North Conway was a focal point of early alpine skiing industry

Gibson contracted with Carroll Reed’s Eastern Slope Ski School to provide ski instruction in the first season for Cranmore. But in the summer of 1938 Gibson bought the ski school from Reed. The ski school was led by Austrian Benno Rybizka, who used the Arlberg method of instruction.

The Arlberg method was developed by Hannes Schneider of St. Anton, Austria. It was a stepwise approach that enabled instructors to teach a group of students at one time. The steps went from snowplow to snowplow turn to stem turn to …

RQ Mason and Glen Findholt both had the answer that the next step was stem christie. Findholt has been a long-time instructor at Smuggs, but I’m not sure he’s old enough to have taught the Arlberg method.

Instructors trained by Schneider were in great demand both in Europe and the United States. Reed and the Eastern Slope Ski Club arranged for Rybizka to come to the States to teach skiing in 1936. Similarly, Sepp Ruschp, another Schneider product, was brought to America by the Mount Mansfield Ski Club to also bring the Arlberg method to Stowe.

Thanks to the Arlberg method’s popularity and the ski movies that featured Schneider, his name was recognized around the world and not just the world of skiing. Gibson wanted to bring Schneider to Cranmore.

In 1938 Schneider was under house arrest in Germany. His fame and anti-Nazi views made him a problem for Hitler’s government. Schneider had propaganda value and was a risk to defect.

But Hitler had another problem. Loans taken out by the government were coming due and defaulting on them would crash the German economy. And who controlled most of the financial institutions that held the loans? Harvey Dow Gibson. Through negotiators, Gibson made it clear that new terms might be possible if Schneider and his family were allowed to leave Germany for the United States. A deal was agreed upon and on Jan. 9, 1939, Schneider received papers for his family to emigrate.

On Feb. 11, 1939, Schneider, his wife Ludwina, and children Herbert and Herta arrived by train in North Conway. The iconic picture of Hannes and Ludwina escorted by Gibson and Rybizka through an arch of ski poles held by 150 junior skiers is now recreated every year by volunteers with the New England Ski Museum.

The addition of Schneider further fueled the popularity of Cranmore and North Conway as a skiing destination. Influential and famous people such as the Fords, Rockefellers and Rothschilds were among those drawn to try skiing under the guidance of Schneider. Even C.V. Starr and his wife took lessons at Cranmore from Schneider. Of course, Starr would turn his attention to Stowe and eventually turn it into his own signature ski resort.

Gibson made many other contributions to his hometown. At the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, he somehow managed to bring a Swiss orchestra from the fair to come play in North Conway. Several of them settled in the area, providing musical leadership in the schools and community for many years.

I was a member of the Community Center Band that was directed by one of the Swiss emigres. Well, two of them actually, as one died, and another took over while I was a member. We wore uniforms bought by Gibson and we rehearsed in the community center donated by him as well.

It is entirely appropriate that the New England Ski Museum now occupies that former community center building on the main street of North Conway, another tribute to Harvey Dow Gibson.

The source for a lot of my Cranmore history is Tom Eastman’s book, “The History of Cranmore Mountain.”

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This week’s trivia question: What ski area had the first ski gondola in the United States? Post your answer at retro-skiing.com.

Greg Morrill is a retired computer programmer and college professor.