November 8, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Schneider receives Spirit of Skiing award

by Staff Report/

Herbert Schneider followed in the tracks of his father, Hannes, and became a New England skiing legend. (photo: Courtesy New England Ski Museum)

Herbert Schneider followed in the tracks of his father, Hannes, and became a New England skiing legend. (photo: Courtesy New England Ski Museum)

Herbert Schneider, the longtime owner and manager of Mount Cranmore, was the recipient of the Spirit of Skiing award at the New England Ski Museum’s 32nd annual meeting, held Oct. 31 at the Eagle Mountain House in Jackson, N.H.

The award recognizes a person or institution whose work exemplifies the memorable adage that ‘skiing is not just a sport, it is a way of life’, and who has influenced skiing in a positive manner and enabled others to benefit from the sport.

Schneider joined Stein Eriksen, Tom Corcoran and SE Group as winners of the award.

Some of the first ski lessons taught by the American branch of the Hannes Schneider Ski School were given on the golf course of the Eagle Mountain House in the winter of 1937, just yards from the podium where Schneider was honored.

Herbert Schneider’s life in St. Anton, Austria, before 1939, and in North Conway, N.H., since then, paralleled and exemplified the development of the international ski industry. As a youth in pre-war Austria, as a soldier in the American 10th Mountain Division, and as a ski instructor and ski area operator, Schneider witnessed and participated in the growth of skiing as a sport and a business.

When Schneider arrived in the United States in February 1939 with his family, he spoke no English and had never taught a ski lesson, despite being the son of the forefather of the Arlberg ski instruction technique. The language barrier came down within a month or two thanks to Schneider’s frequent visits to the North Conway movie theater with the other Austrian instructors in town. He taught his first ski lesson to C.V. Starr, the insurance magnate who would come to own Mount Mansfield, and who built AIG into a worldwide company.

As the son of the pioneer developer of ski instruction, Schneider was literally the second generation of businessmen making a living from skiing. He realized the need to adapt to the rapid developments in skiing that changed the ski business landscape since the heyday of Hannes Schneider’s ski school in the 1930s, and he led Mount Cranmore through its transition to a modern ski resort.

More on the life of Herbert Schneider, as well as other articles on ski history, can be found on the Museum’s website, skimuseum.org.

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