More Retro memories????

Quote:

Originally Posted by skilzthatkilz 

 Isn't it amazing that Lindsay Vonn & Kristina Kosnick came out of Buck Hill's racing program?  Not only is it a midwest bump, it's the smallest midwest bump I've ever been to.

 

This Pro Race was actually at Afton Alps.  I skied all of the hills you mentioned when I was younger and some of them are indeed gone.  Snowcrest is now a very nice golf course and the other hill very close to that (Birch Park) now has houses on it (you can still see where the runs were.  Trollhaugen is alive and well - I think the snowboarders like it.  Welch just opened up some new runs on their back side this year.  I don't know if you ever made it up to Lutsen, but they've also grown over the years.  They opened up the adjacent sawtooth mountain that has just over 1,000 vertical with some very nice long runs and one true double black on the back side that is just as steep as the double blacks out west (although obviously shorter).  They didn't even put the run on their trail maps.  It doesn't have a formal sign at the top, just a couple of those round blaze orange "experts only" signs at the top.  Sweet.

 

Being from the Midwest I have headed up North to Minnesota for some skiing.

top photo: Welch

middle: Mt. Kato

bottom: Steeplechase

Steeplechase is in limbo right now -- it has been for sale a couple years. I think the story is (not positive) that the owner of Coffee Mill area created Steeplechase, and then passed away shortly after it opened.

The day lodge is a converted church.

Story on inventor Earl Miller from SNOW COUNTRY March/April 1994.

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Finally a picture of Carl Ettlinger (from SNOW COUNTRY Sept. 1994).

Page 1 for now from a story of 5 pages...

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Quote:

Originally Posted by MidwestPete 

Finally a picture of Carl Ettlinger (from SNOW COUNTRY Sept. 1994).

 

Page 1 for now from a story of 5 pages...

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If anyone would like to read I will try to scan this better and also scan the rest of the story - just let me know...
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MidwestPete 

 

I have a few hundred taped  (VHS) races, episodes of Subaru Ski World, Chevy Truck Ski World, Mogul events, Pro Racing, various Olympic skiing events, etc. I even edited out the commercials. I kind of slowed down on my taping just a bit when I got married, and pretty much stopped when I became a dad. By that time VHS seemed pretty crude anyway...
 

 

I entered everything into a spreadsheet and cataloged everything so I have easy access. I think I have about 10 years worth (80s-90s)

 

My favorite taped event is from the first X-Games skier-cross at Crested Butte where they probably sent  about 10 people out at once and then they all had to funnel through one little opening. I think Seth Morrison broke some ribs -- people were getting injured right and left. It was pretty stupid how they set up the event but it was awesome to watch.

A portion of my spreadsheet -- I still have a box of tapes that never made it to the spreadsheet - we moved, then I just became busier and busier with home and work. Someday I will complete it!

click to zoom in -- you can actually read this if you go in far enough...

It's a good thing you have them stored safely right behind that large magnet.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

It's a good thing you have them stored safely right behind that large magnet.  

No magnets here -- too dangerous with that metal plate in my head.

 

Honestly, I do need to buy something to convert them to digital -- they take up too much room. And videotape is so 80s.

Hey Phil P. -- were you ever in any mogul or freestyle events in the 80s or 90s? -- I might have it on tape.

My parents used to have some Betamax tapes from my USSA Freestyle events in the early 80s.  Dad's gone and Mom has moved three times (from a 5 bedroom house down to a studio apartment ) since the last time I visited her place in Oklahoma.  So, I'm guessing those tapes hit the garbage years ago.  Still, if I ever come across them I'd figure out a way to salvage them over to DVD if possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crgildart 

My parents used to have some Betamax tapes from my USSA Freestyle events in the early 80s.  Dad's gone and Mom has moved three times (from a 5 bedroom house down to a studio apartment ) since the last time I visited her place in Oklahoma.  So, I'm guessing those tapes hit the garbage years ago.  Still, if I ever come across them I'd figure out a way to salvage them over to DVD if possible.

My tapes don't go back quite that far -- I bought my VCR in the mid 80s. They were about $700-$800 for a 2-head model back then.

