Jeff Blumenfeld: An Amusing Look at Skiing History—It’s All Downhill

633 South Broadway,Boulder CO 80305

08 December, 2022

Description

Remember AstralTunes? Bota bags? How about the day Lucille Ball broke her leg skiing, the Flintstones on skis, and when Wile E. Coyote failed to catch the Road Runner on snow? What’s up with sand skiing,Ski Wings, Jon-E handwarmers, ski poles that held liquor, and other crazy ski gizmos? For 30 years the International Skiing History Association and its Skiing History magazine has chronicled the ups and downs of the sport. Join us as we take an affectionate look at the sport and take a run back in time to the sport’s early days when Walt Disney’s Goofy taught us the “Art of Skiing,” Dick Van Dyke hurt himself, and the agony of defeat – the most famous fall in skiing history. Jeff Blumenfeld, a lifelong skier and resident of Boulder, began his ski career in New York State’s legendary Borscht Belt, where he remembers yo-yoing its white gauze-bandage runs, some slopes dyed red for the holidays. At age 16 he drove a team of sled dogs down New York’s Central Park South as a promotional stunt for his local ski hill—Holiday Mountain in Monticello, N.Y. Today he’s vice president of the nonprofit International Skiing History Association and has written for Skiing History magazine about various unusual aspects of the sport, including bota bags, AstralTunes, crazy ski products, sand skiing, the Bonnie Bell Ski Team, and how the sport has been depicted in sitcoms and cartoons (hint: not very well). He’s also written for Ski, Skiing, Travel Boulder, Boulder magazine, and is a frequent contributor to Elevation Outdoors. He’s the author of two books, one on expedition sponsorship, the other on voluntourism, and is chapter chair of international Explorers Club. Jeff is also recipient of the Iceland Exploration Museum Leif Erikson Award for Exploration History. He’s logged every day he’s spent on the slopes since 1972 – over 1,200 days – but that’s another story.