Still Searching for Stein’s Studebaker
It’s a known fact that the great, late skier Stein Eriksen bought a new Studebaker in April 1953 from the dealership owned by Everett Kircher, founder of Michigan’s Boyne Mountain ski resort, where Stein was working at the time. The unknown is which model he owned, and what happened to Stein’s Studebaker.
I’m interested because my wife Judy and I own a restored 1953 Studebaker Starlight Coupe that her dad bought the same year. It’s also is sometimes called a Commander Starlight, and was Studebaker’s main model that year.
Correspondent Jan Brunvand with his 1953 Studebaker Starlight coupe. In the background, early snow on the Wasatch mountains. Credit: Jan Brunvand
The classic Raymond Loewy design was variously described at the time as a “sports car,” “a sports coupe,” and “a graceful 1953” model. Stein once told me—in a brief encounter on a chair lift at Deer Valley—that it “looked like an Italian sports car” and that he sold it in Oslo.
That’s as far as I got until recently when I learned a bit more about Stein’s Studebaker. The somewhat melancholy occasion was a memorial service in Frisco, CO, for my brother Tor Arne Brunvand who passed away last spring. Tor was in the hospitality business in Summit County for many years before moving east, ending his career owning a hotel in Waterville Valley, NH.
Among the locals who showed up in Frisco this past October to remember Tor was another great Norwegian/American skier, Trygve Berge. He had been a colleague of Stein’s as an instructor in the early and mid 1950s, then became co-founder of Breckenridge ski resort. At age 90, he is still skiing gracefully – as gracefully as Stein did.
Trygve, Tor, Jan
I had met Trygve a couple of times when he came to ski with Stein in Utah. Here’s a photo of us taken in January 2007 at Deer Valley. This was before I became interested in Stein’s Studebaker, so the subject never came up.
Meeting Trygve again in Frisco, I pulled up a photo of our Studebaker on my iPhone and asked him if Stein’s car had looked something like that. “Yes,” he said, “but Stein’s car was yellow.”
Perfect, since Studebaker did offer both the Starlight coupe (my car) and the Starliner hardtop version in yellow. I could just picture Stein with his blond hair waving in the breeze driving this beauty.
Our own Studebaker is dark green, shaped like the red one with the roof pillar in this brochure.
Just as the program started, Trygve added, “Stein loved to drive that car with the top down.”
Uh oh. Studebaker did not make a convertible version of this 1953 car. I double-checked in the literature and online.
So what’s going on here? In later years some people did customize ’53s as ragtops, but it’s unlikely a car dealer would have done it, or that Stein would have waited around for the job.
More likely, I think, is that Trgyve’s statement is what psychologists call a “false memory.”
With the windows down and the wind blowing freely through the cabin, it would be easy to extrapolate a memory from so many years ago as an image of Stein tooling around town with the top down, even though the actual top of his car was likely solid metal and not removable.
At least that’s what I will continue to believe until (and if) I learn anything more about Stein’s Studebaker.
Skiing Cervinia, the Italian Side of the Matterhorn
Stanley and son in Cervinia
Snow was falling when we arrived in the small Italian town of Cervinia, for 3 1/2 days of skiing to celebrate my 80th birthday. Arriving from Israel, my two daughters, son and I drove the 180 km. (112 miles) from the Milan airport to Cervinia on an overcast December afternoon.
Cervinia is the Italian side of the Matterhorn. I first skied here in the Fall of 1966, on my way home after two years in the Peace Corps, where I served in the tiny landlocked country of Malawi, in Southern Africa. Since then, a lot has changed in Cervinia. In Malawi, too, I’m sure.
Since that first visit, Cervinia has more than doubled in size, hotels have all been up-graded several times, the main street is now a pedestrian mall, and alternative lifts have been added to eliminate the need to climb more than 100 steps to reach the cable car that Mussolini built in 1936. It’s now possible to ski from Val Tournache, which is below Cervinia, all the way to the areas in Zermatt on the Swiss side, via what is possibly the largest inter-connected ski area in the world.
What hasn’t changed is the snow. It’s still deliciously welcoming and smooth, like gliding on white chocolate. It’s why I call Cervinia Mt. Toblerone.
Mt. Toblerone
The town itself is at 2,050 meters (6,725 feet). Lifts take you up to 3,480 meters (11,417 feet) meters to Plateau Rosa on the Italian side and up to 3,883 meters (just under 13,000 feet) to the Klein Matterhorn station on the Swiss side. From there, you can ski the only International World Cup downhill course while enjoying endless breath-taking views of the Matterhorn.
