Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project Home
Don and Gretchen Fraser - Oral History
Oral History - 8 February 1983 - Sun Valley, Idaho
The Community Library (Sun Valley) does not allow copies to be made of this oral history transcript. Researchers are allowed to read the transcript in the library and take notes, but that's all.
by Penny Brons
Transcribed by Ginger stone. Edited by Teddie Daley, Sandra Hofferber, Clara Spiegel.
TCL-SV, OH-55
Notes by Lowell SkoogI had hoped this transcript would contain information about Don and Gretchen Fraser's early skiing in Washington, especially in the Silver Skis races. Unfortunately, it does not. The interview is mostly about the Sun Valley area, with some additional information about the Frasers' experience in the Olympic Games.
The most interesting bit (for this project) was Don's recollection of early ski equipment:
I had a pair of 235 cm Johansen & Nilsen, and then for bindings we had... early bindings was the Huitfeldt binding, a couple of bolts through a slot in the ski, and then came along the real improvements like that Thorlief Haug binding and... um, the Alpina and the Kandahar and the Fillstein [sp?] heel spring and the Amstutz spring that went from the ankle back to the ski. And it was a time when there was great, great change going on, not only in technique in skiing. In fact, the great skiers of that time were MacIntosh and Bracken, a couple of Britishers, and of course, Hannes Schneider came out with his new technical innovations of skiing. [...] And women, I don't remember too many of them, there was certainly the great one of that day was Christl Cranz, a German girl...(Note: The transcription was apparently done by people not very familiar with early skiing history. It contained many spelling errors, which I've corrected above as much as I could.)
Return to the Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project home page