SKI JUMPING
JOHN W. LUNDIN’S WORK TO PRESERVE THE HISTORY OF SKI JUMPING
For the last few years, I have been working to preserve memories of ski jumping, a sport brought to this country by Norwegian immigrants. Ski jumping was the most popular form of the sport for decades, but its history has been nearly forgotten these days.
Harold “Cork” Anson, in Jumping Through Time, A History of Ski Jumping in the United States and Southwest Canada, described the passion of Norwegians for ski jumping.
“The Norwegians brought to their new country a passion for skiing…They organized ski competitions to strengthen their ethnic ties, showcase their abilities, and generate a new sense of belonging to their new country…It has been said that wherever two or three Norwegians gathered together, they constructed a jump and held competitions. This was never so true than in the Pacific Northwest, as a wave of new clubs showed up along the coastal mountain ranges.”
My work has taken place in a number of forums and used different media forms.
PUBLICATIONS.
I began discussing the importance of ski jumping in my first book, Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass (2017); discussed ski jumping in our country’s first destination ski resort in Skiing Sun Valley: a History from Union Pacific to the Holdings (2021); and covered the topic in detail in Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition (2021). I have written a number of articles published in magazines and journals such as Skiing History, Nordic Kultur, Viking, Far West Ski Association’s 90th Anniversary Journal, Viking, and others. My essays have been published on Historylink.org (the on-line encyclopedia of Washington history), the Central Washington website for local authors, and websites such as the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.
MUSEUM EXHIBITS.
I helped to prepare exhibits on ski jumping in three museums: the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum; National Nordic Museum in Seattle; and the Regional History Museum in Ketchum, Idaho.
LECTURES, RADIO AND TV SHOWS.
I have given a series of lectures on ski jumping history in Seattle and Sun Valley to various groups. I made a TV show with Eye on Sun Valley (a news source for the Wood River Valley), “Sun Valley’s Fling with Ski Jumping.” I have given radio interviews promoting ski jumping and the museum exhibits on which I worked.
I. WESTERN SKI HERITAGE AWARD FROM FWSA
In 2024, the Far West Ski Association gave me its prestigious Western Ski Heritage Award in recognition of my multi-year “Work to Preserve Ski Jumping History, Expressing Norwegian Identity, and its Role in the Development of Skiing in America.” My book, Skiing Sun Valley: A History From Union Pacific To The Holdings, won the Western Ski Heritage award in 2021.
II. WORK WITH THE WASHINGTON STATE SKI & SNOWBOARD MUSEUM
I am a founding member of the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum and have been on its board since its opening in 2015. Our website is WSSSM.org. I prepared an exhibit on ski jumping that has been showing since our opening.
I have done PowerPoint presentations on ski jumping to organizations such as the Nordic Heritage Museum, the Leif Eriksen Lodge, the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum, the University District Rotary Club, and elsewhere.
A number of my essays are posted on the Mountains to Sound Greenway website, including “History of Ski Jumping in the Mountains to Sound Greenway,” See,
https://mtsgreenway.org/blog/the-history-of-ski-jumping-in-the-mountains-to-sound-greenway/
My essays that discuss ski jumping history have been published on Historylink.com (the on-line encyclopedia of Washington history). See,
“Early Skiing in the Washington Cascades, Part I: 1914 – 1937,” Essay 103012, http://www.historylink.org/File/10312
“Early Skiing in the Washington Cascades, Part II: 1938 – 1949,” Essay 103014, http://historylink.org/File/10314
II. BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Three of the books I have written since 2017, contain a discussion of the history and importance of ski jumping.
I first explored the importance of ski jumping to Washington state in Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass (2017). I discussed Averell Harriman’s use of ski jumping as part of his plan to make his new resort the country’s center of skiing in Skiing Sun Valley: a History from Union Pacific to the Holdings (2020). My most recent book, Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition (2021), is an in-depth analysis of the importance of ski jumping both to the Northwest and to the country as a whole.
