The 2008 Hall of Fame Inductees
Allen Adler
Allen Adler’s name might be familiar from his quarterly article in the Vermont Ski Museum newsletter. Adler had just started collecting ski related books when his passion for history, skiing and books brought him in contact with other like minded collectors. In the mid-eighties, he privately published the National Ski Register (NSR) which was the combined indices of seven private collectors plus five major public ski libraries. Adler was the #3 founder of the International Skiing History Association and a member of its first Board. In 1989, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association named him chairman of the USSA historical and selections committees as well as national historian. He now serves as the Vermont Ski Museum’s historian.
Edward "Ned" Gillette (1945-1998)
Originally of Barre, VT, Gillette learned to ski on the East Corinth slopes at the age of three. While attending Holderness School, he focused on cross country skiing. He then went to Dartmouth where he was the 1967 NCAA cross country ski champion and team captain. He competed on the 1968 US Olympic Cross Country Ski Team. After the Olympics, he helped establish the cross country skiing program at Yosemite Mountaineering School and then returned to Vermont to be Head of Ski Touring at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. All the while, he was organizing skiing expeditions around the world from Alaska to Tibet to Everest. He wrote and photographed his trips and was published extensively. Gillette lost his life during a failed robbery attempt while he and his wife were camping in the Haramosh valley of Pakistan.
Al Hobart
Al Hobart, born in New York City, taught himself to ski while at Tufts University. He had discovered a natural gift for coaching and racing. As an active racer in the Masters series, he won many national championships in Giant Slalom and Slalom, the first in 1964. He came to the Mad River Valley in Vermont after completing an MBA at the Tuck School. He started the Mad River Slalom Hill, a tow dedicated to race training, and then founded the Valley Junior Racing Club, which he ran from 1966-1972. He recognized a need for more in-depth training and in 1973 he started the Mad River Academy in his home, which became the nationally recognized Green Mountain Valley School. Hobart served as headmaster until 1980. Since then he has written Carving Turns Made Easy and Carving Quick Turns Made Easy (1998) and produced the DVD Complete Carving Made Easy.
Jan Reynolds
Raised on a farm in Salisbury, Vermont, Jan Reynolds grew up with a strong work ethic and sense of determination. She cross country skied for the Middlebury High School team and also for the University of Vermont where she was named UVM’s most valuable skier. Having created her own major in college and traveled to Norway, it is not surprising that after college she began going on international expeditions from Morocco to New Zealand to Everest. In 1980, she set the world record for high altitude skiing among women when she descended Muztagata in Tibet. Needing a break from mountaineering, Reynolds joined the 1983-84 US Biathlon team where the team took third place in the World Championships. In 1988, she started a series of books called Vanishing Cultures; she continues to travel the world and explore issues of multi-culturalism, environmental sustainability, and tradition.
Sepp Ruschp
Sepp Ruschp arrived in 1936 at Stowe, Vermont from Linz, Austria. He started the first Arlberg ski school at Mt. Mansfield on a rope tow set up on the Toll House slope. He became the first Certified Ski Instructor to graduate from the U.S. Examinations held at Woodstock, Vermont, and his ski school became one of the most respected in the country. From 1936-1986, Ruschp oversaw the growth of the Mt. Mansfield Company and had a hand in the addition of lifts, the expansion of the facilities, and the growth of the recreational and racing programs. In1957, he received the American ski trophy given to individuals who played a leading role in the development of skiing in America. Often called "Mr. Stowe", Ruschp made Stowe into the "Ski Capital of the East."