Product Description

In April 2000, at the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, the coveted Ullr Award was presented to Alan Engen by the International Skiing History Association at their annual week-long gathering to honor the importance of his historic, beautifully produced publication For the Love of Skiing: A Visual History.

Illustrated with more than 150 vintage photographs from private and historical collections, For the Love of Skiing tells the story of U.S. ski sports from 1880 to the coming of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Salt Lake City.

Told through the experiences of former Olympic ski coach Alf Engen, we relive the days when ski jumps were constructed of rickety wooden frames, when loop bindings strapped around the skier's boots held his fate, and when records were being broken all the time as ski sports developed from their fledgling roots to more sophisticated tests of courage and skill.

Along with a historical review of the major competitions across the United States from the 1930s to the present, For the Love of Skiing relates many of the wildest early ski adventures. Alf and Sverre Engen recall a "barnstorming," summer jumping competition in Omaha, where snow was sparse and straw and soap had been added to the track to make it slicker. A bale of hay awaited the skiers at the end of the track. Stopping was difficult, and Sverre recalls, "I broke my toe trying to stop, and that toe still hurts on occasion to this day." Those were the barnstormer days, "when men were men, and most were crazy as hell."

ALAN K. ENGEN, is also the chairman and president of the Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation, chairman and president of the Alta Historical Society, board member of the International Skiing History Association, and charter advisory member of the University of Utah Marriott Library's Utah Ski Archives

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1216608 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 180 pages

From the Inside Flap
The early days of competitive skiing were a time of broken bones and broken records as ski jumpers thrilled crowds across the country, from the East Coast to the upper Midwest to California.

Many ski pioneers were influential in establishing skiing as a major sporting event in the United States. Among them were the Engen Brothers--Alf, Sverre, and Corey--whose collective skiing feats were unrivaled. Alf eventually became an Olympic skiing coach, and this history of competitive skiing in the United States from the 1930s through the present is told here mainly through Alf's experiences.

For the Love of Skiing relates many of the wildest early ski adventures. Alf and Sverre Engen recall a "barnstorming," or summer jumping competition in Omaha, where snow was sparse and straw and soap had been added to the track to make it slicker. A bale of hay awaited the skiers at the end of the track. Stopping was difficult, and Sverr recalls, "I broke my toe trying to sop, and that toe still hurts on occasion to this day." Those were the barnstormer days, "when men were men, and most were crazy as hell."

From the Back Cover
From the mountain slopes of Scandinavia to the posh resorts of Utah, this book tells the story of ski sports from 1880 to the coming of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

It all started when young men eager for snow adventures tramped up hills, schussed down on wooden boards, then slung the skis over their shoulders to trudge to the top of the hills again.

At the center of the ski scene from teh 1930s through the 1950s was Alf Engen, an immigrant from Norway who made big impressions at ski competitions across the United States, especially in ski jumping. These were the days when ski jumps were constructed of rickety wooden frames, wehn loop bindings strapped around the skier's boots held his fate, and when records were being broken all the time as ski sports developed from their fledgling roots to more sophisticated tests of courage and skill.

For the Love of Skiing is illustrated with more thatn 150 vintage photographs from private and historic collections.

Excerpted from For the Love of Skiing: A Visual History by Alan K. Engen. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Modern Skiing: Its Birth and Development

The Vikings played an important role in Scandinavian history; they by no means were the first to venture out into the vast stretches of ice-covered land that included Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, parts of Russia, and much of the Germanic countryside. To understand how skiing evolved into the sport enjoyed by millions today, one must journey far back into the past when the world was ruled by ice, and the ability to migrate made the difference between life and death.

Customer Reviews

If you love Alta, buy this book.
This book will appeal to people that know and love Alta, Utah or are interested in the history of skiing in the Western US. It primarily chronicles the life of Alf Engen, and therefore, chronicles the history of Alta and and an important part of skiing in the west. Engen was the inventor of modern powder skiing and richly deserves the honor of this book.

Neat pictures, but too much ski jumping.
Neat pictures, but kind of a muddled presentation. This is not really a general history of skiing, but a biography of Alf Engen who was a local hero in Salt Lake City, Utah and ran the Ski School at Alta for years and years. There's too much about ski jumping and not enough about other kinds of skiing. The author, Alf's son Alan, seems like a spokesman for the ski industry more than a historian.