#22: Mike Leach: Exploring the Legendary History of Ski Racing at Stowe

This week we are happy to bring Mike Leach to the studio who is the historian for the Mount Mansfield Ski Club (MMSC), one of the oldest ski racing organizations in the United States. In his role, Leach has contributed significantly to documenting and preserving the rich history of skiing in the Stowe, Vermont area.​ Mike has provided insights into the origins of a variety of local ski events in Stowe. His research also indicates that the first Sugar Slalom was held on April 30, 1939, as a special event to mark the season's end, drawing nearly 100 entrants. Leach's extensive knowledge and dedication have been invaluable in preserving the history and legacy of the Mount Mansfield Ski Club and the broader skiing community in Stowe.

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This episode of the Octagon is sponsored in part by archery close. this is Chris and Taste from Archery Clothes, your go-to boutique. For men's and women's fashion, we carry a curated selection of clothing, footwear, and gifts from unique and emerging brands. We're proud to sponsor the Octagon and even prouder to be local business owners here in Stowe. We love how the Octagon captures the history and characters of this incredible town. After coming off the slopes or the trails, stop by archery close. Located at 1650 Mountain Road in Stowe. Open seven days a week, or always open online@archeryclose.com. Welcome listeners to the Octagon Podcast, where we explore the stories, people, and places that make Stove Vermont so legendary. I'm your host, Mike Carey, joined by my co-host Ted Thorndyke. This week we are happy to bring in Mike Leach to the studio, who was the historian for the Mount Mansfield Ski Club, also known as MMSC. In his role, Mike has contributed significantly to documenting and preserving the rich history of skiing in Stowe. Mike has provided insights into the origins of local ski events and races. Mike's extensive knowledge and dedication have been invaluable in preserving the history and legacy of the Mount Mansfield Ski Club and the broader skiing community in Stowe. Welcome, Mike. So you've been called the MMSC historian. What sparked your interest in researching the club's history? I think it was about 20 years ago. I'd been coaching at the ski club for probably 15 years. And one year the club was undergoing one of its renovations I found three binders laying around and I started opening'em up and there was a bunch of old newsletters and, I ended up taking those home. And the newsletters were from 1950s, 60 and seventies. after reading those, I been hooked, on the history ever since. And since that time, I, was on a quest to try to find earlier newsletters. I went down to the ski museum. They, had newsletters all the way back into the thirties. And then my daughter was at UVM and I noticed UVM had some available and I had her photocopying at the library for me. One of those was in 1935, January, which was the first newsletter ever, generated outta the club. And I got a couple from the New England Ski Museum and then just, probably a couple months ago, Karen Gottlieb, digging through her father's old files come up with a number of them in 1936 the ones I was missing. So now I have a pretty complete collection of those newsletters. Were there specific stories or races that just really grabbed you and just grew your fascination with the racing history? I always knew about Mount Mansfield Ski Club. And the history about Billy Kidd and Tiger Shop, Mar Moriarty and so forth. And so I knew the club had a pretty significant history, but it wasn't until I started reading newsletters, I knew the extent of the history it had, back in the fifties and in sixties, there was a bunch of US national events. There were very high level. so I always think of MMSC as racing, but was that always the original roots of MMSC? Yeah, actually the ski club was not founded as a racing club, in the early days. There was no trails and hardly anybody knew how to ski. So starting a racing club was probably not the way to go. in one of the old newsletters from early thirties, they listed the club's purpose. primary objective was in those early days was to arouse sufficient local interests, enthusiasm so they could develop trails, get enough people interested in that. and then they needed to teach people how to ski. So the club in 19 34, 35 actually hired the first instructor here, Jim Trach gear, and formed a Mount Mansfield ski school. And then two years later they hired SEP Bruce. so most of the focus in the early days was. building a mountain, Building interest, Build skiing, getting skiing, going, building, getting skiing, going, building trails and, and teaching people how to ski. Yeah. Yeah. it wasn't probably until 1938 that they actually formed a ski team. And it was pretty informal at the time. anybody wanted to be on a ski team, they'd pay the entry fees. but it probably wasn't until the sixties where the form of the club kind of is similar to what we maybe know today, where they actually had a hired a coach. to coach kids. But prior to that, ski school, like Otmar Schneider they probably did a lot of instruction, coaching for