As turning the calendar to the new year always comes when the ski season is well underway, looking back at the past year always takes us nearly a full season.

Of course, the big event of 2014 was the Olympics, where the U.S. had two big disappointments when a pair of our biggest medal favorites never got to compete. Our own Seth Wescott was still recovering from injuries and could not defend his two gold medals in Boardercross. Our most successful female ski racer ever, Lindsey Vonn, was also on the sidelines with injuries. While those two disappointments got a lot of attention and fill our memories, a scan of the actual Olympic records shows considerable success.

The U.S. Ski Team came home from Sochi with 17 medals, including eight Gold. Carrabassett Valley Academy grad Bode Miller won Bronze in Super G, his sixth Olympic medal, tops for any U.S. male skier; and Julia Mancusco earned Bronze in the Super Combined. The biggest bright spots for the U. S. Alpine Team were Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin. The Gold in GS for the veteran Ligety was no surprise, but the Gold in slalom for 19-year-old Mikaela capped a great World Cup season for this rising star. Andrew Weibrecht’s first Olympic medal, a Silver in Super G, was a highlight for another young U.S. Alpine ski racer. Add these to three Gold, two Silver and two Bronze in Freeskiing/Freestyle, and three Gold and two Bronze in Snowboarding, and the U.S. Ski Team had a very good Olympics.

That success was mirrored on the World Cup circuit in all events, placing the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team among the elite in international competition.

Looking back also gives us an idea of what to look for this season. Shiffrin has picked up where she left off, winning in both slalom and GS. She is also adding speed events.

Lindsey Vonn is back and has already won a World Cup race this season. Bode has been slow to get started this season with back problems, but expects to compete soon. It won’t get the attention of the Olympics, but this is a World Championship year (every other year in the odd years), and the U.S. Team is poised for success with the event on home snow for the first time since 1999. The Championships take place at Beaver Creek, Colo., February 2-15 on the famous Birds of Prey runs. We should be able to see the best from the U.S. against the rest of the world on TV.

If you would like to see the best of the U.S. go for National titles, plan on being at Sugarloaf on March 25-29 when the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships return to Maine. The Loaf has hosted these races numerous times over the years and the U.S. Team’s executives consider Maine’s tallest ski mountain an ideal place for the event. The Narrow Gauge is the only ski trail in the Eastern U.S. Homolugated for World Cup Downhill and provides a superb test for Downhill and Super G, while Comp Hill has great terrain for Slalom and GS. The finishes for all races are an easy walk up from the base or you can ski to them.

Looking back a couple of weeks, I received an email with the subject line: Sad News.

This seems to be the universal line when someone informs me of the passing of a friend and this time was no different. The note came from a member of our Maine Ski Hall of Fame committee and member of the Downeast Ski Club.

I learned that Tom Bennett had died the night before. Tom was one of those early skiers who actually skied Pleasant Mountain when they first opened with rope tows in 1938. He was a founder of the Downeast Ski Club and served the ski area as a ski patrolman and volunteer for countless races. After serving in the Merchant Marines in World War II, he returned to Portland and worked with the YMCA organizing buses to Pleasant Mountain for learn-to-ski trips. Tom Bennett was one of those pioneers who devoted a lifetime to skiing into his eighties. He was inducted into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame in 2009 and he represented a generation who gave us the skiing we have today.

Another member of that early Pleasant Mountain group passed away in November. James C. Jones formed Maine’s first ski patrol in 1936. In those days ski patrols could be formed without affiliation with a ski area. Jim gathered a bunch of skiers, arranged to have the Eastern Division Director of the National Ski Patrol come to Portland and explain how to start a patrol. He then formed the Forest City Ski Patrol in Portland. When Pleasant Mountain opened in 1938, it became the ski area of choice for Jim’s ski patrol and they evolved into the Pleasant Mountain Ski Patrol which he led for 34 years. He was Maine’s regional director for 24 years. His influence stretched to every ski patrol in Maine. Stub Taylor who was Sugarloaf’s first ski patrolman and directed that patrol until he retired remembered traveling from Kingfield to Portland for his original First Aid training with Jones as his instructor. Jim was inducted into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame in 2005.

Tom Bennett was 88 and Jim Jones was 99. They were part of the very beginnings of ski areas in Maine and there aren’t many left that can remember skiing in the thirties. They may be gone but whenever we ski we should be reminded of the pioneers that started it all.

Have a great 2015, and we’ll see you on the slopes.

Copy the Story Link