Maybe your Mom will surprise you and still have them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MidwestPete 

 

No magnets here -- too dangerous with that metal plate in my head.

 

Honestly, I do need to buy something to convert them to digital -- they take up too much room. And videotape is so 80s.

 

Hey Phil P. -- were you ever in any mogul or freestyle events in the 80s or 90s? -- I might have it on tape.

Thats funnier than my attempt at humor with the magnet. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

 

Thats funnier than my attempt at humor with the magnet. 

I guess that is a no.

 

Geek that I am I'll interupt the yuck fest with this tech note.

For under $100 bucks you can get a tv receiver card or USB device to connect the tape deck to your computer. Recording is usually part of today's tv software that comes with a video card.

I use an ATI TV Wonder 550 in a Vista Ultimate PC. It is connected to cable, a VHS tape deck and a TV (with an ATI 1650 video card). I'm loving have time shifted TV (buffer some tv before you watch, then skip commercials; pause live TV to get a beer; etc.) as well as recording live TV shows through a very simple interface: choose the show for the online guide and choose record. My cable and TV are analog; I could output to HDTV, the video card supports it.

Here are most of my pins.

Notable are:

the big one: the slogan for Mt. Washington Valley, NH in the 60's

the apple pin: an original from when I worked at Apple between '81 and 85'

smoking man pin: aka Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race particpant's pin www.skimuseum.org/hsmcr.html

ESSC: Eastern Slopes Ski Club pin; I think this is from the 60's; I raced for ESSC as a junior;

www.easternslopeskiclub.org/; the site is pretty slim ;o)

THINK SNOW: shouldn't we all? original from 60's 70's

Notable:

I Skied the Polecat and I Skied the Bobcat Trail: there were mail boxes of pins on every trail at some time in the 60's; collect every pin and become a Wildcat Ski Meister.

Ski Club Davos, Parsenn Derby: here is a link to the story about how I won this pin

www.swissam.com/news/2006-2007/2007_Davos.asp

Not pins, but very near and dear.

Picture from the 1998 Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race

L to R

Starr Jordan - she was a race official when I raced as a junior; note the wooden twin tip skis

Steven, my brother - he won the vintage costume contest

Myself - I was second in the costume contest; I raced dual with Steven in the classic race and won!

Unknown

The event raises funds for the NE Ski Museum (New England, not Nebraska )

Quote:

Originally Posted by MastersRacer 

Picture from the 1998 Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race

 

L to R

Starr Jordan - she was a race official when I raced as a junior; note the wooden twin tip skis

Steven, my brother - he won the vintage costume contest

Myself - I was second in the costume contest; I raced dual with Steven in the classic race and won!

Unknown

 

The event raises funds for the NE Ski Museum (New England, not Nebraska )

You were robbed - you should have gotten first place!

I have been to the New England Ski Museum. I read a few years ago "the old man in the mountain" rock formation kind of crumbled away. That's fairly close to the museum, isn't it?

I also have had a ride on your hometown's SkiMobile -- too bad they took it out.
 

Thanks for the info on tape to digital -- I will need to go to Best Buy!

Whoa - that ring is too awesome!! You're the first US Ski team member I have known. I know Chad Fleischer's brother Korby, but have yet to meet Chad - but someday I will (they were born in Nebraska).

If that ring were mine I think I would keep it in a safety deposit box!

Great pin collection -- now I am not the only geek! Did you get your free glass of ice water at Wall Drug in South Dakota, or perhaps your picture taken riding the giant Jackalope?

The Sultans of the Slopes - More Weems Westfeldt...

From SNOW COUNTRY Nov. 1994

"How good were those old skis?" - SNOW COUNTRY March 1995

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Quote:

Originally Posted by MidwestPete 

 

You were robbed - you should have gotten first place!

 

I have been to the New England Ski Museum. I read a few years ago "the old man in the mountain" rock formation kind of crumbled away. That's fairly close to the museum, isn't it?

 

I also have had a ride on your hometown's SkiMobile -- too bad they took it out.
 