Billy Kid and those guys, but, Yeah. you mentioned the creation and growth and development of the ski club. And at a certain point up the mountain, races started to begin. what was the first race held at Mount Mansfield? So the club actually was formed in 1931, and it was known as the Stokey Club. because there wasn't really anything happening in Mount Mansfield, everything was happening in town. So in 1931, the club formed, they built, a ski jump, TWA Andron, a bobsled on the hill, which is south of town behind what was the former pine mortar courts. I think it's called The Getaway Now. You know those little, oh yeah. Those little big. So up on the hill there, they built a ski jump. And that's where they revived the Winter carnival back in 32. And then they would have another winter carnival in the next year and add cross country and slalom to the winter carnival. And the slalom hill was in the hill across from Shaw's grocery store. Oh, wow. So you can see there's a lot of pine trees there. Yeah. There's, there probably was no, no trees there back there. Some mound bike trails up there. Yeah. Yeah. So it had a thousand spectators, so it was pretty popular. but in 32 there were things starting to happen at the mountain. Yeah. Craig Burt owned a logging camp up there. He started to convert that into a rustic ski accommodations for his sons and their friends to go hang up there and go skiing and, Okay. Roland Palmetto founded the amateur ski club from New York and he came here and, in 1932 to on Exploratory mission to see Hey, we want to bring our club skiing somewhere. And ended up liking what he saw here. So he said, as long as you have beds here, we're gonna be coming up here. So there was some interest starting to happen at the mountain, and I think Perry Merrill could see that and, decided that they'd cut the first trail here with the CCC. So the club recognized that Things were happening at the mountain and they reorganized. Yep. in 1934 they officially formed a Mount Minke Key Club on January 8th, 1934. So for the most part, events up until 34. Yep. Were happening in and around town. Yeah. It sounds like even just winter events, toboggan and crosswalk, tobo just growing the whole winter sports theme. Correct? Yep. Yep. I'll never look at that hillside the same. I think. Think we gotta go ski. I think we should go ski it. Yeah. and they use that for slalom actually for a few years, even when they were starting to reset at Mount Mansfield. That's so cool. so then the activity starts to move to Mansfield and Ranch Camp. and is that when racing started up there? this is still pre lifts, So Yes, so pre lifts, I went through my notes and I. compiled all of the trails and the races that existed. And there was at least 19 different trails that Wow. were used at one point in Mount Mansfield. and races actually started being held as soon as the first trails cut, which is the Bruce. And they'd been held of every year since, with the exception of world War ii. there's three years that no, no competitions were held. But, prior to 19 40, 41 season, there was no lift. Everything was hiking up and And, when the lift went in, it's interesting to note that the lift operated from nine o'clock to three 30 every day. And during the war, it operated in a reduced schedule, operated 10 to 12, and then not during the hour during lunch. And then it operated from one to three 30 and it was closed on Wednesday, which is interesting. And it was 75 cents per ride, which in today's dollars is like 16 bucks. Yeah. Pretty expensive actually. Yeah. and a book of 10 rides for five bucks, which translates to about$107 today. So not an inexpensive right there in and slow left. So I think the benefit of having ride tickets back then is if you got a Long lift line, you didn't worry about having a day ticket that you gotta get all the runs you just had. One ticket. so I guess just something I'm curious about, you mentioned the ski club really started to grow in the sixties as far as having an official coach you have these racers in, the mid to late thirties, early forties. What about their technical skills or coaching I know you sent us some videos of guys just flying down the mountain. was it just kinda wild at that time? Yeah, without any, real technical coaching. So when I look through some of the old results and I see how much time differential is say from first, second place person, it's talking seconds sometimes, but when you realize what it took to train for any of these events, if you were at STO and you had a rate, you know they had the US nationals there and how many runs can you actually take a day? today you probably can do more runs in a weekend than they could have done all season. So I don't really know how you would Train for these events. Plus everyone was just learning to ski. What? Yeah, exactly. Nobody really came into this with a lot experience. Yeah. That's amazing. So it's like seeing a beginner skier come down Mansfield today. Just crazy skiing down oh that person's outta control, they're gonna fall. It's probably a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. So I did compile a list of all the trails and I do apologize to the snowboarders and telemark. Skiers and