Category Columns

Popsicle® sticks and duct tape!  If you were skiing in 1969 or 1970, you may have seen some skiers (usually teenage boys) with a crude extension attached to the back of their ski boots made of, you guessed it, Popsicle®… Continue Reading →

The archives of the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. contain a significant collection of Howard Head’s papers.  Part of that collection is the “Honeycomb Ski” journal which documents Head’s development work from May 1947 to March 1948. … Continue Reading →

Last Saturday I was loading my skis into the rack on one of the gondola cars and in the slot next to mine was this pair of long, skinny skis.  I thought for a minute that someone was on cross… Continue Reading →

When I was a kid, every time I wanted to go outside on an extra cold day my mother would insist that I wear an extra pair of socks.  This even applied to skiing.  And we’re talking those thick, ribbed… Continue Reading →

What was the most memorable ski you ever owned?  And I mean “memorable” in a positive sense.  I’m hoping you’ll share your most memorable skis by posting a comment! Let me start things off by sharing my most memorable ski:… Continue Reading →

What do a fan-type snow gun, Lange-Flo, and Hanson ski boots have in common?  They were all invented by the same person: Alden Hanson!  Hanson was the chief scientist for Dow Chemical and a prolific inventor.  He patented the initial… Continue Reading →

The old lift blankets used on the Mansfield single and double chairs are the skiing nostalgia topic that I hear mentioned most often in the greater Stowe area.  You hear it mentioned in lift lines and in the bars; you… Continue Reading →

I used to hate skiing when it was snowing.  During the 1950s and 1960s I would dread those snowy days even though I knew they usually meant good skiing conditions.  Starting in about 1970 I began to actually enjoy those… Continue Reading →

After World War II, skiing’s popularity in Vermont really began to grow and it brought out the entrepreneurial spirit in Vermonters.  Kermit and Anabel Moriarty lived on the Mountain Road in Stowe with their two sons Marvin and Darwin in… Continue Reading →

The winter of 1949-1950 was a bad snow year and the Tey Manufacturing Company of Milford Connecticut was having a bad year as well.  Tey produced the ALU-60 which was an aluminum ski with a hollow core and arguably ahead… Continue Reading →