On Wednesday, Oct. 3, snow sports enthusiasts gathered at the J. Willard Marriott Library annual Ski Affair to recognize members of the ski community, appreciate Utah’s rich ski and snowboard history and kick off the 2024-25 ski season.
The Ski Affair is a fundraiser for the Ski and Snow Sports Archives housed in the Special Collections Department at the J. Willard Marriott Library. According to Heidi Brett, the library’s marketing and public relations director, this year’s affair raised over $72,400 which will be used to maintain and grow the archives.
The Ski Affair
The first Ski Affair was hosted by the creators of the Ski and Snow Sports Archives in effort to encourage others to preserve artifacts from Utah’s ski history. Since then, the event has grown exponentially. Today, more than 300 guests regularly attend the event. Some guests are sponsors of the event or serve on the Ski and Snow Sports Advisory Board. Others come back simply because they love what the event stands for.
“There’s no sport where you can find this kind of community,” Tom Kelly, host of the “Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast,” said.
The Ski Affair began with a social hour, where photos from the archives of the 2002 Olympics and more were displayed. The event continued into a dinner portion of the night, where the Ski and Snow Sports Advisory Board recognized five different people for their contributions to the intermountain ski community.
Tom Neilson, member of the Volunteer Ski and Snow Sports Advisory Board, received the first award of the night. Neilson accepted the Sue Raemer Award, which was created in honor of Sue Raemer after her passing in 1995. Raemer was the co-founder of the archives in 1989 and a part-time ski instructor at Alta. The award is presented to a volunteer who possesses the spirit of the award’s namesake.
Additionally, the event recognized three newly inducted members of the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame. Bob Wheaton, Steve Bounous and Raelene Davis were inducted into the hall of fame on Aug. 24, 2024, for their efforts in promoting Utah and the intermountain region as a destination for ski and snow sports enthusiasts.
Finally, former Executive Director of the Alf Engen Ski Museum Connie Nelson was given the S.J. Quinney Award. The award is named after S. Joseph Quinney, often referred to as “the father of Utah’s ski industry.” Quinney also founded Alta Ski Area. This award is presented to an individual who has exhibited the same spirit and contributions to winter sports as its namesake.
As part of the event’s fundraiser, local ski areas and businesses provided prizes like a stay at the Cliff Lodge or guided tours for a raffle. Additionally, multiple local businesses and organizations reserved entire tables at the event in support of the archives.
Barbara Yamada, the Chair of the Ski and Snow Sports Advisory Board said that her connection with these archives is based on her love for skiing.
“I started skiing when I was very very young, I’ve stayed skiing and right now I’m an official for alpine skiing and cross country, so I officiate races,” Yamada said. “I grew up in Idaho, and I moved here for the skiing, and I actually taught skiing at Alta.”
The Archives
The Ski and Snow Sports Archives were founded by Dr. Greg Thompson and Sue Raemer in 1989. Since its establishment, the archives have grown to house more than one million ski-related images, 6,000 audio, video and film collections and records for the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Yamada explained that these archives not only contain history, but are a large part of it. During the 2002 Olympic bid, photos from the archives were used to convey Utah and the intermountain area’s rich ski history to the world.
“That helped us a lot in winning the Olympic bid in 2002,” Yamada said.
Head of the Multimedia Archives in Special Collections Molly Rose Steed said that while other universities may have similar archives, the artifacts housed in the Marriott Library are more regionally focused.
“It’s really handy for people to be able to research a subject largely in one place,” Steed said.
The Ski and Snow Sports archives are so expansive that only a small portion of it’s contents can be found on the Marriot Library’s Website. However, the physical artifacts are accessible by making an appointment on the Marriott Library website.
“It’s a large body of the research collection, but we have people here to help you navigate it,” Steed said. “We have a reference librarian who you can make an appointment with, who will sit down with you and talk to you about your interests and what kinds of sources you’re looking for, and help identify collections for you.”
The archives are constantly growing, and those involved with them emphasized that they are always looking for new artifacts to add to the collection. Information on how to donate to the archives can be found here.
“One of the challenges with archiving is that we can’t show it to you later if nobody gave it to us in the first place,” Steed said. “A lot of these sports don’t receive as much media attention as football. So when people want to back on history of that stuff, maybe nobody took pictures, maybe nobody gave what they have to the archive and it all becomes harder to find.”
