The American Ski School
Ride Up - Slide Down
A History of Skiing at Gore Mountain
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
By Dr. Dan O'Keeffe and Mary C. Moro
As Told to Toni Anderson-Somme
Realizing the growing importance of teaching people the proper techniques of skiing, in 1935, the Gore Mountain Ski Club sent Arnold Alexander to an alpine ski school on Mosselauke Mountain in Warren, New Hampshire. Arnold was a student at Dartmouth and a fabulous skier. His coach at Dartmouth was Otto Schneibs. As mentioned previously, Schneibs had been a well known German ski instructor, and had once held the position of head instructor for a German ski association of 15,000 members. When Carl Schaefer organized a ski school in 1936, he appointed two high school boys as his instructors. One was Dan Baroudi. The other was yours truly.
To the delight of both of us, the first class we had the honor and pleasure of teaching was a group of girls from Skidmore College. To keep the two "Dans" straight we wore different colored sweaters. Dan Baroudi was dubbed "Red Dan" and I, with my blue sweater, was "Blue Dan." I made sure any young ladies under my tutelage were aware that my nickname came from the color of my ski sweater and not my disposition! One of the members of my female group was a lovely girl named Freda Anderson. Freda showed merit as a skier and later was asked to become a ski instructor at the school. Freda was unique in both form and dress when it came to skiing. She liked to swoosh down the slopes wearing a lovely Scottish kilt.
We boys didn't mind, and I have to admit, more often then not, we found ourselves praying for a brisk wind.
Otto arrived at 'the Crick' that year intent on coaching the North Creek School Ski Team. Its members were myself, Howard Waldron, George Hall, Murray Toole, Bill Burto, Ray Donahue and Frank Porter. In 1937, when he returned to organize his school, Arnold Alexander was his lead instructor.
The ski school was called The American Ski School and was licensed by the United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association and was New York State's first official school of its kind. It didn't take long for other instructors to catch the bug and head to Gore too.
In 1938, an article in The Empire State Ski News stated that,
In 1938, an article in The Empire State Ski News stated that,
"North Creek's three American Ski School teachers will usually be found at their stations or on a nearby slope inscribing stem turns for their students during the weekend, but during mid-week when most of the skiing is done before a fireplace or before a stove, Arnold Alexander, Francois Bertrand and Dick Parker are often seen pointing their skis "straight down" the Cloud Trail at the top of Gore Mountain.
Alexander, 22 years old, is a local boy who was on the Dartmouth Ski Team for two years. In between lessons one is apt to find him in his cabin reading something like "The History of The Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides, for from his ski lessons, he hopes to complete his college courses. With other local youngsters he was a toe-strapper at first, but about ten years ago took his skiing with serious fanaticism. Why, he does not know except that he just "likes skiing." He attended Otto's first ski school at Mt. Mooselauke, N.H., a few years ago where he received his certificate. However, not until last year did Alexander teach in a professional way.
Parker, 24, comes from Newport, N.H. and was stationed at Phoenicia in the Catskills last year, but had a disappointing season because of poor snow conditions, and a lack of skiers. Formerly, he taught skiing at Colby Junior College for Girls.
Coming from a New England skiing family, he started his career ten years ago with a pair of hand-me-down skis. The second year of races on Mt. Mooselauke, despite his youth, he participated and acquitted himself well. When he is not skiing, Parker works in a woolen mill in New England.
To condition himself for winter, he spent two months chopping wood in New England, where whole forests were laid low by the September hurricane. He contends that college men show up well in ski races because in addition to constant practice and instruction they keep in training.
The third member of the group is Francois Bertrand, who has spent 20 of his 25 years skiing in his native France, as well as in Switzerland, Italy an Austria. He was born in Grenoble and from 1927 to 1929 was a member of the Grenoble ski team. He came to this country in 1931. For four years he was at Plymouth, N.H. and coached Holderness School ski team. This is his second winter at the Log House.