freestylers. The club did have those programs, snowboard in 19 90, 91 and they actually had a telemark program in 92, 93 and freestyle, but they no longer have those. but, but for the Alpine events there's a lot number of trails and the first one was Bruce Trail. And, that was finished cut at the end of 1933. And by February 11th, there was already a race on it and there were 14 entrance in the race. And, Jack Allen from Burlington was the winner. He had a time of 10 minutes, 48 seconds. And I did get the results from the Burlington Free Press Archives and in that article say that race started up at the summit house or the hotel on top of the mountain. and one of those persons in the race was Craig Burt Jr. And he was the timer at the top for everybody, recorded the start times and then actually raced himself. but 10 minutes, 48 seconds race. That's crazy. by today's standards. If you had a race that's two minutes long for a run, it's yeah. It's crazy long, but I'm still impressed with 10 minutes down the Bruce drill from the The summit. Yeah, the summit. And you had to hike up first. then later in February, they had another race on. the Bruce Trail, and this was in conjunction with the Winter Carnival that year, and Dick Durance, who was the best ski racer in the United States at the time was, the winner of that race in, five minutes, seven seconds, probably started at the toll road, and, the Bruce would be used for events, I think after that, that was the end of the Bruce Trail in terms of, much racing. So how was timing working? what system were they using at that time? timing for the most part was stopwatches. old school, you just had somebody who said, okay, go. And then they recorded the time At the top. Yep. And then they just subtracted what your time was at the bottom. But, there, there was, in 1939 I read that at the 1939 Easterns, they used a, a phone, radio from the start to the finish. and then in the SLA they said they used Dartmouth Western Union Machine, which I have no idea what that is, but all the way up to the fifties you're using hand timing, So then, where does the club start moving to? What other trails come into race history? Yeah. In 1935, winter Carnival, I think the Bruce Trail still was supposed to have been the downhill of choice, but they ended up switching that to Chin clip. And again, chin clip was the old Chin clip, which was located further up in the notch where that picnic area is. And that went all the way up and dead ended before TFL Lodge. So that's where they held the race on the Chin clip on that year. I don't think there was really many races held again on the Chin clip. And by 1942, that old chin clip I think was on its way out. But from there we went to Toll Road. And Toll Road existed. at least in its condition is now back in 1923.'cause Craig Burt actually financed grading and fixing that up for cars. so tow road was actually a very important trail for the mountain for long time because it was a trail that could be open and skied on with very little snow. let's see. Tough trail to race on Toll Road. Not very steep. Steep, not a lot of pitch. Yeah. Yeah. Abner Coleman was the one who wrote most all these newsletters back in the early days. in 1949 he wrote an article, reflecting on the old days and toll road, and he said, for my part, I will confess without feeling the least bit embarrassed about it, that I'd rather enjoy. Taking the last run of the day on Toll Road, when the lift trails are shrouded in the chill gloom of late afternoon, the sun shines pleasantly on Toll Road. And the slide under relaxing conditions is an inspiration for columns such as this. I find that's today when I have to park down at the still the case. it's a peaceful, I love that last peaceful run. It's nice going down there. There's been a lot of days where it's super crowded and I'll just bang that right. It is on the toll road. Yeah. Sometimes I'm sad when I park at the mountains. I don't get to do that last. It is a great way to end the day. It really is. Yeah. Abner Coleman had it in 19, 19 49. So now, the toll road is getting some attention. Yeah, so I think the first races really held there were 19 35, 36, and started holding a series of downhill races every weekend. And Charlie Lord encouraged people to do it because when you're learning to ski, if you do that race, you have some kind of gauge if you're improving, and then after that, one of the directors of the club, Howard Prestwich, organized the first high school championships. and they would host the high school championships the next eight years. But racing didn't exist much in high school at the time. and, most all of those high school championships were slaloms over here in town and, the downhill was on the toll road. in Craig Burt's memoir, he really calls out this inner scholastic championships, the club's starting of that as very, important. Event in the history of skiing in Vermont and the East, because he felt getting younger kids to start skiing early would've happened much later than it actually did. when they had these races, the town would put up all these kids, they'd have dinner at the church and they had 90 competitors first year, 140, and then 200. It got so big that the Headmaster