2025 Spirit of Skiing Award
The New England Ski Museum is pleased to announce the recipient of this year’s Spirit of Skiing Award: Ralph DesLauriers and the DesLauriers Family of Bolton Valley, Vermont.
Please join us for an après-ski celebration on Saturday, April 5th from 4:00 – 7:00 PM at the Timberline Lodge in Bolton Valley for special appetizers and cash bar. Tickets can be purchased here.
Each year, the New England Ski Museum honors an individual who truly embodies the memorable adage of Otto Schniebs, the 1930s Dartmouth ski coach: “Skiing is not just a sport — it is a way of life.” Winners of the Spirit of Skiing Award in the past have included Tom Corcoran, Stein Eriksen, Herbert Schneider, SE Group, Penny Pitou, and Georg Capaul.
This year, the Spirit of Skiing Award will be presented to Ralph DesLauriers and the DesLauriers family, the owners and managers of Bolton Valley Resort in Bolton, Vermont. Ralph DesLauriers and his father developed Bolton Valley Resort in the 1960’s. Continuing the family legacy, Ralph’s children now actively manage the resort, ensuring that the spirit of skiing thrives for future generations.
Over the years, the DesLauriers family has introduced many new skiers and generations of children to the sport of skiing. Bolton Valley, the closest ski area to Burlington, Vermont, is beloved for its abundant snowfall and popular night skiing. The DesLauriers’ dedication to creating a community centered around skiing, and their continual improvements to the resort to enhance the skiing experience, embodies Otto Schniebs’ dictum to the letter; Ralph DesLauriers and the DesLauriers Family truly represent the essence of the Spirit of Skiing.
For more information about the DesLauriers Family and Bolton Valley, please read this (free) NYT article.
Please join us in celebrating the DesLauriers family and their remarkable contribution to the sport of skiing on April 5th at Bolton Valley Resort, Vermont.
Tickets
Tickets for the event are $75 and can be purchased by clicking here. Or send us a check to: New England Ski Museum, 135 Tramway Dr., Franconia, NH 03580-4403.
McLane/Macomber Families
Award Ceremony: October 2025 at Wildcat, NH
Details TBD
2023 Spirit of Skiing Award Winner: Dr. E. John B. Allen
Dr. E. John B. Allen is the preeminent historian of skiing and a leader across the world in understanding the economy and culture of skiing and snowsports. His scholarship is foundational and essential to the work of other researchers, writers, scholars, and journalists across many decades and continents.
Several of John’s books have won awards and driven how skiers understand their past and present. From Skisport to Skiing, Traveling the Old Ski Tracks of New England, and, most importantly, The Culture and Sport of Skiing are crucial to the body of literature around our sport. The ski museum’s Spirit of Skiing is a small token of ‘thank’ to John.
John has also been a fabulous skier in his own right and is a proclaimed “Aspen Ski Bum, class of ’57.” John and his family have generously created an endowment for the ski museum designed to support continued scholarship and publication. All proceeds from the Spirit of Skiing Award event will go directly to the EJBA Fund.
Previous Spirit of Skiing Award honorees include Kelly Brush Davisson, Phil Gravink, Stan Judge, Anna McIntyre, Alan Fletcher Sr., the Caldwell Family of Nordic skiing, Vermont’s Cochran Family, Cal Conniff, Preston Smith, Tyler Palmer, Bernie Weichsel, George Capaul, Penny Pitou, Herbert Schneider, SE Group, Stein Erickson and Tom Corcoran.