Tag Archives: Val Gardena

Ski racing runs deep in Stowe, Vermont.  Every level of alpine racing has graced the slopes of Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak from international championships to the beloved Sugar Slalom.  The Mount Mansfield Ski Club, the oldest ski club in the country, has assembled a detailed history and timeline of racing in Stowe.  Please click here for the MMSC website.

3/17/1957 Press Photo:  SAILER OF AUSTRIA WINS – Toni Sailer of Austria shown crossing the finish line here today as he won the men’s downhill event of the American-International Ski Races being held here on Mount Mansfield. 

3/20/1955 Press Photo:  STOWE, VT., DOWNHILL SKI CHAMPIONS – Buddy Werner, 19-year-old University of Denver freshman who won the International Downhill race down Mt. Mansfield today is flanked by tie winners of women’s race.  Andrea Mead Lawrence, 22, (left) of Parshall, Col. U.S. double Olympic champion and Madeleine Berthod, 24, (right) of Switzerland tied at 2:08.7 for the 1.2 mile course.  Werner topped American and European champions for time of 2:07.5 for 1¾ mile course.

1/14/1963 Press Photo:  Othmar Schneider (left) world’s ski champion from Austria after a fast run down Mount Mansfield, Stowe, Vt., with Sepp Ruschp (center) and Karl Fahrner, a Mansfield ski instructor.  Schneider is favored to win the Vic Constant Memorial Downhill, Slalom and Combined races this weekend (Jan. 17-18) at Mansfield.  Ruschp is general manager and newly-named president of the Mount Mansfield ski resort and Fahrner is a former European champion skier.

1966 AP WIREPHOTO:  STOWE, VT., MARCH 19 — FLYING FRENCHMAN – Jean-Claude Killy of France leans into a high speed turn as he flashes down Mount Mansfield to win International Giant Slalom championships at Stowe, Vt., today.  Killy, gasping for air, is “stepping up” or shifting weight from right to left ski for turn towards next gate to his left.  Killy ran course of just under a mile in 1:45:67.

2/15/1970 Press Photo:  Val Gardena, Italy – Bill Kidd of Stowe, Vt., flying in air during today’s Alpine World Championships downhill event in which he placed fifth.  He won the Combined Alpine trophy beating top favorite France’s Patrick Russel.

Certainly the most enduring and beloved ski race in Stowe is the annual Sugar Slalom.  It is a celebration of spring complete with racers in spirited costumes and fresh maple syrup on snow.  The 2014 edition of the Sugar Slalom is this weekend, April 5-6, with races running Saturday and Sunday on Spruce Peak’s Slalom Hill, pictured here many years ago.  Vintage real photo postcard by Harry Wendell Richardson of Newport, Vermont.