Mohawk Valley Hiking Club
Vince Schaefer Starts The Mohawk Valley Hiking Club in 1928
"I graduated from the General Electric Company's apprentice course in the 1920s, "Vince said, "and went to work in the General Electric Company Research Laboratory's machine shop. As a consequence of some work I did for Dr. Irving Langmuir he asked me to be his laboratory technician.
"Dr. Langmuir (winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his innovative work in surface chemistry) was one of the General Electric Company's most eminent scientists. As time went on he became my cherished mentor.
"In 1948 I was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree for my pioneering work in atmospheric chemistry. In 1954 I left the General Electric Company. In 1960 I founded and became Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory of the State University of New York."
Vince switched the topic of conversation to talking about his early skiing days.
"The Schenectady County Fish and Game Club sponsored a Winter Carnival, January 9, 1927.
The carnival was attended by many competitors, their families, and a crowd of spectators. Competitive events included snowshoe racing, ski jumping, and cross-country ski racing There was a ski jump in Schenectady's Central Park in those days. I entered most of the races including a cross-country ski race. Fired up by cheers of spectators I put on a burst of speed at the finish line and won the Cross-Country Ski Championship of the Winter Carnival.
"Jud Landon donated prizes that he presented with his usual broad smile and firm handshake. Jud was a radio sportscaster for station WGY and had a wide listening audience. He also ran a sporting-goods store on lower State Street in Schenectady. He was one of the best storytellers around and told spell binding stories about outdoor sports, especially about fishing.
"Jud was an easy going person with a laid-back personality. On beautiful warm spring days he closed the store, put a GONE FISHING sign in the window and headed for the river with rod and reel in hand. Sometimes he went alone and sometimes he went with a friend.
"The thought of starting a hiking club occurred to me in 1928 and I formed the Mohawk Valley Hiking Club with a dozen friends. On January 6, 1929 I led the first hike in the Rotterdam Hills, just west of Schenectady. It wasn't long before the membership of the Club grew to more than fifty vigorous members.
"The entire club was excited by the news that the 1932 Winter Olympics would be held in Lake Placid, NY, only hundred fifty miles north of Schenectady. Nineteen thirty-two was the depth of the great depression and few members of the club had enough money for hotel rooms and meals in Lake Placid. Some could not even afford tickets but it was possible to see ski races from the woods at the edge of the trail for free. We were determined to find a way to attend the Olympic Games in spite of our lack of adequate funds.
"I proposed that the hiking club conduct a ten-day winter camping expedition to Heart Lake at the foot of Mount Jo, only five miles from Lake Placid. At that time the exclusive Lake Placid Club owned the property and I obtained permission to camp in the open lean-tos by the lake.
"We did not have sleeping bags that were warm enough to survive below zero temperatures and I proposed that we make our own. Schenectady had already earned the reputation as the do-it-yourself capital of the world.
"It was Dr. Langmuir who developed the design and made the sleeping bag pattern. The design set a new standard for Arctic sleeping bags and, with only minor modifications, is still used for the better sleeping bags of modern times.
"The walls of the sleeping bag were constructed by sewing a sheet of silk alternately between an inner and an outer layer of silk, similar in cross section to that of corrugated cardboard.
Spaces were filled with three pounds of goose down. The result was a bag with walls of uniform thickness. There were no thin spots for the cold to penetrate.
"A hood protected the head, neck and shoulders. When the hood's drawstring was pulled tight, most of the face was covered but there was enough space for the sleeper to breathe.
"Every one of us, men and women alike, sewed shells for our own sleeping bags. We used light weight parachute silk. The material was purchased in bulk, at the wholesale price, by one of our members who was a purchasing agent for the General Electric Company.
"It wasn't easy to stuff goose-down into the sleeping bag tubes one handful at a time. Goose-down floated all over the room. Every time someone exhaled the down blew away from their nose and mouth; when they inhaled it was sucked back in. A garrulous group, we learned with great difficulty to keep our mouths shut when breathing and to cover them when speaking. Sneezing produced a feather geyser, and laughing a pulsating swirl of feathers. Convulsions spread from one person to another when they tried to stifle laughs.
"Those who couldn't work without talking were always inhaling goose-down and suffered many coughing spells."
The innovative Carl Schaefer, Vince's younger brother, solved the problem by modifying a vacuum cleaner to do the job. He told the following story:
"I replaced the dust collection bag of an old vacuum cleaner with a discharge blower hose. A restricted quantity of down was sucked into the vacuum cleaner's inlet suction hose and injected into the sleeping bag tube through the discharge blower hose. The system proved to be fast and clean and eliminated sneezing and coughing spells."
Vince continued his story.
