So who won that first official ski race on Mount Mansfield on Feb. 25, 1934? Bob Stewart was the first to correctly identify Dick Durrance. And Bob knew it right off the top of his head!
Tom Hubbs also identified Durrance as the winner of that first official race, and Tom added that there had also been an unofficial first race on Feb. 11, 1934, with local talent. The winner of that race was Jack Allen of Burlington with Charlie Lord and Craig Burt Jr. finishing second and third. Tom came across this information in Charlie Lord’s old diaries when Tom was helping Peter Oliver do research for his Stowe book.
Mike Leach also added some details about the unofficial Feb. 11 race. There were 13 competitors, and the winning time was 10 minutes, 48 seconds, for the 3.5-mile course down the Bruce Trail.
But back to Dick Durrance. In those pre-lift days, Durrance was the biggest U.S. name in skiing. Not bad for a young man from Florida!
In 1928, when Durrance was 13, his family moved from Florida to Garmisch, Germany. Durrance tried skiing and he was a natural. In 1932, he won the German Junior alpine championship.
Hitler was on the rise in Germany and so, in 1933, the Durrance family moved back to Florida. But Dick wanted to ski, which brought him to New England and eventually Dartmouth College. It also brought him to Stowe to race in February 1934.
Durrance dominated U.S. ski racing, winning 17 national championships. Eventually, the U.S. national championship medal would contain his likeness. Durrance won enough of those medals to make his wife a necklace. His biography is titled, “The Man on the Medal.”
He was the first racer to retire the Harriman Cup at Sun Valley after winning it three times. The Harriman Cup was the first U.S. race that attracted European competitors. In 1937, the race was held on Boulder Ridge Mountain and Durrance won his first Harriman, beating all the Europeans. Averell Harriman was so pleased that he renamed the mountain after Durrance. Today, Durrance Mountain is a popular backcountry peak just north of Sun Valley.
Durrance competed in the 1936 Winter Olympics, finishing eighth in slalom, 11th in downhill, and 10th in combined. He was on the 1940 Olympic Team, but the games were cancelled due to World War II.
During World War II, Durrance helped train the 10th Mountain Division. Initially Durrance was trying to teach soldiers to ski, but eventually he and the government realized it would be more effective to teach skiers to fight!
Durrance wasn’t just a ski racer. At Sun Valley, he designed the trails on Baldy. He was the ski school director at Alta and managed the Alta Lodge during the early 1940s. This is where he tried to teach the soldiers to ski. Right after the war, he helped design and open Arapahoe Basin ski area. In 1947, he became the Aspen resort manager. At that time, Aspen had one lift and three runs, but under Durrance’s leadership, it became a world-class destination ski resort. After leaving Aspen Ski Company, he helped design and open Aspen Highlands. In 1960, he was the chief of race for the Squaw Valley Olympics.
Dick Durrance also made ski movies. While still at Dartmouth, he made “Sun Valley Ski Chase,” a parody of the “chase films” made by Dr. Arnold Fanck, generally recognized as the first ski moviemaker. In all, Durrance made 46 films that helped promote skiing in the United States.
Warren Miller perhaps best summarized Durrance’s influence: “No other person has ever dominated skiing in America as much, or as long, as this short man with the long skis who made molehills out of mountains.”
As successful as Dick Durrance’s career was, he never won an Olympic medal. The first American to win a medal in alpine skiing would be a woman. So this week’s trivia question is: Who was the first American to win an Olympic medal in alpine skiing?
Greg Morrill is a retired computer programmer and college professor who’s looking forward to his first 100-day season.
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