Vintage ski action photos from Life Magazine

JAmes, right click the image, and copy ou the HTML properties and then paste in the URL after selecting the "insert image Icon from list on the "reply" box menu

 That's Mt Rainier behind them. There used to be a "ski area" (I think just a tow rope) at Paradise, so that's probably where they are. Cool pics.

woof!  its easy bro, and people will actually see the pics.

sorry, about the order, something still wrong with this site. It doesn't allow you to load images after one another, you need to load backwards order I guess.

Small item, the pics are from LIFE, not LOOK.

Anyone else notice how flat those landings are for Stein doing flips?

James, thanks for finding the photos.  good stuff.

Great Pics!

Is that photo really from the 1930's? I thought ski poles were all bamboo or wood back then, and the use of metals didn't come until later...

Brave souls

WOOF! 

The 1960's Aspen shots take me back. Aspen 1964! How things have changed.

June 25, 2010

Hi James:

Thanks for the great pictures.  How about this one of the incomparable Toni Matt of tucking the Tuckerman head wall fame?

By the way, does it look like the slopes of Aspen from the 1964 picture are groomed?  If so, I didn't realize that they had grooming in the 60s.  Also, can anyone tell me where the picture of Stein was taken?  Since I know that he was at Sugarbush for awhile, and since the mountains in the back ground don't have a "western" look, could it be Sugarbush?

Think snow,

CP

To my knowledge, they didn't do any grooming other than ski packing slopes back then.  The Aspen jumper shot appears to be from the top of the Ridge of Bell.  It's narrow there and I think that it is just packed from the traffic. 

I am also 95% sure that the picture of Stein flipping is from the base of Highlands. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHREDHEAD 

To my knowledge, they didn't do any grooming other than ski packing slopes back then.  The Aspen jumper shot appears to be from the top of the Ridge of Bell.  It's narrow there and I think that it is just packed from the traffic. 

 

I am also 95% sure that the picture of Stein flipping is from the base of Highlands. 

There certainly was grooming in the 1960s. I remember the Tucker snocats grooming the local ski slopes here in NH in the 50's. I don't remember seeing any grooming going on at Aspen in the mid 60s but I recall most of the skiers were on the groomed slopes. Even as late as the mid 70s there was quite a lot of untracked powder available there because the majority would not venture off the groomed. Grooming was restricted to mostly novice and intermediate slopes. I remember that at Vail you could get a free lift ticket if you showed up early enough to bootpack. This was the only kind of packing done on the steeper slopes.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamesj 

Nice find on the Toni Matt photo.  I saw some of his awards at NE Ski Museum this March.

Here's a shot of USMC packing slopes for 1960 Olympics at Squaw.  If one goes down the rest will fall like dominoes!

Oh, Man! that's the top of the Men's Downhill, now called Bower's Rock, the West side of Chimney Chute, Schmidiots Line in the background, Palisades area. How cool is that shot.
 

Great photos.

Do you think the guys are looking at Jayne Mansfield's dog?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girdwoodguy 

 

Great photos.

Do you think the guys are looking at Jayne Mansfield's dog?

There's a dog in that picture? 

July 7, 2010

Hi Jamesj:

If my eyes serve me right, this is a rope tow at Gray Rocks.  The mountain with ski trails on it "skiers left" in the distance, is Mt. Tremblant.  Hopefully, if I'm incorrect, some Bear will catch this and correct me.

Think snow,

CP

938

July 9, 2010

Hi  James:

You asked:  "Have you ever ridden a rope tow?".  Would you know that my first ever day of skiing, I was at Liberty, and the beginners area was serviced by a rope tow.  As a rank beginner, I almost had my arms pulled out of their sockets, since I was not familiar with the use of that device.  Also, that same year and a few years after, Wisp also had a rope tow at their beginners area.  Since then, the Wisp beginners area has been developed as their half-pipe terrain park area.  So,yes, I've used rope tows before, at Liberty and at Wisp.  However, when I skied Gray Rocks, they had already installed a giant T-bar, which transported two skiers at a time up the initial section of their 600 vertical hill, Sugar Peak.  Each skier supported their "behind" on one arm of the t-bar.  The spot where you download, is relatively flat, was their ski school meeting place, where skiers stand around and are assigned to ski classes appropriate to their level by the famous SSD Réal Charette, founder of CSIA.  The assignment was done by him and his assistants just by looking at your stance on skis.  No "ski off" was performed (at least the four times I was there).  Usually, the assignment was dead on, although an hour or two into class, ski school supervisors would check each group to ask the instructors if the group "hung" well together and whether any fine tuning was necessary.  After that, a skier stayed with the same class for the week.  I am attaching a more modern version of the black and white picture which you posted, taken from the top of the rope tow (t-bar) unloading area, the ski school meeting area.  You can see in the background, the modern lodge which ski weekers stayed, Lac Quimet and Mt. Tremblant.  For our Northern Bears, I am also including a picture of Réal Charette.  The little badge he is wearing on the middle of his pullover is the Gray Rocks Ecole de Ski crest.  Big guy, more than six feet, 200 plus lbs.

By the way, examining his skiing, I'm guessing that Gary Cooper is somewhere in the middle of a "Royal Christie" in the shot taken at Aspen 1949.  If so, can you imagine the difficulty of this maneuver on hickory skis that stiff and that long, with soft leather ski boots and bear trap type binidings?  Can anyone confirm that he is pulling a Royal Christie or performing some other maneuver?

Think snow,

CP

ps: can't seem to be able to get the picture of Réal Charette to load.  My apologies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamesj 

Very cool identification CP.  Have you ever ridden a rope tow?  At Gray Rocks or elsewhere?