Who Is This Racer?

Major hint: O, Canada! This one should be easy. This week, we all need an easy one. Can you tell us about her history? Her extraordinary career? Thanks to the New England Ski Museum for this picture.

Credit: Dorothy Crossley, New England Ski Museum

Last Week

This photo was taken at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in 1963, showing off the installation of their new Carlevaro-Savio, Silver Queen Gondola.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort opened in 1960 when two men—Fred Rice and Dick Eflin—purchased a ranch on Mt. Crested Butte. An operating permit enabling the resort to be built was approved by the United States Forest Service the following year.

In 1963, Crested Butte constructed a top-to-bottom gondola from the base area to near where the bottom of the High Lift is today. The resort was the second resort to open a gondola in Colorado, after Vail Ski Resort opened theirs in 1962. Constructed by Carlevaro-Savio, the three-person Silver Queen Gondola was notorious for being cramped, and the cabins were known to have frequent collisions. The gondola lasted until 1972, when a bubble double chairlift replaced it.

Special thanks—again—to Dana Mathios, curator and Director of Collections, at the Colorado Snowsports Museum, located in Vail, CO.

7 Comments

  1. Ralph Nodine says:

    Nancy Greene

    • Denis Lacroix says:

      Nancy Green,

      Yes, that is her. Won a Gold medal, giant slalom, Grenoble, France in the 1968 Winter Olympics.

  2. cokern susie?

  3. sorry I did not notice maple leafs

  4. Bruce boeder says:

    Nancy Greene indeed, who with her husband have had a major impact on making Whistler what it is today

  5. MPaul Hansen says:

    She had a close call in the 1966? Worlds in Chile. As I recall she did a sommersault before crashing into a snow/ice barrier, to the side of the course. If my memory does not fail me . . .

  6. Nickname “Tiger”. In the early 1960’s, she used to train with the Canadian National Alpine Team at Red Mt. BC. As kids in high school we all knew who the Team Members were. A favourite training technique was simply, “follow me and try to keep up”! In the off season they carried (pickaback) teammates up and down the hill. The popular ski pants were “stretchies with racing stripes”, and as I recall, her quads (and her teammates quads) were all extremely well developed.

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