U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Friday, April 9, 2010, 6pm, at the Gerald R. Ford Hall, Beaver Creek, Colorado. Reception, Dinner and Induction Ceremony is sponsored by Beaver Creek Resort. Seating is limited. Proceeds from the event will go to support the mission of the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
$250 per person or $450 per couple. Table of 10 - $2,000 or Sponsored Table of 10 - $3,000*.
Sign-up for ceremony by March 27, by phone at 906-485-6323 (Tom West) or 970-476-1876 (Susie Tjossem). By email twest@skihall.com or skimuseum@gmail.com. You may also purchase your tickets online
For those interested in sponsorship opportunities or placing a tribute for an inductee in the official program, please contact: Tom West.
Special room rates for this event have been arranged at the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek starting at $159.00 per night.
* Consider the all inclusive 2 night and three day package - including lodging at the Beaver Creek Hyatt, lift passes and preferred seating at the Induction Ceremony - available from $396 per person double occupancy.
For more information or to book call toll free 1-800-778-7477 or visit parkhyattbeavercreek.com.
Should you experience problems with your ticket order please email Tom West: twest@skihall.com
Schedule of Events:
April 9:
Cocktail Reception 6:00 pm Gerald Ford Hall
Banquet and Induction Ceremonies 7:00 pm
April 10:
Ski with the Inductees and Heritage Ski Race Event
Meet this year's Class of Inductees
Jack Benedick of Golden, CO has brought passion and innovation to adaptive skiing that will leave a lasting legacy. Benedick, a double leg amputee from the Viet Nam War, took up adaptive skiing when the sport was still in its infancy. He worked hard with the USSA to create a U.S. Adaptive Ski Team and lobbied the FIS to accept adaptive skiing. A holder of the Paralympic Order for his contributions he was a silver medal winner in the combined at the 1984 Paralympic Games.
Stu Campbell lived in Stowe, VT and was a writer, instructor and resort executive who impacted on millions of American skiers over a career that spanned five decades. He was the author of six books on ski instruction, served as an equipment consultant to several manufacturers, raced and coached racers and provided television commentary. For thirty years he was the instructional editor for SKI Magazine and was recognized, prior to his death in 2008, by the Vermont Ski Museum with its Paul Robbins Award for ski journalism.
Doug Coombs may be the most recognizable skier in this year’s class for his appearances in many ski films in the 1990’s. A former ski racer from Montana State University he is regarded by many as the most important skier of his generation in popularizing adventure skiing. He and his wife, Emily, started the first heliskiing operation in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. He held steep skiing camps in Switzerland, France and Greenland. The complete expert skier he won the first two World Extreme Skiing Championships. Although his skills far surpassed those of most of the people he guided he had a capacity to make every skier who came into contact with him believe in themselves and to try bigger challenges. He died while attempting to rescue a friend in a skiing accident in 2006.
Paul Robbins spent three decades as a ski journalist and the US Ski Team press officer. He possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of skiing and ski racers of every discipline that he willingly shared with anyone who asked. Ski jumper Jeff Hastings wrote: “His breath filled the sails of the athletes he covered.” Remembered by all who knew him as the man with the Scottish tam Robbins died suddenly in 2008. The Paul Robbins Award for ski journalism is presented annually by the Vermont Ski Museum.
Sepp Kober is known as the “Father of Southern Skiing.” After immigrating to the United States and instructing at Stowe he was the first ski instructor at the first southern ski area to open a rope tow, Weiss Knob, in 1958. From then he worked to prove that skiing could exist south of the Mason Dixon Line. Today the South Eastern Ski Areas Association, which he founded, consists of 20 ski areas serving four to five million skiers annually and is considered the largest feeder of skiers to the mountain resorts in the west. He led the southeast in as a charter member of the National Ski Areas Association. He resides in Hot Springs, VA.
Ansten Samuelstuen of Louisville, CO first arrived in the United States in 1951 and set a hill record for distance of 316 feet at Howelson Hill in Steamboat Springs that stood for 12 years. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1954 he successfully won three national titles in ski jumping, (1957, 1961 and 1962) and held four North American titles (1954, 1955,1957 and 1964). He competed for the United States on two Olympic teams and was the top U.S. jumper with a seventh place finish at the 1960 Olympic Games in Squaw Valley.
Chris Waddell recently made international headlines for his successful climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in September of this year. Paralyzed from the waist down after a skiing accident in 1988 he took up adaptive skiing and won twelve medals at four Paralympic Games. He swept the gold medals at the 1994 Paralympics in Lillehammer. As well he competed at three Paralympic Summer Games winning a silver medal in Sydney in 2000 in the 200 M wheelchair event. The Park City, UT resident has been a charismatic promoter for adaptive skiing and was a prominent ambassador for the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.
Sarah Will was also paralyzed in a skiing accident in 1988 and also won 12 medals competing on U.S. teams at four Paralympic Games. Like Chris Waddell she too swept the gold medals at the Paralympics, this time in Salt Lake City in 2002. Shortly after her accident she read Hall of Famer Hal O’Leary’s book on adaptive skiing and started to train at Winter Park. Within three years she won gold medals in the downhill and Super G at the 1992 Paralympic Games. With Waddell she started an adaptive skiing program at Vail and was recently recognized by the United States Olympic Hall of Fame to go along with honors accorded her in 2004 by the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Sarah lives in Edwards, CO.
Nominations for Honored Membership in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame are received throughout the year from across the country. A Selection Committee under the chairmanship of Paul Bousquet of Woodstock, Vermont reviews all nominations. Successful nominations are placed on a ballot that in 2009 was voted on by a panel of 100 electors. This year’s class brings the number of Honored Members to 368.
Since 1956, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame has provided highly respected, national and perpetual recognition of athletes competing in skiing and snowboarding and of the builders of those sports who have made the highest level of national and/or international achievement and contribution to those sports.