Thanks for the info on tape to digital -- I will need to go to Best Buy!

 

Whoa - that ring is too awesome!! You're the first US Ski team member I have known. I know Chad Fleischer's brother Korby, but have yet to meet Chad - but someday I will (they were born in Nebraska).

 

If that ring were mine I think I would keep it in a safety deposit box!

 

Great pin collection -- now I am not the only geek! Did you get your free glass of ice water at Wall Drug in South Dakota, or perhaps your picture taken riding the giant Jackalope?

Edited by MidwestPete - 6/6/2009 at 01:35 am GMT

Steven's clothing was all authentic; he had a collector friend loan him stuff. My hat was a modern sheerling, glasses from LL Bean, sweater from Argentina (summer of 1976 ski trip, 3 weeks at Bariloche, it was fantastic), pants were Aussie issue WWII. Plus, I won in the gates, where it matters!
 

The NE Ski Museum is at the base of Cannon ski area near the former Old Man. I've skied there a few times, mostly to race. One day in 1977 was memorable in that it was sunny and warm, not windy and cold.

The Skimobile was great. It scared the s___ out of lots of tourists and was hard to get on and off without the right technique. At one point it was probably 50 feet off the ground. It got to be too much to maintain, being all wood it went the way of old wooden roller coasters.

The old man fell off a few years back. One minute its there, the next its gone. They had been strapping and bolting it together for decades. It was formed by erosion and they tried to stop Mother Nature and failed; go figure ;o). There is now a silhouette sign at the viewing area. If you stand in the right spot you can put the silhouette in your line of sight so that you can 'see' how it would have looked.

I didn't know about the free glass of ice water; I was ripped off. I'll have to go back for that. I arrived late at night and left early the next day. Most of the concessions were closed. There were bikers arriving for Sturgis the next week. An interesting site. We drove to Rushmore and through the Black Hills shortly before the forest burned flat in 2000. That was part of one of my only two cross country drives (NH to CO both times). The VW Jetta would choose not to start at various times, the starter overheated. That's how I got to walk around and see the Corn Palace in Mitchell; waiting for the starter to cool. I don't miss that car for a moment. Now the Corn Palace was a memorable thing! ;o)

They have jakelope out west? I thought they only existed in the upper reaches of Mt. Washington! You can't ride the NH variety, it takes a few dozen of them just to make a coat.

MR

This kind of reminds me of Rossi Smash's Ski museum...

from SNOW COUNTRY Dec. 1994

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Here are some more out of the black hole of my collection.                                                                    

The Nordica Polaris.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MastersRacer 

Here are most of my pins.

 

Notable are:

 

the big one: the slogan for Mt. Washington Valley, NH in the 60's

the apple pin: an original from when I worked at Apple between '81 and 85'

smoking man pin: aka Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race particpant's pin www.skimuseum.org/hsmcr.html

ESSC: Eastern Slopes Ski Club pin; I think this is from the 60's; I raced for ESSC as a junior;

www.easternslopeskiclub.org/; the site is pretty slim ;o)

THINK SNOW: shouldn't we all? original from 60's 70's

 

Notable:

I Skied the Polecat and I Skied the Bobcat Trail: there were mail boxes of pins on every trail at some time in the 60's; collect every pin and become a Wildcat Ski Meister.

Ski Club Davos, Parsenn Derby: here is a link to the story about how I won this pin

www.swissam.com/news/2006-2007/2007_Davos.asp

 

Not pins, but very near and dear.

 

 

 

Sweet hardware.  Did you save bibs too?  I kept mine (3 years USSA Central Freestyle numbers and one Dynastar Duals amateur race).  I got 3rd in the Dynastar race., never placed better than 10th in USSA Freestyle but still love the memories.  And, of course  several NASTAR medals of assorted periodic chart elements.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crgildart 

 

Sweet hardware.  Did you save bibs too?  I kept mine (3 years USSA Central Freestyle numbers and one Dynastar Duals amateur race).  I got 3rd in the Dynastar race., never placed better than 10th in USSA Freestyle but still love the memories.  And, of course  several NASTAR medals of assorted periodic chart elements.

