Ethel Van Degrift was an Associate Editor for Ski Illustrated and the ski columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 1939-1954. The collection consists of thousands of photographs, brochures, and correspondence, books and periodicals.
Charles photographed California skiing and ski area growth for more than 30 years, from the 1940's through the 1970's. His collection includes photographs of Kratka Ridge, Mount Waterman, Snow Summit, Mammoth Mountain, and other California ski areas.
A collection comprised of more than 50 years of ski columns, photographs, ski club memorabilia, and ephemera from one of California's founding ski journalist. Carson and Vi were pioneer members of the Oakland Ski Club and the Southern Pacific Ski Club. Carson worked as a ski journalist for the San Francisco Examiner for many years.
Extensive collection of photographs documenting ski racers, Western ski areas, the 1950 FIS World Alpine Championships in Aspen, and the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics.
More was the longtime owner of Ski Sunrise, located near Wrightwood. He was a major proponent of ski development on San Gorgonio in the 1960's. The collection includes numerous photographs, documents, and correspondence related to the battle for San Gorgonio ski development.
Benedikter influenced and promoted skiing in Southern California from the 1930's through the 1970's. He was an instructor, started a Pine Needle Ski School where Universal City is today, was a partner in the initial development of Holiday Hill (today known as Mountain High East), and staged a ski jumping meet during the 1951 Los Angeles County Fair. His collection includes photographs, ephemera, and correspondence.
Dawson was an almost life-long member of the Sierra Club and won the San Gorgonio Downhill Ski Race more than any other skier. He was involved in the fight against ski development on San Gorgonio in the 1960's. His papers include documents, correspondence, and publications related to San Gorgonio ski development.
Elvrum came to the United States from Norway in 1930 and quickly made a name for himself as a ski jumping champion. He served in the 10th Mountain Division during the war and upon returning home resumed the ownership and development of Snow Valley. He owned the area for 30 years, earning the nickname “Mr. Snow Valley.” His collection includes an assortment of photographs and ski jumping programs from the 1930s, ski trophies, newspaper clippings, films, and a pair of wooden Gresvig jumping skis.
Baxter worked for the LA Herald Express, later the LA Herald-Examiner, for more than two decades as their Travel, Outdoor, and Sports Afield editor. He wrote many ski columns for the Herald and took hundreds of ski photographs all over the West. His collection includes historic photographs of Bear Valley Ski Area, Stein Eriksen, Mammoth Lakes, Mt. Baldy, Snow Valley, Mount Waterman, and many other western ski areas.
Luanne Pfeifer was a longtime ski journalist, reporting on skiing for the Santa Monica Outlook, the Los Angeles Times and Ski magazine. She wrote "Ski California," a comprehensive guide to the state's ski areas and “Gretchen’s Gold,” a biography of Olympian Gretchen Fraser. Her collection consists of her archive of ski columns and magazine articles.
Kirkwood, with two other Pomona College students and Claremont photographer Loyd Cooper, were the first to ski to the summit of 11,503-foot San Gorgonio, on February 3, 1931. He was one of Southern California’s first ski mountaineers, exploring many of the peaks in the San Gabriel range. His collection includes the entirety of his ski cache: skis, skins, ice axe, mittens, wax, etc., as well as rare photographs of ski mountaineering excursions in the Southern California mountains and other California areas.
Pfeiffer, editor of Skiing magazine, ski instructor, founding member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America, Freestyle pioneer and esteemed member of the US Ski Hall of Fame and the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame. He was a ski writer, composing many magazine columns over the years, as well as a number of instructional books. Doug, an avid ski book collector, donated his ~900 volume book collection and hundreds of magazines to the California Ski Library in 2021.
Hasher was involved in American skiing for more than 30 years as a jumper, cross-country racer, ski instructor, snow surveyor, ski patrolman and ski businessman. He became California’s first ski champion in 1931, winning the 18 km cross-country ski race at the California Olympic Tryouts held at Lake Tahoe. In 1937, Hasher gave ski lessons on the ski slide on the roof of May Co. in Los Angeles. He and his wife Bea conducted two snow surveys of Mineral King in the 1940s. His archive includes pins, photographs, scrapbooks, and rare ephemera.
Arizona skier Jimmie Nunn founded the Phoenix Ski Patrol in 1952, eventually becoming assistant national director to the National Ski Patrol. He worked on engineering projects for the Arizona Snow Bowl, Mt. Lemmon, Williams (now Elk Ridge) and Sunrise Park ski areas. He served on the ski patrol for the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics and was elected to the US Ski Hall of Fame in 2003. His collection consists of ski patrol manuals and publications, ski area brochures, lift tickets, photographs, and other historic memorabilia.
Sutter Kunkel, along with Bruce Campbell, Hal Nelson, Benton Shannon, Jack Hoesli, Ben Johnson, and Louis Buhler, founded the Grindelwald Ski Club on February 1, 1949. Since then, the club has experienced more than 70 years of summer and winter outings, parties, and most importantly, skiing fun all over the world. Their collection consists of their immense trophy case filled with club memorabilia, along with club newsletters, historic scrapbooks, and other historic artifacts.
In 2023, PSIA-AASI - Western Division partnered with the California Ski Library, naming the California Ski Library as the official repository for PSIA-AASI -Western archives, providing a place for their records and archives to be stored and preserved. This collection consists of instructor manuals, newsletters, correspondence, and other historical records.
