By now Bill Briggs shouldn’t need much of an introduction. As the first person to ski the Grand Teton (1971), he’s the man who marks the beginning of modern ski mountaineering in the United States. Thus, Bill’s induction into the National Hall of Fame is not only something wonderful for him as an individual, but honors our sport in a very special way.
Bill Briggs, Canada, 1959. Photo used by permission of Roberts French.
Funny thing is, after Bill Briggs’ inclusion in our “guess the skier” contest a while back, I realized that rounding out this website had to include the Bill Briggs biography I wrote more than a decade ago while working on my Wild Snow history book. So I delayed devoting a blog post to this today till I got more of the bio buffed out.
Doing the bio involved getting quite a bit of taped words from the man, as well a a number of check-backs on the phone, along with joining Briggs for dinner at an International Skiing History Association dinner (along with catching him a number of times at Snow King ski area, his real home). Thus, I’ve got a lot of material. Along with that, the stuff I’d written had to be hand-checked because of computer compatibility issues that garbled things up.
The biography is always a work in progress, but good enough to publish so people curious about Bill can get to know him better. Check it out here!
And again, congratulations William Morse Bill “Brigger” Briggs!
If it pleases the Wildsnowers, leave comments congratulating Bill on this honor. It is huge.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