Association had to step in to organize it. And then they would have regional competitions, but multiple locations. Yeah. So it's pretty, pretty cool. But anyway, high school racing, got its start on toll road in Vermont. And then of course we know the derby. Oh yeah. we, I know you talked a bit about that on a previous podcast, but I wanted to add a few things there. it was actually started as race for only over 35 years old for veterans. I'm not sure exactly why they did that, but Mike's well over that. qualifying a problem ready to get the next category, but that was restricted in 1949. And I was reading, a story about, Erling Strom talking about when the interest was so low, he had to step up and organize and run the race himself. it was in 1955, he was the only official, he actually took race entries from anybody who wanted to be in it. He started the race and then when everybody started, he actually skied down and he got into his car down by Toll House and he drove down shoveled snow across the road. That's amazing. in a couple places. And then he headed to. his restaurant where the race finished to, record the times. That's a cool story. and when they finished, he let everybody shower in the apartment upstairs. that is, it's pretty interesting. Yeah. But without efforts like that, then the events don't continue. But they, I think that's really cool. I And I did, going back through the numbers I did find in 1985, there were 854 people in the Derby. Oh, that's amazing. And all the competitors could go to the elementary school to use the showers after. Wow. And Kim Brown's talked about down home hot tubs. They used to be at the finish of the derby as well. Oh really? You gotta bring that back. Yeah, that'd be cool. Talk to Tim. Yeah. Yeah. it sounds like they were everywhere. Yeah. The down home hot tubs. Yeah. so that leads us to Nose Dive, which became one of the most famous race trails in the country. Give us some of the history behind Nose Dive and what made it so challenging and how did it shape ski racing here? Yeah. I think in the thirties, every major ski center was focused around a big downhill trail. because lifts didn't really exist. and for Mount Mansfield, that would be the nose dive. Yep. they cut that in 1934. wasn't quite ready for racing and they cleaned it up in 1935. it was designed by Charlie Lord and Abner Coleman two ski club members. but, the first sanction race on Nosedive was Vermont State Championships in February 23rd, 1936. And interesting thing with nosedive made it pretty challenging is that they would start that race on the nose. you can see it's grown in there now, but, yeah, so it was probably the most famous race trail in the country for 30 years. they did a detailed survey of the trail. where they named all the sections of the trail, and top of the trail used to be called the corkscrew, which was the seven turns. We know it now, it has three turns. and then once you come out of the turns came down into that, what's today? Like pretty straight and wide. Yeah, that was called the corridor. And then, about where, midway starts, there were some trees in there and they end up calling that strainer maybe'cause it wasn't quite as straight as is now. And then the next pitch was called Upper Shush. And then. the big corner, which comes onto that flat was called Shambles Corner. So that was not quite as, I'm gonna remember all this stuff when I'm skiing it now, not quite as smooth and wide it is today. yeah. And then shambles corner and then, that, that flat was the lower shush. And then, that last pitch was Skidway. And then at the finish they had what was called the Gulch, which actually was actually pretty steep. which today you don't see that, but Yeah. But anyway, and they did add the bypass trail. Because when they needed to prepare the trail for the race, or they had a race, they needed to have people ski on the bypass trail so they could prepare the slope. So you mentioned that first race, the Vermont State Championships. where did it go from there? would you say that race was a big event success and then it took off from there. Yeah. So that race was a big race and the winner of that race was Bob Borden, who was, famously known for being the first rider of the T bar down in Woodstock. So the first rider of the first chair unit in Vermont. And, we'd go on to, host all the top race in the country Eastern championships, state championships, and US nationals and so forth. But there are a number of interesting side Yeah. Facts on that. Absolutely. in the thirties, the Derby Ball company in Waterbury used to make skis and they made a nosedive ski Oh, cool. In the mid thirties, which is pretty interesting. But that honorarium was soon dropped. Just'cause people that weren't that familiar with nosedive, they had a ski called nosedive. It didn't make a lot of sense to them. They got a little concerned. So yeah, there, there are a pair of those skis in the Adventure center on display, but there was another interesting thing that nos I was pretty famous. It actually was a subject of a short story In the Saturday evening post in 1942, it was called Downhill, is Lonely. I It was pretty interesting as it it was about a skier hiking up before lifts, and