Liam Guthrie

By Brigid Miller, Museum Community Engagement Manager

When Union Pacific Board Chairman Averell Harriman envisioned Sun Valley, he saw ski competitions as a means to attract athletes and others to this place, as well as a way to promote Sun Valley. These competitions included downhill, slalom, combined, and ski jumping – and Harriman’s vision came true. Sun Valley ski competitions and the famed ski school brought many accomplished athletes, Olympians, and celebrities to the area.

One of those Olympians was Stein Eriksen, an Olympian gold medalist from Norway. Eriksen is pictured here performing a front flip on Dollar Mountain in 1953. Outside of his Olympic and World Championship successes, he was well known for being able to do flips and other tricks on skis, which helped to popularize and inspire freestyle aerial skiing.

Eriksen moved to Sun Valley in 1953 and worked at the Sun Valley Ski School for a year before moving to Boyne Mountain in Michigan to spread his love of skiing there.  

As we sit at the start of the 2023-24 ski season, it is inspiring to think of all the skiers, like Stein Eriksen, who skied on these mountains before us and helped to shape this place and this sport.

Note this story was originally published in December of 2023 in the Idaho Mountain Express.

By Kelley Moulton, Regional History Librarian

It is once again time for the Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, hosted by the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History at The Community Library. Two previous inductees grace this image, Leif Odmark who was inducted in 2010 and Janette Burr Johnson from the Class of 2011.

Both longtime Wood River Valley residents who were well known for their skiing contributions. Swedish born Odmark or as some might have known him “Mr. Sun Valley”, was a very prominent cross-country skier and founded the Sun Valley Nordic Ski School/Touring Center in 1970. Johnson, who was named to the 1952 Olympic Ski Team, would compete on the world ski stage across Europe and the United States before becoming a ski instructor at Sun Valley in the 1960s. In this image, Odmark and Johnson are working out a stunt on Bald Mountain for the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1958. The two would act as stunt doubles for Lucille Ball and Fernando Lamas as their characters slide down the mountain.

The Induction Ceremony for the Class of 2023 will be held in the John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall at The Community Library at 6 p.m. on December 7^th, 2023. Registration is required for this event and registration information can be found at www.comlib.org. If you are unable to attend, the ceremony will also be livestreamed and recorded. A reception will follow at 7 p.m. at The Wood River Museum of History and Culture and is open to the public.

Note this story was originally published in November of 2023 in the Idaho Mountain Express.