue Reading →

This column is going to be a medley of unrelated topics. And I’m going to start with a topic that isn’t about skiing or history, although it may be about history in the making. While Vermont has produced more than… Continue Reading →

Bill Jenkins Jr. is one of the few, maybe even the only person to have literally built a ski area from the ground up. Most people start with a mountain or a hill, but Jenkins turned a flat piece of… Continue Reading →

When Mark Anderson answered one of my trivia questions a couple of weeks back, he also shared some interesting statistics he had discovered. “In all, the USA has won 47 Olympic alpine ski medals – only behind Austria (121), Switzerland… Continue Reading →

“I spent a season there one week!” That’s always been my canned response when anyone asks me if I’ve skied Jackson Hole. On my first ski trip to Jackson in 1971, it was raining when we arrived which actually led… Continue Reading →

So far in this Retro-Ski season my Trivia questions haven’t generated many responses. So last week I chose a sure-fire question that I could count on for responses. “Who shot Spider Sabich?” And my readers didn’t disappoint! I heard from… Continue Reading →

“If you like to ski Vermont and want to save the hour it takes to drive north to the larger resorts, Dutch Hill in Heartwellville, Vt., 39 miles from Pittsfield, Mass., offers worthwhile terrain.” That’s an excerpt from the February… Continue Reading →

I received answers to last week’s trivia question on the first overall World Cup winners from Bill Shea and Lyndall Heyer. The men’s winner was Jean-Claude Killy and the women’s winner was Nancy Greene from Canada. Jean-Claude won that first… Continue Reading →

Last week I wrote about the challenges of leather ski boots. That was triggered by people’s reaction to a collection of older ski boots the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum had on display at the Killington World Cup. That collection… Continue Reading →