Thanks, no bibs, except recent ones from Rocky Mountain Masters. I do have my first place trophy from my first ever race (it was a USSA GS at Attitash around 1971) along with a slew of other trophys, medals and awards from 1971 to present. Notable ones are a 1976 USSA Junior National DH Men's Champion wine goblet, the 1977 Eastern Cup Men's Champion bowl and the 1977 International Paper Cup 1st place pin; the pin was from Tiffany's, the race was the first (and last as far as I know) IP Cup, the permanent trophy was a Tiffany crystal bowl and was kept at Stratton. David Clevland, a Dartmouth racer, congratulated me before the awards ceremony by handing me a paper cup from the cafeteria. He was a joker and didn't like being beat. ;o)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mackware 

Here are some more out of the black hole of my collection.                                                                    

The Nordica Polaris.

 

 

  

Cool boots! How did you come about your collections?

What else lurks in the depths of the BLACK HOLE?

Mack,

Did you buy the red/gray Polaris's from a guy in Wyoming?  I never saw the all charcoal Lady Polaris. 

You bought a pair of "The Ski" from me, right? 

                                                                                                                                                                 Phil, the red/gray polaris were given to me to ski on   And the The Ski may have come from you!    The rest of them I skied on or got from local friends in the ski industry.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mackware 

                                                                                                                                                                 Phil, the red/gray polaris were given to me to ski on   And the The Ski may have come from you!    The rest of them I skied on or got from local friends in the ski industry.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

The purple ones on the end look familiar. TMS's? 

One more Theski.  Spademan II                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Phil TMS they are.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Thanks for that article.  Skiing on the vintage stuff is one of the reasons I collect it.  I have a pair of K2 Twos with Moog bindings on them.  The skis and the Moogs are in close to brand-new shape.  I skied them two years ago with a pair of Rosemount Classics.  As the article mentioned, lots of up-down unweighting and higher speeds were needed to get the skis to perform.  But I was able to make some nice short swing turns on them eventually.  Did the same with a pair of 1970 vintage Fischer Superglass slaloms.  I also have a pair of 1977 vintage The Skis which still ski nicely.  I have a pair of unmounted Fischer GTs.  I want to mount on them a pair of Marker Telmats or Rotamats FD-5s once I find a pair of plastic Humanic boots of the same vintage:

I also have skied on a pair Dynamic VR17s that are, I suspect, around 1975 or so vintage because they have clear P-tex.  They are 204s slaloms and they really ski well and live up to their reputation for holding an edge. 

I had my son shoot some video of me making some turns this season up at Ski Sunrise here in Arizona on a pair of Hard Comps from the early 1970s while in a pair of Scott Superlights I can barely get my foot into.  The Harts have the really old Tyrolia 3000 heels and 2000 toes.  The guy who owned the skis had a real small foot and I didn't want to redrill the skis for new bindings, so, luckily, I was able to force a pair of medium shell sized Scotts into them.  Not a safe way to ski, but I wasn't planning on doing anything tricky on them other than to take them to an easy slope and enjoy turning them.  When I was in high school a friend of mine had a pair while I had a pair of Kastle TI Slaloms.  Are boot lengths were the same so we switched skis occasionally.  The Harts were easier to get into a turn, but didn't have the edge hold or snappiness of the Kastles.  But they were still a nice ride.  These turned really nicely, too.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w3r6jPpuLGk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w3r6jPpuLGk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

In case the embed didn't work, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3r6jPpuLGk

I am also on a quest to ski in a pair of Raichle Fiber Jets.  I have a pair that fits me, but they are so painful against my shin that I can barely walk in them, let alone try to ski in them.

I have a smaller pair I can barely fit into, so this season I may try skiing in that pair.

I also have a compete set up of late 1960s vintage Head Comp GSs with a nice pair of Raichle five buckle leather boots.  Will try these out perhaps this coming season, too.

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mackware 

One more Theski.  Spademan II                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Phil TMS they are.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Now I know where all the Spademan brakes are. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

 

Now I know where all the Spademan brakes are. 

Appears to be short one