The Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame's class of 2004 includes an Olympic medalist, a businessman, a ski teacher and a woman once considered one of the finest female skiers in the country.
In all, six inductees were introduced last week during the Hall of Fame banquet at the Utah Olympic Park.
This brings to 17 the number of plaques of distinguished skiers and early ski pioneers that will be on display at the park. The first class was introduced during the winter of 2002.
The class of 2004:
— Pepi Stiegler, Jackson Hole, Wyo., an Olympic gold and silver medalist and noted instructor.
— Bill Lash, Salt Lake City, nationally acclaimed ski-instruction pioneer and author.
— Suzy Harris Rytting, Salt Lake City, the region's premier woman skier of the 1940s.
— Edward L. Scott, Sun Valley, Idaho, the late founder of the touted Scott ski poles.
— George T. Watson, the late and storied mining prospector and stock promoter who donated to the U.S. Forest Service the land on which Utah's Alta Ski Area now rests.
— Bill Spencer, Salt Lake City, world-class cross-country competitor turned official.
Scott C. Ulbrich, president of the non-profit Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation that oversees the Intermountain Hall of Fame, said the selection criteria focuses on outstanding achievements in the areas of skiing competition, skiing innovation, ski-sport development and significant contribution to the overall promotion of skiing.
Priority is given to those who have made contributions to the sport that resulted in significant benefits to the Intermountain area over a long period.
The hall of fame inaugural class consisted of Junior Bounous, Zane A. Doyle, Alf M. Engen, Sverre Engen, Karre "Corey" Engen, Gretchen K. Fraser, W. Averell Harriman and S. Joseph "Joe" Quinney. The 2003 class was of Stein Eriksen, Bill Briggs and Axel Andresen.
Pepi Stiegler was recognized for his skiing prowess as well as for his dedication to ski instruction. He started skiing at age 6 and by 15 was the Austrian junior champion in slalom.
In the 1960 Olympic Winter Games at Squaw Valley, Calif., Steigler won a silver medal in giant slalom. His medal collection grew during the 1964 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, where he won a gold medal in slalom and a bronze in giant slalom.
He became a certified ski instructor in 1962, then ski school director and director of skiing for Jackson Hole Ski Corp. in 1966, where he coached junior racers and conducted race camps for many years.
He retired from that position in 2002.
George T. Watson was a native of Michigan, born in 1883, who came to Utah in 1902 in search of a fortune mining silver ore in the gloves-off mining camps of the American West. His colorful, often zany, exploits as a miner, stock promoter and early day ski aficionado led to the establishment of one of the world's premier ski areas: Alta.
When he realized his dream of riches from mining would not materialize, he acquired 80 seemingly worthless abandoned mining claims, including several hundred acres, in the Alta Mining District.
History shows a convergence of three factors setting the stage for Alta becoming a ski area in the late 1930s: The U.S. Forest Service acquired the additional public lands required, Watson was able to eliminate his debt problems and look like a "hero" in the process, and the Salt Lake Winter Sports Association was able to pursue building a successful enterprise at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Watson passed away in March 1952. He was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1969.
Bill Spencer mastered the dual disciplines of shooting and skiing on all levels of competition. In 1959 he was a collegiate biathlon all-American for the University of Utah. He made the U.S. Olympic biathlon team in 1964 and 1968; was the U.S. biathlon champion in 1965, 1966 and 1967; and was the Canadian national biathlon champion in 1966 and 1967.
After competition, he was shooting coach for the U.S. Olympic team in 1976, 1980, 1982 and team leader for biathlon in 1972 and 1984. He was coordinator of the National Guard Bureau Biathlon Program from 1977 to 1984 and U.S. Biathlon Association coach and development coordinator from 1984 to 1994.
In 1924, Edward L. Scott's father made him a pair of skis, based on a plan in Boys Mechanic magazine. Forty years later, his company was selling 100,000 pairs of the storied Scott ski poles a season.
The story of his success started in 1949 in a one-room cabin at Ketchum, Idaho. Unable to find ski poles to his liking, he bought component parts and assembled a "lighter, better pole."
He shipped the first production of the "gold poles" to the U.S. and Canadian national ski teams in 1959 and offered the items wholesale the following season.
Suzy Harris Rytting cut an incredible swath in the regional and national competitive ski scenes in the 1940s. That swath started on a pair of borrowed boots and a last-place finish in her first major race. It reached its zenith when she was named a member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team in 1952 that was to compete in Oslo, Norway.
Her skiing triumphs during the late 1940s established her as one of the finest female skiers in the country: She was named an alternate on the 1948 U.S. Olympic Alpine Team and a member of the 1950s U.S. Women's FIS World Cup Team, which was recognized as the first USA Ski Team.
The efforts and expertise of Bill Lash are at the core of ski instruction in the United States. He wrote the book on ski instruction.
In 1952, he wrote the plan for national certification and for a national ski instructor's association for the National Ski Association. In 1958 he wrote the first ski-teaching manual, "An Outline of Ski Teaching Methods."
He also taught skiing at the University of Utah, Alta, Little Mountain and Solitude. He was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1983 and in the PSIA Intermountain Hall of Fame in 1989. He is the co-founder of the Veterans Ski Instructor Alliance.