Warren Miller on ski resort booty call, circa 1950.
We deserve it. A magazine about skiing that goes for the spirit and the art. But can such a publication sustain? Apparently, yes.
The Ski Journal begins its fourth season with Vol 4, No 2, and look who’s on the cover: Warren Miller on follow cam behind three ripping skier chicks, around 1955 from the looks of things.
Lead story in this issue is a feature length (17 pages) autobiographical article by Mr. Miller himself. The icon is working on his autobiography, and this reads like a sampler of things to come.
The tale begins with Warren and his friend Ward Baker living for two seasons in an 8-foot teardrop camp trailer they parked near Sun Valley (yeah, that’s become a well known legend, but always fun to read about). The mountain manager liked the boys in their funky cabin (local color!), so he arranged it so they could ride the lifts for free. Imagine that happening these days. You show up fully dirtbag qualified with your van, and the powers think your so cool they give you a season pass. Could happen, I guess, but you’d have to be at least a 12 on the bro index.
The writing then ranges from how Miller grew his business (basically, lots of hard work), to his take on the ski celebrities of his era such as Scot Schmidt. Lot’s of compelling photos round things out. Truly interesting.
Other articles in this issue: Backcountry skiing at Fairy Meadows hut; beta about secret skiing paradise Vernon, B.C.; profile of Verbier based photographer Yves Garneau with tons of mouth watering images he captioned with info about how they came to be. Sidebars and lots of large format stoke photos yield value added.
Three WildSnow thumbs up. Check ’em out here.
Oh, also, check out an interesting masthead change in this issue of Ski Journal — at least interesting for those of you who track publishing. Mike Berard is on board as Editor, and he sounds like quite the guy.
According to Swedish photographer Mattias Fredriksson: “Mike Berard is, hands down, one of the funniest characters in the ski industry. Funny doesn’t always mean sharp, but with Mike it does. He has the pulse on what´s hot and what’s not. Berard has lots of strings on his violin; he can write, shoot photos, make magazines, work at ad agencies etc. Very few people have such a broad base for their creative talent…”
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.