With Otto and Alexander, many New Yorkers saw him a year ago at the Winter Sports Show in Madison Square Garden. Bertrand is interested in the progress American skiing had made, declaring that it is tremendous and in two or three years more will result in producing racers who will give European skiers keen competition. He attributed the progress to the use of instructors and coaches at the American schools and colleges, something seldom done in Europe although each ski resort has its teachers. Incidentally, Bertrand has volunteered to give the youngsters in the little public school of North River a couple of hours of instruction each week."
Rivers, Rails and Ski Trails, a history of the Town of Johnsburg, records that Otto Schneibs "did a lot to popularize skiing. He advocated getting into condition early every season. Like all experienced skiers, he dressed first for comfort and action, in lightweight gabardine jackets and wool trousers or knickers. The socks for knickers were made of unwashed wool with the natural oil still in them so that the snow would not cling. High gaiters made of smooth water repellent canvas were an added accessory as were hand knit wool mittens inside a water repellent cotton shell with leather palms.
Otto felt that except for skis, boots were more important than any other part of your ski gear. Otto's lace boot was about the height of the modern "backwoods" cross-country boot, strengthened by a strap across the instep. He developed and sold his own brand of wax. His ridge of oval top ski became the preferred style to succeed the flat top."
By this time, North Creek was renowned in the East for its beautiful ski bowl. To add a much desired amenity, in November of 1940, the Johnsburg Town Board authorized the building of a Ski Hut.
It was built in 1941 with help from the WPA (Works Projects Administration) and is one of the 120,000 buildings the WPA constructed during the Depression throughout a period spanning the 1930's to 1940's. A newspaper article in The Arthur Draper Collection described it as, " ...a ski hut that will compare more favorably" with other ski centers and "is a further mark of the cooperation and community enterprise that have...characterized... [the] development of North Creek Skiing..."
Its architectural style was labeled "Government Rustic, which essentially meant it was designed and constructed in a manner similar to the architectural movement that first began in the early 1900's with the construction of The Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone. This manner of design was used throughout the national parks. Margaret Neusel notes that "the New Deal didn't so much innovate as mass-produce." Still, we were excited and pleased to add another structure to our ski center that indicated that we were "here to stay" and moving forward.
Its architectural style was labeled "Government Rustic, which essentially meant it was designed and constructed in a manner similar to the architectural movement that first began in the early 1900's with the construction of The Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone. This manner of design was used throughout the national parks. Margaret Neusel notes that "the New Deal didn't so much innovate as mass-produce." Still, we were excited and pleased to add another structure to our ski center that indicated that we were "here to stay" and moving forward.
Floyd Stewart was the local foreman for the project and John Buckley built the fireplace - a must have for any place worthy of the title "ski hut," to our way of thinking! Lee Stanley, Erwin Pelletier and Robert Durkin were also involved in the construction, with the project's completion occurring sometime in February of 1942. When finished, the cost was $35,000, not including the road that was built to connect the new building's parking lot to Main Street, which allowed for the influx of skiers to this new addition on opening day.
An article in The Draper Collection reported that on January 12, 1942, "despite zero and sub-zero weather that gave an idea of life on the Russian Front, some 1,000 or more skiers participate in the unofficial opening of The Ski Hut on the Village Slopes.
In 1939, perhaps the most famous of all the Gore Mountain trails was christened. It was The Garnet Trail, and was strictly meant for advanced skiers. The trail ascended from the Garnet Lodge to the very top of Gore. A December 8, 1939 article in the "Ski Bulletin" found in The Draper Collection reported that:
Garnet Trail was designed largely through the efforts of Arnold Alexander and Francois Bertrand, American Ski School instructors at North Creek. They received advice from Robert St. Lewis, ski trail expert for the New York State Conservation Department. Butler Cunningham, president of Gore Mountain Ski Club, and C. R. Barton, president of Barton Mines Corporation, have pushed forward the work. St. Lewis also laid out, on State land, what is eventually expected to be the upper portion of the trail. It will necessitate the cutting only of brush and some 82 scrubby trees. When completely finished, Garnet Trail will be three-quarters of a mile long, with a drop of about 1,000 feet.