watching skiers come down and then waiting at the start, all nervous. And and it talked about all the different sections. It was pretty cool. That's cool. sounds like it, really became an iconic race trail pretty quickly. Yeah. In 1937, they were supposed to have the Eastern championships at Mountain Greylock in on the Thunderbolt Trail in Massachusetts. Yeah. And the weather was, too bad down there and they didn't have enough snow, so they got that relocated to sto and that was the race that really put it on the map. yeah, it was 3000 spectators, a thousand cars here. Jack Dur, Dick Turns, his brother won that race. and apparently the traffic jammed, didn't really get untangled till, Brian Linner says midnight, but that's the biggest traffic jam coming outta sto ever. Traffic is not a new thing, folks. Yeah. On the mountain road. Yeah. This episode is sponsored by Edelweiss Mountain Deli located on the mountain Road. I know for me it is the perfect stopping point after day on the hill to grab my favorite Waitsfield sandwich and a cup of coffee, and for me grabbing my favorite Sweet Sensation bar. Whether you're looking for fresh Vermont pastries, farm to table prepared meals or local Vermont products to add your barbecue, make sure Edelweiss Mountain Deli is your next stop. And I think the fact that was so successful allowed STO to host the nationals the following year, and in 1938. and the significance of that is also is it was the first, national championship for women. The women were in April, the men were in May. But, interesting. Looking at the results of that is Marian McKean won the downhill with a time of two minutes, 50 seconds, and she was 46 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. Wow. Grace Linley. And another interesting fact is that Marilyn Shaw, STOs local skier competed in that when she was 13 years old. Wow. And, that's amazing. She was 13th in the downhill and the 11th in the Sloan, and two years later she was national champion. Wow. And 13, she, I think she only really started skiing. Her mother was teaching her when she was 10 or 11. Can you imagine like how many runs you actually got in? Yeah. with no lifts and how You all of a sudden were skiing in the nationals, then you're national champions. Pretty impressive. That's incredible. Yeah. That 1938 nationals was notable as well because, the ski patrol set up on that race was so impressive that Roger Langley, who was head of the US Ski Association, decided that based on that there should be a National Ski Patrol Association modeled after that. So Oh, wow. the National Ski Patrol kind of got its starred on at that race essentially. Amazing. how much was going on that trail already and how many times I've skied it and Yeah. it's pretty cool. So it sounds like Nosedive becomes an iconic trail where there's some big races held there that got some big attention across the ski community. It did. Yep. the actual nosedive record became a big deal too. Tony, Matt set a record on the 1939 Easterns and, MMCS, Milton Hutchinson broke that record in 1940 in the state championships. And that was apparently a big deal, at the time. and that record would stand till 1950 when George Ma Comer beat it, but it was on a much improved trail. And I was talking to George Ma comer's son about that, and I. He was saying, yeah, his dad actually cut one of the corners off on the seven turn. So maybe, but there was no flag that, I mean there was really no flag set up. So I don't think that was And and was that starting at the top of the nose still? Yeah. Yeah. And still no grooming it, No there. Just skiing it. Yeah, in the newsletters, there was a lot of talk about that they couldn't continue with nosedive because it's too popular for trail for the public. And in one article they talked about building a new race trail up, in the flat by the Adams apple way up above TAF Lodge. And even maybe starting at the chin, Nothing seemed to ever come of that. in 1952, the US nationals came STO again and CV Starr was in the picture. he flew in the gold medalist from Ozo Olympics to compete at Mark Schneider, Stein Erickson, Andrew Mead, Lawrence, bringing in these big stars brings more attention to the mountain and, he and Sep decided they wanted the best timing system possible. So they had Longine send a bank of watches to use for the timing system A couple of ski club directors, determined they wanted to figure out how to connect photo cell to these watches to make when you break the photo cell, it stopped the watch. before that they used to have wires that went from the watch across the finish. And when you broke the wire, it would stop the clock. So Longine sent a letter saying it wasn't gonna be possible to, hook, photo cell to these watches. But they did find somebody in Illinois who had a photo cell and they connected that to the watches. They cut, a fishing pole and a refrigerator switch, hooked that at the start, and created modern timing system today. And Bill Haslet said it was the best timing system in the world, at the time. So that was a lot of momentum out of that US nationals and bringing those European stars seemed like a great idea. Yeah. And they would follow that up. Almost every other year doing the