Cranmore’s annual Hannes Schneider Meister Cup is a tribute to skiing history

The Meister Cup pays honor to the Austrian skimeister and ski school pioneer, Hannes Schneider. (Canmore Mountain Resort)

In advance of preparations for the 26th annual Hannes Schneider Meister Cup, the New England Ski Museum raised the question if it might be time to do something different. But according to museum executive director Tim Whiton, Cranmore Mountain Resort general manager Ben Wilcox said no way. 

“Ben was adamant,” Whiton said. “Not just because they’re such great supporters of us as an organization, but the Cranmore crew just loves this event.” 

Paying honor to the Austrian skimeister and ski school pioneer, the Meister Cup is an intermediate-friendly race that is the museum’s signature event and fundraiser. It is a spectator event with an opening ceremony, vintage ski fashion show, awards ceremony, the music of the Bavarian Brothers Band, and a Sunday morning screening of an award-winning ski history documentary film.

“And I think there’s going to be another surprise in the mix,” Whiton said. “An announcement from us that folks are not going to want to miss. But I can’t say any more than that.” 

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The event, taking place March 10-12 at New Hampshire’s Cranmore, is in tribute to Schneider, who was freed from Nazi custody and brought to North Conway, N.H., in 1939 to teach at Cranmore. Schneider was a mountain soldier on the Alpine front in World War I. His son, Herbert (1920-2012), and several of his instructors served in the 10th Mountain Division in World War II.

It is the statue of Schneider’s likeness that greets guests at the base of the North Conway ski area. 

“It’s really more of a celebration of skiing in New England and the history aspect of that,” Whiton said. “Schneider’s arrival in ’39 is really a pivotal moment in skiing in North America.” 

One of the volunteers for Saturday night’s vintage fashion show is Stephanie Reed Hastings, daughter of Carrol Reed (from the ski shops of the same name). “People get fired up to wear these clothes,” Whiton said. “We’ve got volunteers over in our archive right now looking at clothes and things they want to wear.

“It’s a community event. It’s just like skiing. Everybody has got their reason for being there. But it’s not people looking for their own Instagram shots. It’s a community event, people with lots of different interests.” 

As for the race, if you can turn around a few gates on skis or a snowboard, you aren’t only welcome to join, you just might win. 

“There are a few speed folks, but there are some folks that probably shouldn’t be turning around gates,” Whiton said. 

The fastest male and female finishers in 10 age classes take home awards, as do the fastest telemark, snowboard and junior racers. Teams of five racers compete for the Meister Cup Trophy, with winners’ names engraved on the award. 

As the museum notes, “competition is intense at the highest level, but for most racers the event is a simple fun run down a gentle racecourse on a day of slopeside pageantry and social events.” Past racers have ranged in age from 4 to 95.

The Carroll Reed Cup, awarded to the fastest team made up of racers from the ski resort industry, honors the ski business pioneer whose early Eastern Slope Ski School provided the basis for Schneider’s arrival in 1939.

Individuals can register to race at www.newenglandskimuseum.com/hannes-schneider-cup-enrty. Entry cost is $100. 

A temporary tent sits at the base of Cranmore for guests this season. Due to a delay in materials, Cranmore’s new Fairbank Lodge is on hold until next winter. The temporary base lodge comes complete with facilities that include heated, portable restrooms, seasonal locker space, and a temporary 3,000-square-foot cafeteria structure off Zip’s Deck. 

“It’s exciting to watch the daily progress of the construction of Cranmore’s new era. I know guests will be in awe when it’s completed,” Wilcox said last fall. “In the meantime, for this winter, we want to make sure guests are comfortable, and to ensure they will have a seamless ski and ride experience on the mountain.”

The lodge is part of Cranmore’s $60 million base area redevelopment plan. The ski area also just completed a $1 million lift upgrade on the Skimobile Express Quad that included a full-system modernization.There’s also a new Fairfield Marriott under construction. The 89-room hotel, located next to the Artist Falls Lodge — a new base lodge for the tubing park — was slated to open this winter. 

The New England Ski Museum aims to “preserve and exhibit examples of equipment, art and artifacts relating to ski history and the 10th Mountain Division.” The museum opened at the base of Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch in 1982, followed by a second location in the village of North Conway that opened in 2018.