Mystery Glimpse: Bang, Bang
The First Glimpse Challenge This Season Is Not What You Think.
This Mystery Glimpse photo comes from the archives of the Alf Engen Ski Museum in Park City, UT. Take a virtual tour of the museum’s collection by clicking here.
The Mystery Glimpse feature posts a photo from one of the ski industry’s wonderful museums. Often these museums are located at or near ski resorts. They preserve and maintain unique assortments of ski history memorabilia, artifacts, documents, publications, and photographs. We are very grateful that so many ski museums are sharing photographs with our readers.
Do you know what’s going on in the picture? Take a guess in the Comment Box below. We’ll reveal the story behind the photo next week.
1974’s We Learned to Ski: Still Fun to Read
There’s a lot of skiing literature from the past, some of which still has relevance. If you have a favorite that you’d like to share with other SeniorsSkiing.com readers, please write an appreciation and send it in. Our goal is a maximum of 500 words. Thank you, Susan Zangrilli, for this nice account of We Learned to Ski.
Although equipment and ski teaching has changed since the 70s, We Learned to Ski, produced by writers and artists of The Sunday Times of London, remains one of my personal ski library favorites.
The not-quite-coffee-table 10” by 13” format is filled with photos, illustrations, easy to read headings and text, and covers everything about skiing from choosing a resort, equipment, and lessons starting from day one on snow, to getting fit for the sport.
Authors Harold Evans, Brian Jackman and Mark Ottaway write “their main impetus is a conviction about the teaching of ski movements.” They explain that the book addresses those mainly unbitten by the ski bug and recreational skiers with less than three years experience.
In Chapter 1, Where to Go, the authors illustrate “Goodalp” and “Badalp.” Lift access in the “Goodalp” allows skiers to ski the upper slopes without having to return to the bottom at the end of each run. A “Badalp” forces many of the skiers do just the opposite, creating bottlenecks at the base.
Lessons for Beginners, Stopping and Going Slow, mentions using a “half-plough,” when there may not be room for a wide basic snowplough. One ski stays flat in the fall line, the other has an open tail, is set on its inside edge, and acts as a brake. This might come in handy for me this winter.
Large illustrations in Chapter 25, Ski Craft, compare the descent of a “crafty skier” and a “snarled-up skier”; how to navigate a narrow, icy catwalk, and the best path through a mogul-filled gully.
It’s fun to read about older ski techniques in Section 6, Lessons for the Advanced Skier: the “jet turn,” with its “sit-back style,” classical and braking wedel turns, and the avalement turn to master moguls.
The book: We Learned to Ski, Copyright © 1974, 1975, by The Sunday Times, St. Martin’s Press, Inc., New York, New York. Copies are available online.
102-Year Old Skier George Jedenoff’s Autobiography Published On Apple Books
It’s A Thriller, A History, A Love Story And More. Read It Free On Your Computer.
George skis with enthusiasm. He cruises steep trails and shouts with glee when he jumps into powder. That’s George!
Skiers at Alta flock to him for inspiration. “Age is just a number,” he says. “Don’t let it be a barrier.” His motto is: “Never give up.” His positive outlook is a cornerstone of his life.
George’s autobiography, My Centenarian Odyssey, chronicles his life and adventures starting with his family’s flight from the Russian Revolution when he was just a toddler, coming to America, and later working as a young man in a California magnesite mine for 50 cents an hour. He graduated with honors from Stanford, served in World War II then worked his way up in the steel industry to become president of Kaiser Steel, a premier supplier of shipbuilding steel.
Along the way he learned to ski, and he’s passionate about snow and the beauty of the world around him.
Read his autobiography free on Apple Books. Or you can download it free onto your computer. Be patient as downloading takes several minutes. Click to Download
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