Besides filling a long felt need for a fast trail with good snow conditions, Garnet Trail will be one of the most scenic in the East. From its present summit the trail looks down on Pete Gay Mt. and then off to the high peak country of the Adirondacks. Marcy is flanked one side by Colden and Melntyre and a tumultuous uprising of lesser mountains; on the other side by Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, the Gothics and countless others.
Garnet Trail received its name from P. J. Cunningham, District Forest Ranger. Underneath the trail are large seams of garnet and nearby is the garnet mine... North Creek skiing has achieved much of its popularity because busloads of skiers can leave the main highway and wind five miles up Gore Mountain to the garnet mines and to the head of most downhill trails. Because garnet had had such an important bearing on skiing, Mr. Cunningham thought this the most appropriate and obvious name. Garnet Trail has the unique distinction of being almost the only trail which skiers must climb before descending...giving skiers an opportunity to look the trail over before running it. Those who believe it too much for their ability, however, can continue to the summit and then run the Upper Cloud Trail to Ives Dam and any of the other trails back to North Creek.
An article from The Ski Bulletin on December 29, 1939 further reports:
C. R. Barton ... has announced that he will present cut garnets to those participating in the christening... In addition, he will present them to skiers who better the times of those officially opening the trail...An opportunity to be timed on the trail will be given skiers immediately after the christening ceremonies. Among those who will christen the trail by sprinkling it with small, cut garnet stones are: Miss Virginia Gauvin of Blue Mountain Lake, Miss Dorothy Hoyt of Schenectady, A. Schoenfield of New York, Robert St. Lewis of Albany and Wilson Hasseltine, Butler Cunningham, Richard Parker and Arnold Alexander of North Creek.
Mary Cunningham reminisces... "One of my most prize possessions is a ring given to me on my sixteenth birthday my father which was made with the garnet he received at Garnet Trail christening."
Dr. Thomas Cunningham recalls being a child when the first race was held and states, "I was aware of the Barton Trophy Race and realized the winner was bound to become a real hero, but sadly, I was too young to participate!"
Dr. Thomas Cunningham recalls being a child when the first race was held and states, "I was aware of the Barton Trophy Race and realized the winner was bound to become a real hero, but sadly, I was too young to participate!"
I think it's safe to say that all of us who remember those early days of developing Gore Mountain into the ski center it is today, are aware of the huge part that C. B. Barton played in making it happen.
Soon after the opening of the Garnet Trail, an open slope was cleared at the bottom of the trail. A 900 foot tow was built to service these slopes. C. R. Barton built a shelter called the Whoopee House, where skiers high up on Gore could stop and get hot chocolate, coffee or candy or get warm in front of a huge, open fireplace made with garnet rock. The road to the mines was widened and they also paved the road from North Creek to Albany, making the city "a scant two hours' distance."
Mrs. A. B. Fitzgerald, the wife of one of North Creek's doctors began a nursery school where mothers could "leave their children while they go a-skiing," and go skiing they did!
The people came in larger and larger numbers until World War II began to dominate everyone's life. Reading the old ies of The North Creek Enterprise, it seemed that each week the list of those who had received their draft notices grew in length and number. Soon it was the lists with the addresses and those serving, and then the news, happily at times from the men far from home, sadly often with the news of the death, or as with Joe Minder, the imprisonment of those who, such a short time before had been zooming down Gore Mountain's trails. There were three skiers who volunteered for the 10th Mountain Division - those skiers who manned the Alps between Italy and Switzerland during 1944. They fought in some of the roughest terrain in Italy during that time. They were Arnold Alexander, Carson Freebern and Perry Ehlers. Unfortunately Carson Freebern was killed serving his country and at the end of the war, Gore was missing one of its finest. **