All three of my books received a Skade award from the International Ski History Association. Skiing Sun Valley also was co-winner of the Harold S. Hirsch Award for Excellence in Snowsports Journalism, given by the North American Sports Journalists’ Association (NASJA) to the best winter sports publication every three years; and the Western Ski Heritage prize awarded by the Far West Ski Association, as part of its Western Ski Heritage program, in recognition of the best effort in the prior two years that communicates the contributions of snowsports to the community at large.
2017, Skade Award Winner
2021 winner of Skade award, Hirsch award from NASJA, & Western Heritage award from FWSA
2022, Skade award winner.
My articles on ski jumping have been published in a variety of magazines and journals.
I am a regular contributor to Skiing History magazine, published by the International Ski History Association, that has published a number of my articles. “Sun Valley’s Ruud Mountain: the Forgotten Era of Ski Jumping,” appeared in Skiing History, March-April 2022.
My article “When the Northwest Was a Center of Ski Jumping in the US,” written to promote the exhibit on ski jumping I helped organize in 2021, appeared in Nordic Kultur, published by the National Nordic Museum in Seattle.
The Far West Ski Association’s 90th Anniversary Journal contained two of my articles that discussed ski jumping as part of the ski history of Washington and Sun Valley: “Washington Ski History,” and “A Short History of the Sun Valley Ski Resort.”
III. SKI JUMPING EXHIBITS AT MUSEUMS
In 2021 and 2022, I helped organize exhibits on ski jumping at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle – “Sublime Sights: Ski Jumping in Nordic America,” and at the Regional History Museum in Ketchum, Idaho – “Skiers in Flight: Sun Valley’s Ski Jumping Roots.”
SKI JUMPING EXHIBIT AT NATIONAL NORDIC MUSEUM
I gave the opening PowerPoint lecture at the Nordic Museum, “Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition,” that can be viewed at :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYxtnkyfB7Q.
I co-hosted a forum with Washington’s two living Olympian Ski Jumpers, Ragnar Ulland (1956) and Ron Steele (1972). It can be seen at:
To promote the exhibit, I did radio interviews with public radio stations in Washington -Spokane Public Radio and the Northwest Public News Network; and gave a presentation to the Norwegian Commercial Club.
My book, Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition, was the companion to the ski jumping exhibit at the National Nordic Museum, and was sold at the Nordic Museum and the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum. The book received a Skade award from the International Ski History Association in 2022.
SKI JUMPING IN SUN VALLEY
In 2020, I made a TV program with Eye On Sun Valley, “Sun Valley’s Fling with Ski Jumping.” It was shown on Cox TV in Idaho’s Wood River Valley, and in other states where Cox has the TV franchise. http://eyeonsunvalley.com/Story_Video?StoryId=7826. Eye on Sun Valley is a primary news source in the Wood River Valley, with daily news reports and a TV show on the local Cox network. See, https://eyeonsunvalley.com. It has covered my work in the area in a number of articles.
In 2022, I helped organize an exhibit at the Regional History Museum in Ketchum’s Forest Service Park – “Skiers in Flight: Sun Valley’s Ski Jumping Roots.”
My article, “Sun Valley’s Ruud Mountain: the Forgotten Era of Ski Jumping,” was published in Skiing History, March-April 2022, to promote the exhibit.
The exhibit was open during Ski Week in Sun Valley, March 23 – 27, 2022, for the annual meeting of the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, International Ski History Association and the North American Sports Journalists’ Association. The US Ski Hall of Fame and Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame sponsored a book signing at the Regional History Museum, where Dan Egan, author of Thirty Years in a White Haze, and John W. Lundin, author of Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition, signed their books and attendees could view the ski jumping exhibit.
IV. PROMOTING SKI JUMPING IN OTHER WORK
I included the history and importance of ski jumping in many of my lectures.
I gave the first John Fry Memorial Lecture to open Ski Week in Sun Valley in March 2022. The topic was, “Early Sun Valley: Union Pacific, Averell Harriman and Alf Engen.”
