Last Week

Credit: Alf Engen Museum

This is an Engen family photo, depicting Alf Engen himself ski-joring over a mini-ski jump behind a cantering horse. According to Jon Green, from the Alf Engen Museum, Alf participated in ski-joring quite often in Jackson Hole and Sun Valley in the mid- to late-30s,  While he was most known as a ski jumper, having won the national championship title 16 times , Alf excelled at just about anything that involved skis. This is evidenced by the fact that in 1940 he became the only person to win the National Four-Way Skiing Championship (downhill, slalom, jumping and cross-country). It would seem ski-joring was just one more ski-related activity that Alf enjoyed. 

In the 1930s, Alf was employed by the U.S. Forest Service as a technical advisor, assisting in the development of over 30 winter recreation areas in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. This included Snow King Mountain in Jackson Hole, close to where this photo was taken. Thanks again to the Alf Engen Museum, Park City, UT, for offering this picture from its collection.

Season Retro

Since last October, SeniorsSking.com has published 23 Mystery Glimpse photos for our readers to identify. These came from the wonderful and important collections of artifacts and photos from ski museums across the country.  These museums, all supported by ski history enthusiasts like our readers, range from tiny to substantial, mostly volunteer, all non-profit, all dependent on your support. We encourage our readers to visit them online and in person. They are all carry the history of snowsports in their collections, a history that can’t be found in as much detail anywhere else.

• Colorado SnowSports Museum
• New England Ski Museum
• Alf Engen Museum
• Vesterheim, Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center
• The Tread Of Pioneers Museum
• Ski Museum of Maine

Below are some of our favorites from this year. Click on the photo to find out the story behind the picture.

After almost 50 years, we now know this is Buddy Werner.

Alta 1952. Credit: Ray Atkeson

Bailey Basher. The whole idea was to bust up moguls and smooth out crud. Gravity was both a friend and an adversary.

Queen Maude of Norway (r) with her sister Princess Victoria.

A rescue at Vail.

A Princess visits Mittersill Mountain Resort

Thanks for your guesses and comments.  More to come in the Fall.

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mikemaginn

Mike is the co-publisher of SeniorsSkiing.com.His skiing career started at Song Mountain NY in his college days. He worked for SKIING magazine in the early 70s, learned to love cross-country, took a 20 year hiatus from skiing and came back to short skis and efficient boots. When Jon Weisberg suggested there should be a site for senior skiers, he joined him in developing SeniorsSkiing.com.

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