Ski & Snow Country: The Golden Years of Skiing in the West, 1930s- 1950s

The early, romantic days of skiing in the West-the 1930s, '40s, and '50s-were a time of glamour and great excitement. Hollywood movie stars in the latest snow fashions shared chair lifts with the originators of "extreme" skiing. Skiers zoomed down the mountains with primitive equipment, relying on enthusiasm and their own brand of skill to take them successfully to the bottom. Otto Lang, Hannes Schneider, Errol Flynn, and dozens of other celebrities and even early Olympic athletes peppered these snowy slopes, having the time of their lives.

That era of fun and elegance was captured on film by famed outdoor photographer Ray Atkeson and ski moviemaker Warren Miller, who became friends in Squaw Valley in 1949. In this nostalgic tour of an earlier time, Miller reminisces about the places, people, and props that color the history of skiing in the West. His lively, firsthand account of the events that populate this unequaled photo collection is fascinating reading.

Ray Atkeson became a legend in his lifetime, taking over 40,000 photos of the pioneer years of skiing the West. Warren Miller has produced nearly five hundred sports films during his fifty-year career. He teaches skiing in Big Sky, Montana.