same thing. And they called them American International Races. and they'd hold top racers all the way up until 1966 when they held nationals again. And it was considered the biggest race ever held at Mount Mansfield. but for that race, the seven turns weren't. FIS approved. So we had to turn'em into three turns. So in 19 50, 65 is when seven turns became three. Yep. what we now know today when, what we now know today you had John Clark Keeley, Billy Kidd racing that. when I ski down that now, I can't really envision how that downhill with a work down through there. I know, I'm thinking of wild world of sports, the agony of defeat. the guy goes crashing. Remember that on tv? Oh yeah. Seven turns with a, yeah. Just people crashing. just go straight. Yeah. yeah. Don't make that turn. the trail doesn't turn enough to Control your speed. It's just, pretty straight down there. so you would say, late sixties, the nose dive, high level racing, it starts to, go elsewhere, go to other mountains I think that was, for the most part, That, that level. High level, yeah. I don't think we would see that again. We have, we'd had Noam's, which is very high level, but not what we would've seen in nose dive. The end of the, a lot of amazing history though. Yeah. That's a lot of races on those diving. Yeah. Tell us about the sugar sla Oh and the history there as it's coming up on sugar SLA and weekend. are you racing in that? I'm not doing the sugar slalom. Oh, are you? Maybe. I don't know. I don't think you can. Can I? You? Yeah, you can. Yeah, I can't, that's why I was asking you. I'm not here that weekend. I'll go for the maple syrup on snow. So good pickles. It was Roland Palm Meto who offered a suggestion that an end of season event needed to be installed on the calendar of the club. And, That was 1939, and that was when the sugar salon was born, and it was always held annually on the last week of April which is crazy. So the first one was on April 30th, 1939. that was one by Milton Hutchinson and Marian McKean, Han Schneider set the cores. And again, there's no lift service then, so everything had to be brought up. And I think they chose that section of nosedive, which is at the end of the turns. that corridor section, that straight section. Because that's where the snow lasts so long. Has it been held every year since 1939? it was rained out the third year. And then it did not get held during the war years. But it's been consistently held every year since. not Covid O year, though. That is cool. Unfortunately. Yeah. but it's gotta be one of the older races, and back in those days, did they have the maple syrup going at the bottom and all that? Yeah. Donuts there was a sugar shack that was removed not many years ago, right there where Midway starts. And they would boil the maple syrup and have donuts and pickles. It seemed like it was always a hit. A hit, Yeah. So in 1940. it was 165 competitors, and it was the largest race in the country that year, which is crazy. and they actually awarded the winner this Shaw Trophy, which was a perpetual trophy. They were gonna award every year to the winner. And that was named in honor of Marilyn Shaw, who had won the Nationals that year. I remember the last year it was held on nosedive, after the race, standing in the first rut, getting a picture and the rut was up to my shoulder. So the base of the gate was at my shoulder. It was that deeper ruts. Yeah. I raced in a couple of those. I remember the ruts. So that's nose dive. what are some other old school trails that we used to race on? Yeah, actually in 1941, the ski meister was cut and, by labor provided by George Morrow, who owned the lodge down by Toll House. And they decided they were gonna have weekly races, maybe is the first ski bum type races ever held there. but that, seemed to only last for one year.'cause the World War came the year later. So where was it? Where was the ski Meister trail? So the ski meister, it's a lost trail now. Yeah. But, it used to go all the way to the lodge another cool race was on steeple. it actually was. So that's Skytop? Yep. Yeah. That's cool. It actually was not just steeple, but in 1942 they came up with a race called the Merry-Go-Round, which was four downhills in two days. We gotta do that. And, next winter. That's cool. So in the 1942 newsletter said. They said downhill racing requires technique, judgment, stamina, presence of mind and nerve. The reason that nosedive is such a great race trail is because it sets to a greater degree than any other trail, uniformly high standard for all these requirements. If one had to select Predominating qualifications for running nosedive, they would probably be technique and judgment. Chin clip requires presence of mine. The Steeple trail, although about the same length as Chin clip, is a more open and faster run and calls for plenty of nerve. The bruise, because of its length and varied terrain, makes the greatest demand on stamina, so it's incredible that steeple. Yeah. At that time is more open and faster for anyone that's ever skied steeple in the back country. Yeah, it is definitely not open. They would run that race again in 1946, and I think that was the last time, but, Karen Gottlieb did have a, in her dad's old