Hannes Schneider — Father of Modern Skiing Escapes Nazi Austria
Near North Conway, New Hampshire
In the winter of nineteen thirty-nine, a boat arrived in New York carrying one of the most famous skiers in the world. Hannes Schneider was Austrian, born in eighteen ninety in the Alps, the son of a mountain farmer. As a young man he had developed a revolutionary approach to ski instruction he called the Arlberg Technique, teaching beginners to control speed by turning the hips and crouching low rather than relying on poles for balance.
He built a ski school at Saint Anton am Arlberg in Austria in the early nineteen twenties, and over the following decades his method spread across Europe and reshaped how the entire world learned to ski. When Germany annexed Austria in nineteen thirty-eight, the Nazis imprisoned Schneider briefly for his outspoken opposition. Harvey Gibson, an American banker from North Conway who had already invested in Mount Cranmore, used his influence and financial resources to negotiate Schneider's release and sponsor his immigration to the United States.
Schneider arrived at Cranmore and immediately set to work building a ski school that would train a generation of American skiers. His teaching system became the foundation of American ski instruction. He stayed in North Conway until his death in nineteen fifty-five.
The ski school at Cranmore still bears his name today.
