New Hampshire was the center of skiing in the United States from the 1930s into the 1950s. Skiing first became popular in northern Europe then crossed the Atlantic to the cities of New York and Boston. Because New Hampshire was so close to Boston, skiing became very important to New… Read more
Journal
Welcome to the New England Ski Museum. Our mission is to collect, conserve, and exhibit elements of ski history for research, education and inspiration.
New Hampshire and the Emergence of an American Ski Industry
by Jeffrey R. Leich, Executive Director, New England Ski Museum First published in Historical New Hampshire, Volume 63, Number 2 (Fall 2009) NEW HAMPSHIRE was the epicenter of American skiing from the 1930s into the 1950s when the focus shifted west to higher mountains and deeper, more consistent snowfall. Skiing… Read more
Remembering Toni Matt and the 1939 Inferno
April 16, 2014 marks the passage of 75 years since the last true American Inferno, held on Mount Washington, New Hampshire in the spring of 1939. That the relatively insignificant local ski competition is still remembered today is due to the last-second decision of one of the racers, recent Austrian… Read more
Remembering the first ski ascent of Mount Washington
One hundred years and one day after the first documented ascent of Mount Washington on skis, two grandsons and a great grandson of Carl E. Shumway, one of the three to make the first ski climb, celebrated the centennial with a ski tour along the route taken by the 1913… Read more
Herbert Schneider 1920-2012
Herbert Schneider assumed leadership of the Hannes Schneider Ski School at Mount Cranmore following the April 1955 death of his father. Hannes’ passing was completely unexpected, and when it came he had been fully engaged with planning for the new East Slope and chairlift at Cranmore, and had just returned… Read more
Harvey Dow Gibson
The origins of Cranmore Mountain Resort, dating back 75 years to the New Year’s holidays of 1937, lie in an ancient rivalry between adjacent townships in what is now called the Mount Washington Valley. Stung by the reality that his daughter had to travel to nearby Jackson to find ski… Read more
In the Shadow of the Swastika The remarkable friendship between my father and my godfather: Hermann Hoerlin and Hannes Schneider
By Bettina Hoerlin It seemed like it would never end: up, up, and up, one step behind the other, my stride mimicking the slow and steady “Bergsteiger” (mountain climber) pace set by the two tall men in front of me. One was my father, who had once held the world… Read more
The AMC and the Rise of Alpine Skiing
The Appalachian Mountain Club was formally founded in Boston in 1876, long before skiing began its slow climb to acceptance and popularity. According to one founder writing in 1904, the decisive discussion had taken place on Mt. Attitash, which 90 years later would become a center of Alpine skiing, a… Read more
The Lincoln Detachment: 10th Mountain Division training in New Hampshire
Many New Englanders know of the 10th Mountain Division, the US Army unit that trained on skis and in the mountains of Colorado in World War II, and eventually saw combat in Italy for a short but exceedingly intense time in 1945. The ranks of the mountain infantry regiments that… Read more
75 Years After the First Tuckerman Headwall Ski Descent
April 11, 2006 marked the 75th anniversary of the first documented descent of the entire Tuckerman Ravine Headwall. On that date in 1931, two Dartmouth skiers and Olympic veterans, Charles N. Proctor and John Carleton, decided on the spur of the moment to attempt the Headwall from above. All previous… Read more