The course is a joy to cruise; wide enough for easy GS turns and not that steep, with some interesting terrain near the end. From there you can ski back down to the village or stay up and tackle some red runs (in Europe, red is the equivalent of black runs in the USA) above the town.
If you’re not up for checking out the downhill course, from Plateau Rosa you can ski down the Zermatt side and enjoy cheese fondue for lunch, and then take the scenic 30-minute Gornegrat cog railway train back to the top, to connect with the cable car back to the Italian side. There’s a sign at the top with arrows – Italy this way, Switzerland that way – to guide you to the proper trail home.
The lifts in Cervinia are modern detachables with wind shields, various versions of gondolas, and a new cable car with room for 125 skiers that takes you up to the Plateau Rosa in 7 minutes from the Laghi Cima Bianchi mid-station. We encountered only one old-fashioned non-detachable chairlift.
No matter where you ski in the resort, the view is dominated by the great massif of the nearly pyramidical snow-covered Matterhorn. As you move around, the profile of the mountainchanges and the light beams down from different angles while the clouds come and go.
Calzone in Cervinia
The town of Cervinia is very accessible. The main street is lined with relatively small hotels, fancy shops, and restaurants. Local folks are a font of helpful information about how to navigate the area. We stayed at the Hotel DaCompagnoni in the center of town and nearly a ski-in ski-out.
And the food, very Italian and very good whether it’s pizza, pasta, fish or a big steak, is all at reasonable prices, and far less expensive than the Zermatt side. And not just in town – there are several mid-mountain restaurants with equally memorable meals.
We had three and a half great days skiing and being together in Cervinia. I can’t wait to return again.
Guided Snowshoe Tour with a Naturalist
Purity Spring Resort in Madison, NH has partnered with Tin Mountain Conservation Center (TMCC) to bring snowshoe guided naturalist tour programs at the NH Audubon “Gertrude Keith Hoyt & Edward Eaton Hoyt, Jr. Wildlife Sanctuary” and trails located at the resort. These guided tours, led by naturalist and TMCC Outreach Coordinator Heather McKendry, will be offered to guests staying at the resort and others may participate, too. The partnership will also give resort guests free access to TMCC’s programs on their trails and facilities.
Purity Spring’s Marketing Director Thomas Prindle explained, “As a Supporting Partner of the Tin Mountain Conservation Center, Purity Spring Resort aligns many opportunities to enjoy outdoor recreation with their efforts to foster a greater awareness and understanding of the natural environment. In addition to being able to offer custom guided tours of the NH Audubon Hoyt Wildlife Sanctuary right here at the resort, we provide our guests additional access to the Tin Mountain Conservation Center and the ability to participate in the programs they offer throughout the year.”
For nature and history aficionados, there are six snowshoe tour dates this season that start at 11 AM (remaining dates include Saturdays on February 4 and March 4, and Wednesday, February 22).
The sanctuary has 135 acres and 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers) of trails which is part of the 1,400 acres originally purchased and homesteaded by Edward Hoyt Sr. in the area with family roots dating back to the 1800s. Purity Lake was dammed in the late 1700s by European settlers who also built a mill in East Madison. The homestead succumbed to fire in 1914 and there was a girls camp that was run between 1934 and 1977. The sanctuary land was bequeathed to NH Audubon in 1991.
The naturalist tours feature geological and sanctuary features associated with glacial deposits in the last ice age. The white pine are the dominant tree species with northern hardwoods and diverse wildlife in the sanctuary include winter finches, bobcat, fox, coyote and more. There are a number of short looped trails in the sanctuary that can be snowshoed or cross country skied in the winter.
The guided snowshoe tour is available in a package with Purity Spring accommodations including overnight lodging, breakfast in the Traditions Café and the tour. For the lodging package check with Purity Spring Resort to make a reservation and there are some snowshoe rentals available (www.purityspring.com or 603-367-8896). The cost for the public to participate is $15 per person.
Purity Spring Resort is associated with King Pine Ski Area in Madison, NH with 45 skiable acres, six ski lifts, 17 trails, and a 350-foot vertical. The family-friendly ski area is in a valley in the White Mountains National Forest and it has the longest running recreational and instructional ski camp in the country (since 1939). King Pine has been making memories for family vacations for generations. The resort specialty is for families who want to discover destinations that will engage parents and kids together, and it is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
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