"There were no high speed highways between Schenectady and Lake Placid in 1932. Driving open touring cars on country roads with speed limits of twenty-five and thirty-five miles an hour was laboriously slow.
"Moreover, an excursion of one hundred fifty miles invariably included one or more flat tires.
"In the blackness of night, at four o'clock on the morning of February 6, 1932, some friends and I squeezed into an open touring car that had been crammed to its canvas roof with winter camping gear, skis and snowshoes. I led a small caravan of cars carrying sixteen excited young men and young women eager for adventure at Heart Lake.
"Nine additional campers subsequently crowded into the campsite. The twenty-five hearty campers endured ten days in the snow covered open lean-tos at the edge of the Lake. The sleeping bags laid on a thick layer of hemlock boughs and newspapers proved to be abundantly warm. I was the first camper to get out of my sleeping bag in the morning My thermometer read thirty degrees below zero. Words were extruded in a cloud of frozen breath. I added wood to the fire that had smoldered all night and another camper brewed hot coffee."
I asked Vince leading questions about the kind of clothing the campers wore and what they wore to sleep in.
"It varied," Vince said, "but all we had was natural wool. Synthetic fibers had not yet been invented. Some people slept with all their clothes on except their shoes and coats. Others removed their outer clothing and slept in their long johns.
"It varied," Vince said, "but all we had was natural wool. Synthetic fibers had not yet been invented. Some people slept with all their clothes on except their shoes and coats. Others removed their outer clothing and slept in their long johns.
"Many had to be heckled out of their warm sleeping bags. They emerged in long woolen underwear, stood on the empty sleeping bag, scratched and then climbed into heavy woolen pants, shirts, sweaters, and mackinaws.
"They wrapped long scarves around their necks and pulled the earflaps of their woolen ski caps over their ears."
I asked what is was like to use the outhouse at thirty degrees below zero.
"Trips to the outhouse were an ordeal. It took great self control to wait until we drove into town, or until the outhouse had time to warm up some. None of the campers ever over spent their stay in the outhouse. There were always lengthy discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of two-piece versus one-piece underwear and about one piece drop-seat underwear versus the slit-seat design."
Vince continued.
"There was a foot of snow at Heart Lake and many feet on the top of Mt. Marcy. Nevertheless the ground was bare at the ski jump only five miles away but the elevation was four hundred feet lower. The railroad hauled snow from the snow belt in western New York for ski-jumping and cross-country events. We earned free passes to spectator events by shoveling snow from the train to trucks and then spreading it on the ski-jump and cross-country ski trails.
"We watched cross-country ski races from the sides of the trails. The Swedish Cross-Country Ski Team got lost after taking a wrong turn during practice and we directed them back to the racecourse. Races were less well organized in 1932 than they are today.
"We admired the technique of European racers and coveted their light weight equipment. When the races were over, we tried to emulate the Europeans and held impromptu races among ourselves. Those of us with the heaviest home made skis seldom won.
"Although the proportion of paraffin, bees' wax and pine tar in ski wax was a closely held secret by Olympic racers, it was a topic of everlasting conversation among recreational skiers.
Home made waxes did not work as well as waxes imported from Europe. Speculation always ran high about whether the Europeans had a secret ingredient and what that ingredient might be. Engineers from the General Electric Company advanced theories that they could not reduce to practice."
Vince talked about the Bobsled races. "Designed specifically for the 1932 Olympics, the Bobsled run was controversial from the very beginning.
Some said the run was not safe. Others held the opinion that bobsledding was a risky thrill seekers' sport that required foolhardiness, a skilled driver and, being a gravity powered sport, lots of weight. It was the only sport for overweight daredevils."
Another old time skier, Len Schallen, told about the "The German Bobsled Team put on weight by
drinking German beer that they imported along with their
They practiced with one sled but when it was time to race they unveiled a new sled of secret design. They pushed the new sled with innovative round runners along the starting ramp until the nose of the sled rested against the starting gate.
The four daredevils exhibited a strange mixture of and smugness in the belief that the round runners would be faster than conventional runners with sharp edges. They ignored warnings from the American team that the tight turns of the course were too dangerous for the less stable round runners. The stubborn Germans would not listen.
"Bobsled races were started differently in 1932 than they are today. 'One, two, three, go,' the starter shouted and fired the starting gun. A restraining barrier hinged down and the sled slid down the starting ramp. 'Push! Push!' The Germans shouted as they leaned forward, reached down with their gloved hands and pushed against the ice. As the sled accelerated it became more unstable. They had successfully negotiated a few curves but it was slightly off course. As the sled approached Whiteface Turn (the most dangerous turn of all) the driver tried to make a correction. The unstable sled fishtailed, went up the wall and disappeared over the edge, into the woods. Its runners crumbled. The shattered sled rested against a tree.
