Mt. Hood skiers have long benefited from the inspirations and inventiveness of their fellow Northwest skiers. They endow skiing with an impressive list of firsts.
Portlander Harold Hirsch designed America's first ski clothing with his friend Emilio Pucci on Hirsch's White Stag sewing machines. Timberline Lodge was the first government-built and owned hotel on public lands. An engineer building Timberline Lodge invented the first snow vehicle for ski-area use. That "snow kitty" was inadvertently used as one of the world's first grooming machines. The Mt. Hood Ski Patrol claims title as America's first volunteer organized ski patrol. The patrol created rescue procedures and devices that others imitated. Mt. Hood ski jumper and racer Hjalmar Hvam invented the world's first workable safety ski binding. Now, Timberline maintains the country's only year-round lift-served skiing.
It's an impressive list that has no end. Ski companies from around the globe test ski and snowboard design, snow-grooming machines and new inventions on the august snows of Palmer snowfield.
That spirit of ingenuity kindled this book. Oregonians revel in their ski history but do not often document it. They are proud of their firsts in the ski world, but they do not brag. They are often overlooked in the ski annals, yet they are not jealous. Instead, they go skiing.
Timberline and a Century of Skiing on Mount Hood raises a glass to the Oregonians and Northwesterners who envisioned, invented, rescued, taught, competed and savored skiing and snowboarding on Mt. Hood.