files, a registration form, which is pretty interesting for a team called Lounge Lizards. which included Earl Greer, Gail Shaw, Erwin Linder, and David Burt. Then the whole development around the Mansfield T bar started in 19 46, 47, and a whole series of races would take place over there on Standard and Lord. the Club held, it's a Victor Constant Series trophy race in 1948, for the next 10 years on, that was dedicated to a Victor Constant who was well known in Stowe and who was killed training for the US Nationals and. and that trophy's in the club and was donated by Lowell Thomas. The radio broadcaster so these days I feel like most of the racing is over on Spruce. Yeah. So when did that transition start to take place? CV Star in 1947 bought all that land on Spruce Peak side, and around 1950, he's, he developed a east and west slope and put in two rope toes in tandem. And then the following year they replaced that with a tbar and, so a lot of slalom races and, younger kids GS races happened over there and we still use that trail today. but on, in 1954, the double chair went in, on Big Spruce and all the trail network up there, main Street, Sterling smugglers. And, in 1956 the ski club didn't have that many races on the calendar, so they decided that was the year they're gonna hold the ski club championships and they're gonna do a downhill on Sterling Trail. And, they did that for a number of years. kids would love to do that today, but Yeah, you can't set up fencing on the whole trail anymore. and smuggler's trail was, in 1958 the OW cup began and that was a downhill on smuggler's trail. And that finished down in front of the lodge and Main Street started having races in the seventies. they would hold downhills there since they could no longer hold downhills on Nosedive. So I. Main street raise is one of the best trails on the mountain. I don't know if you get a chance to ski that on a powder day. Oh yeah. It's one of the best. Agreed. So in 20 2008, 2009, Main Street got modified, snowmaking added. Now that's the race trail for the ski club today. you see the whole trail lined with netting now. it's a, that must be a tall task. It's very labor intensive to maintain that trail. Every time it snows, you gotta roll up the fence, put it to the side so you can groom. So it's a lot of work now, but. safety's priority now. So I was riding up the lift two weeks ago, up the sensation lift and they had the course set up. Somebody was training this woman ripped down. I've never seen anybody come down that fast in my life. And I got to the top, whoa. That was the craziest thing I've ever seen. And got down to the base and ran into someone I knew and I was telling'em about this and they said it was Paul Molten Yeah. Training up there. So That's so cool. It was unbelievable to see, I'm sure on edge, powering through turns. That's cool. Incredible. Mike, would you say Main Street is one of the premier racing hills trails in the country? I think it's definitely one of the nicer trails in the country, we've had number of Nor NorAm held there. they came to inspect for potential if it would ever to be a World Cup type race there. But that would be awesome. the challenge is I think that World Cup race, you would want to have a slalom and GS to all be the same finish and it's not there. Yeah. I think if a World Cup race was held atto, it would be on hayride. With some improvements down below. But do you think that'll ever happen? No. What about ski bum racing? What's the history of ski bum racing at Stowe? ski, bum racing actually started back on standard. I don't know if you'd call it ski bum racing, but it's citizen racing, right? Yeah. And they used to have the stove standard downhills, that were run every Wednesday at 1215. And then that went through about 19 59, 19 60. And then that was replaced by Little Spruce, giant Slaloms on Slalom Hill. And you'd have a pace setter, and if you finished within a certain time, you could get a pin, a bronze pin, or silver, a gold pin. if you won three gold pins, you would get a diamond pin. And, I think that series ran through the sixties all the way into 19 70, 71. a number of locals embrace this idea of having teams. And then the current ski bump circuit started and, was more of a team event than an individual thing. So Mike, there's so much history that you're ingrained in. would there be any race or event that, that you would really have loved to be at and witness out of all we talked about? I think that 1966 Nationals Might have been, yeah. I think it had all the best racers in the world and a large field as well. that would've been a great one to go to. Yeah. But I think that 52 race would've been good'cause it still had seven turns. Yeah. would've been interesting to see as well. The club did have one other race or one other event, which is worth noting. in the early forties they started a, competition with the ski patrol on having the most interesting hats during Easter. And they ended up, on Easter Sunday, they all had different hats on and they would judge the hats. And it got so, popular that turned into a big thing, Easter Parade. And then it turned into full costumes. And that Easter parade, eventually would have down at, on the bottom