First Tracks

Book excerpt: From old-time flipflop skis to modern-day snowboards, from miners to Olympians, from Park City to Snowbasin—Alan Engen and Gregory Thompson capture the rich legacy of skiing in Utah’s indomitable Wasatch Mountain Range through upbeat informative text and fascinating vintage and recent photographs. "Winter sport had reached the masses, and tiny mom-and-pop ski areas sprouted alongside the major resorts of the Wasatch Front. The fervor of the early pioneers—the miners, Alf Engen, the Rasmussen brothers—spread to thousands of Utahns, who began promoting their home as the ‘King of Winter Sports.’ The craze for skiing had matured into a deep-rooted respect for the canyons, ridgelines, and fields that harbor alpine and cross-country skiers alike, bringing people together in recreation and competition. Why shouldn’t the world share such a magnificent place?” Mitt Romney President and CEO Salt Lake Organizing Committee Olympic Winter Games of 2002 Alan K. Engen is the author of the award-winning book For the Love of Skiing: A Visual History. He is also the chairman and president of the Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation, chairman and president of the Alta Historical Society, board member of the International Skiing History Association. Currently, he is the Director of Skiing at Alta, Utah, and has been affiliated with the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) for more than forty years. He lives in Salt Lake City. Gregory C. Thompson, Ph.D., is the Assistant Director for the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections and an adjunct assistant professor of history. In the 1980s, he cofounded the Marriott Library’s Utah Ski Archives Program. He lives in Salt Lake City. A search is underway for the names of ski jumpers who competed on Ecker Hill, in Park City, from the time the jumps were constructed in 1929 until the last competition on the hill in 1964. The names will be included in a new bronze monument commemorating the role of Ecker Hill in American skiing history. Please visit the Ecker Hill Jumpers Memorial Page if know of a jumper that should be included.