The PowerPoint presentation discussed Harriman’s use of ski tournaments to make Sun Valley the country’s center of skiing. This included building a ski jump on Ruud Mountain to host jumping tournaments, as most top skiers in the 1930s were four-way competitors. The best jumpers in the world competed at Sun Valley. Harriman hired famous ski jumper Alf Engen to represent the resort, and he played a significant role in Sun Valley’s early years.
The presentation was also given at The Community Library. See,
Early Sun Valley: Union Pacific, Averell Harriman and Alf Engen with John Lundin on Vimeo
V. LUNDIN’S WORK AS A SKI JUMPING HISTORIAN IS FEATURED
Kittitas Valley Living, a monthly magazine in Kittitas County, in eastern Washington, published an article about me in winter 2022 – Putting Passion to Paper: John Lundin Puts Passions for History and Skiing to Good Use. The article describes my work resurrecting memories of the early days of skiing in articles and books, starting with ski jumping tournaments sponsored by the Cle Elum Ski Club that lasted between 1924 – 1933.
Viking magazine is published by the Leif Eriksen Society in Minneapolis, and distributed to Leif Eriksen lodges throughout the United States. The magazine published an article, Fearless Fliers, discussing the origin of ski jumping in this country, using input from me and my book in fall 2021, Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition.
VI. VISIT TO OSLO’S HOLMENKOLLEN SKI JUMP AND MUSEUM
In summer 2022, I toured the Nordic Countries with Seattle’s National Nordic Museum. We visited museums, art galleriand became knowledgeable about Scandinavian history by lectures from Professor Terje Leiren, retired professor of Scandinavian History at the University of Washington. As one of the few historians who have written about our country’s ski jumping history, my visit to the Holmenkollen Ski Hill and Ski Museum in Oslo, Norway, was a pilgrimage.
The Holmenkollen Ski Hill is the world’s most iconic ski jump, and represents an international symbol of ski jumping and ski sport generally. Competitions have been held there since 1892, when the jump was constructed from branches and covered in snow (the first tower was erected in 1914), and the longest jump was 21.5 meters. The ski jump has been rebuilt 19 times. For the 1952 Oslo Olympic Winter Games, permanent grandstands and a judge’s tower were built, an elevator was added to the Jump Tower, and the inrun and takeoff were rebuilt in reinforced concrete. 120,000 spectators attended the large hill ski jumping event during the Games, still a record. A cross-country event was added in 1901, and Alpine events were added in 1947 (downhill and slalom) and 1951 (Giant Slalom). Beginning in 1954, females were allowed to compete in the 10-km cross-country race, and in 2001, the first female ski jumping event was held there. Norway’s national championship tournament held in the spring (Holmenkollen Day) is regarded as the “gold crown of ski jumping” and the country’s “world series,” with the winner being awarded the King’s Cup. The current hill record is 144 meters, set by Norway’s Robert Johansson in 2019: Holmenkollen, https://www.skiforeningen.no/en/holmenkollen/om-holmenkollen/historikk/
Snowboard Museum, of which I am a founding member; and exchanging exhibits in the future between the museums. We discussed creating an exhibit on “Ski Jumping in America: Norway’s Gift to the New World,” for the 100th anniversary of the Holmenkollen Museum. If this happens, I would help create the exhibit, and give the introductory lecture. It was a productive meeting that may lead to significant collaboration in the future.
I also obtained information about Torbjorn Yggeseth, a Norwegian jumper who competed for Norway in the 1960 and 1964 Games, and led the University of Washington Ski team in the early 1960s, winning a number of jumping tournaments. After winning the Holmenkollen tournament in 1963, and setting a new hill record, Torbjorn received the Holmenkollen Medal, Norway’s highest skiing honor.
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John donating a copy of his book, Ski Jumping in Washington State, to Alsaug Midtdal, director of the Holmenkollen Ski Museum in Oslo, July 2022.
Alsaug Midtdal and John discussing women ski jumpers, July 2022.