Deseret Morning News/KSL Radio Ski School
Times have changed, but goal is the same — teach rookies to ski
More than 1,000 people showed up at Bonneville Golf Course on a cold, wintry December day in 1948 to take the first class in the Deseret News Ski School.
The cold hands and heads, the sloppy boots, the long skis and the slippery slopes were welcome annoyances in their single-minded goal — to learn to ski.
And they did, albeit the style of the time, which in many cases was nothing more than to try and survive on a toboggan-style run down fairway slope.
Learning to ski back in 1948 was not easy. Skis back then were tall, the bindings unforgiving and the snow unpacked and almost impossible to move, and an accepted ski styles was just being fashioned.
A lot has changed in 59 years. Today, skis are shorter, wider and shaped like an hourglass. Boots are stiffer, they buckle instead of lace and are molded from plastic rather than crafted from leather. And, most importantly, today's ski bindings do, in fact, release.
Teaching methods have also changed. Today, the stance is wider, skis apart, there's less movement in the upper body and arms, and because of new equipment and better teaching methods, progress is faster.
Of course, there are some things that haven't changed. The basic climbs are the same — side step and herringbone. The snowplow, now the wedge, is still the first position skiers take before starting to slide, and learning to fall is as important now as it was in 1948.
Also, the eventual objective is the same — to learn to ski.
The News' ski school was the brainchild of two men — the late Alf Engen, the legendary skier credited with helping to start some 30 ski areas in the United States, including Alta, and was himself a champion skier and ski jumper, and Wilby Durham, who in 1947 was promotions manager for the Deseret News.
Durham was looking to expand service to newspaper readers, and Engen was looking for a way to teach more people to ski. A ski school met both objectives.
The first class was held on the gentle slopes of Bonneville Golf Course on Dec. 27, 1948, so people could use ski gear given them for Christmas. Joining Engen as accomplished ski teachers were Sverre Engen, Alf's brother, and Jack Reddish, an Olympic skier from Utah.
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