"Rescue workers rushed to the scene with army litters.
Even with six rescuers, three on each side of a litter, it took a long time to carry the heavy athletes through the woods down the steep grade. All four German bobsledders were hurt. One had injuries serious enough to require confinement in the tiny Lake Placid Hospital. The accident and rescue were filmed by Fox Movietone News and shown in movie theaters around the world. "
Vince talked about one of the German bobsledder's experience in the hospital. "There is no lonelier feeling in the world than being injured, in pain, confined to a hospital bed in a foreign country, subjected to poorly understood medical procedures and served strange food. We all felt sorry for him.
One of our club members was a German citizen working for General Electric in Schenectady. With compassion, understanding and cheerful encouragement, he visited the injured bobsledder in the hospital every day until he had to leave Lake Placid to return to work in Schenectady.
"We had time to spare between attending events. We did lots of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. We climbed the nearby mountains. Some of us used climbing skins. Others tied rope to the projection at the tip of the long wooden skis and crisscrossed the rope around the front half of the ski. The ropes were tied on quickly and we could climb steep trails without slipping. Ropes were easy to remove at the top of a climb.
"The group climbed Misery Mile, skied through Avalanche Pass, stopped for lunch at the edge of frozen Avalanche Lake and admired the steep walls of the pass.
"Back at camp, the more artistic campers built snow sculptures while waiting for dinner. Hunters' stew was cooked in one big blackened pot over an open fire. The group drank gallons of hot black coffee from tin cups. Some burned their lips."
"Why is it that the tin cup is always hotter than the coffee," a camper wanted to know? The rhetorical question went unanswered.
"By the end of the week the cold North wind shifted to a warm wind from the South. The temperature rose to over fifty degrees and the snow sculptures melted. Our vacation was over and we broke camp, packed our belongings in the cars and headed for home.
"The best feeling in the world is to get out of woolen underwear after a week-long bivouac in the frozen wilderness, have a hot bath, and get into clean clothes.
"After returning from our winter camping expedition I appointed a Mohawk Valley Hiking Club Snow Train Committee." The committee circulated the following petition:
CONSERVATION COUNCIL
THE MOHAWK VALLEY HIKING CLUB
SCHENECTADY, N. Y.
May 1932
The undersigned are deeply interested in the proposed operation of a snow train during the winter of 1932-1933 from the Mohawk-Hudson area and would gladly patronize such an institution if reasonably priced, properly managed and scheduled to a destination suitable for winter sports.
NAME
ADDRESS
Signed by 149
Widespread use of personal automobiles did not occur until after World War II. Before that time people traveled by public transportation, railroad train, trolley car, and river boat. They got to and from the station by walking or taxi of one sort or another. During the depths of the great Depression in 1932 few people owned automobiles. Horse-drawn wagons were used to deliver milk to the home and to collect rubbish. Day excursion trips by train, trolley, or river boat were common.
Vince talked about conducting a weather survey.
"Dr. Irving Langmuir suggested that the snow train committee conduct a detailed survey of the surrounding mountains and study the region's historical weather data. It was the only systematic way to choose the best location for skiing. Dr. Langmuir later invited me to join him in an aerial survey of the surrounding mountains.
"It's still the best we've seen, I shouted to Dr. Langmuir over the roar of the engine of Langmuir's two seater open cockpit Waco airplane. Numbed by the cold, I could not keep my teeth from chattering. I thought I was becoming frostbitten. I shouted to Dr. Langmuir again but I wasn't sure that he heard me through his sheepskin lined leather World War I pilots' helmet with the ear flaps fastened under his chin.
"We flew for a few hours over an area within a radius of 100 miles from Schenectady. The area encompassed Oneonta, North Creek, and Wilmington, Vermont. We were trying to select the most desirable locations for snow train excursions from the Mohawk/Hudson region. We liked the mountains near Wilmington and the logging trails on Gore and Pete Gay Mountains, near North Creek.
"Thank God, I thought, when Langmuir made his last low circle over the two mountains, then headed back to the Schenectady County Airport. He and I agreed that North Creek was one of the best potential sites we had seen from the air.
"Dr. Langmuir noticed that I was shivering and took pity on me. He invited me to his home where he warmed me up with a few cups of hot tea.
"The committee studied many years of weather records and concluded that the snowless winter of 1932 was not typical. The committee was convinced that normal winters with eighty to ninety inches of snow would return. They unanimously recommended that the railroad should be contacted to arrange for ski trains to run to Wilmington and to North Creek from Schenectady. "