of spruce, big parade and lots of big prizes. But that was a another club event that was really popular that's no longer exists anymore. Any crazy ski race stories that you came across or I've heard about. Now just going down nose dive full speed on wooden skis in two minutes. I don't have, after having hiked up, it have to in 40, 41, the club had what they called the military patrol race. And the thing was seven to 10 miles you could go any way you wanted and you had to just pass these checkpoints. And the total time on that race was over four hours. And, men had to carry a backpack with 15 pounds in it, and the women had to carry eight pound pack. But that was an interesting race in the early forties. It's a cool race. We could bring that one back. Yeah, it's cool. Alright Mike, we got some rapid fire questions for you. You're on the hot seat, what's the most iconic race in MMSC history, in your opinion? The most iconic race? 1966 Nationals. Yeah. Cool. Favorite piece of ski racing memorabilia you've come across? Oh, Got an email from somebody from Cincinnati who found in a burnout home some old ski club patches from 1941 and 42. That was interesting. Yeah. and one other interesting thing we got was a gentleman that emailed me, he had bought some land down near Mount Snow and he had a cabin, And he found some papers in there. And one of'em was, a, a song on ski club letterhead. It was called Nose Dive Annie. It, so Oh wow. It was, on ski club stationary and the person that owned that cabin was Livingston Longfellow, who actually designed the Octagon. So it's pretty interesting. I make a little plug there. Octagon plug. Who is the best skier you've ever watched Race at sto. on North Slope. we had in the nineties, the world military games. And we had, Michael Von Grugen ski for the Swiss team. that's probably how they did their military services to ski in the military games. But he was here racing on that. Just amazing. He was the best in the world at the time. Cool. what's the toughest race course MMSC has ever used? in 1951 they cut the national trail for the 52 nationals and the slalom race Started at the octagon, came down over the top part of national, down national and finished where the old mid was single cheer, I would have to say. Yep. That was probably the most difficult race course maybe they've had. That's pretty steep. If you could bring back one retired race, what would it be? That merry-go-round sounds awesome. I know that's what I would vote for. I can't get that outta my head, oh, race down the steeple. That's cool. The merry round would've been great. It probably was logistically a very difficult but. You could ride the lift at least one of those races in the day. But chin clip had no lift and steeple had no lift. but I think, yeah, that would've been interesting. There we go around. If you could ski any historic race course from the past, which one would it be? Oh, I definitely would've wanted to try the nose dive when it was seven turns and it started at the top of the nose. Totally same. I'd love to try that. Yeah. What was the secret to winning on a tough course? Like un groomed nose dive with wooden skis? I think the secret was probably to not fall.'cause I think back stay upright. I think back in the old days, survival not falling was half the battle. in the 1938 Nationals Sep Rus skied in that race and he actually fell and just his ankle and still got 13th. So Mike, you've been in living in STO since 1989. 1990. 1990. So you've been there 35 years. Yeah. How do you think stove's changed since you've been here? I definitely think it's changed. there was a lot more events. like Winter Carnival, we had, many events in Winter Carnival. You had Village Night and so I think it's changed that way a lot. But it's always changing. I was reading on the State Historical Society website an a transcript from an I view with Charlie Lord and Abner Coleman from 1984. And they were longing for the way it used to be.'cause you'd go skiing and You knew everybody. And, so today we might look back all of the eighties. so it's always gonna be, it was way better then. Somebody's gonna refer to that as today's time. this was the best. it's true. Yeah. what is your hope for STO in the next five to 10 years? I've listened to your podcast of previous people and it seems pretty common theme that affordability and and having that community feel. I would have to agree with the same thing. there's a balance between full-time residents and those that aren't, you obviously can't have everybody living here full-time. The traffic would be worse than it is now, but, and we do wrap up our podcast with one question. If STO did not exist, where would you live? I think there's so many nice places to live, but I don't know about living 12 months of the year. I love the seasons and this is a great place, but I would pick, Moscow. Is that Russia? no. I, yeah, this Moscow Fair. I Moscow's Fair game. That's Moscow, Vermont. That means you love where you live. that's a good reason. All right. Thanks Mike. Thanks a lot, Mike. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me all. Hope you enjoyed that episode of the Octagon Podcast. 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