Inducts five legends into Hall of Fame and presents new First Tracks Award to Kevin Pearce
The who’s who of the ski and snowboarding world will gather at the Stoweflake Mountain Resort in Stowe on Oct. 21 for a dinner and silent auction to celebrate the 2017 Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame inductees. The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame will also announce and present a new First Tracks Award this year.
This year’s Hall of Fame inductees are Williston native Ann Battelle, a world champion mogul skier; Waitsfield’s Dickie Hall, the godfather of telemark skiing in the U.S.; Underhill’s Jim Fredericks, the man who set in place some of Vermont’s strongest Nordic programs; and Chuck and Jann Perkins of Burlington and Stowe. The Perkins founded Burlington’s Alpine Shop and have been integral in both creating and preserving ski culture and history in Vermont. The Paul Robbins award for journalism is going to legendary Vermont photographer and author, Peter Miller, of Waterbury/Colbyville. Peter Graves, a former Hall of Fame inductee and an announcer for many Olympic events, will be the master of ceremonies.
“This year, for the first time, we are also handing out the First Tracks Award, to honor exceptional and ongoing contributions to the sport in Vermont by someone under 35,” says co-chair Greg Morrill. The First Tracks Award will be given in memory of Ian Graddock, a Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum board member, lifelong skier and ski racer, who passed away in 2016 at age 35.
In its inaugural year, the First Tracks Award goes to snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who was on a trajectory to snowboard in the 2010 Olympics when he crashed and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Since then, he’s gone on to set up the Love Your Brain Foundation to help others with TBIs.
“Pearce exemplifies the spirit that Ian Graddock lived by,” says Museum co-chair Poppy Gall. “Hard-charging, thoughtful and dedicated—after surviving a horrific snowboarding accident Kevin turned his talents to helping others in a way that makes him a unique role model.”
Since 2002, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame has recognized more than 60 people who have made history in snowsports in our state. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to honor athletes, special contributors, and pioneers of Vermont skiing an snowboarding who promoted and/or contributed to the sport of skiing and riding in Vermont; to document the histories of Inductees in the Museum’s collection; and to recognize their accomplishments through the Induction ceremony and the Hall of Fame exhibit. The Hall of Fame committee looks at candidates in three categories: Athletes, Pioneers, and Special Contributors.
The 2017 Hall of Fame dinner and films are sponsored by: Rossignol, Sisler Builders, and VT Ski + Ride Magazine, NJoy Events, The Violettes, Stowe Reporter and Xpress Print and Copy. Sponsorships are still available.
The event at the Stoweflake Resort in Stowe on Oct. 21 is open to the public and usually sells out. Tickets are $90 and are available at www.vtssm.org/events.
Bios are attached. If you are interested in a media pass, interviews with the honorees, photos or additional information please contact: Susan Dorn, sdorn@vtssm.com
About the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum
The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum is a welcome home for alpine, Nordic, and snowboard enthusiasts in the landmark ‘Old Town Hall’ of Stowe, Vermont. In fulfilling its mission of collecting, preserving and celebrating Vermont’s skiing and snowboarding history, the Museum has assembled the definitive collection of Vermont skiing and snowboard artifacts and memorabilia. It has produced videos and films honoring Vermont athletes and pioneers as Hall of Fame inductees. The Museum implements numerous exciting and memorable programs each year, including exhibit grand openings, exclusive speakers and collection showings, film festivals and much more. It is a key asset and attraction to Vermont and the Town of Stowe.
2017 Hall of Fame Inductees
Ann Battelle
Growing up in Williston, Ann Battelle would get dropped off at Cochran’s ski hill with her school’s Friday afternoon program and at Bolton Valley every weekend. One day she went to Whiteface to see a World Cup mogul event. As she describes it: “Solid ice bumps down the steep Wilderness trail. I had found my calling.” After graduating from Middlebury College, moved to Steamboat, Colo. and by her second season competing made the U.S. National Team. Battelle went on to ski on the U.S. Freestyle team for 11 years. She was a two-time World Cup champion, won the World Championships in 1999 and competed in four Olympics. She retired after the 2002 Games.
Jim Fredericks
When Jim Fredericks first learned to Nordic ski at Johnson State College, he went on to become one of the East’s top racers. He coached at his alma mater and then, in 1978, started the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Center program and grew it into a hotbed where Olympic-level athletes now train and compete. After Craftsbury, Fredericks launched the Nordic program at Green Mountain Valley School, a program that turned out a number of National Junior Champions. He then went on to Rossignol, working with their Nordic products and athletes. Finally, when Rossignol moved west, Fredericks took on the role of the Catamount Trail Associations’ executive director. Under his leadership the organization grew to become one of the strongest outdoor non-profits in the state and a voice for backcountry travel. Fredericks also started The Race to the Top of Vermont.
Dickie Hall
Waitsfield’s Dickie Hall, the founder and director of North American Telemark Organization from 1975-2015, introduced Telemark skiing in every ski state with his Telemark Festival Series. He also conducted a yearly schedule of workshops, camps, expeditions and guide and instructor training. “Over the years I’ve probably taught over 40,000 skiers and trained 1,000 instructors and guides worldwide.” Hall started his career on the Killington Ski Patrol in the early 1970s and became Chief Examiner and Certification Chairman for PSIA-E Nordic. In the late ’70s Hall started the annual NATO Telemark Festival at Mad River Glen and ran it for decades. “This was the world’s largest public event for telemark skiing, attracting over a thousand skiers for the weekend,” he recalls. During his career, Hall also produced five movies on telemark and backcountry skiing, consulted and trained staff for the nation’s leading outdoor schools and was an adjunct professor of ski mountaineering for the University of Alaska Wilderness studies program.
Chuck & Jann Perkins
Chuck Perkins, a University of Vermont grad, was working for J.C. Penney when he and his wife Jann decided to open the Alpine Shop in Burlington. That was 1963. Over the next 47 years, the Perkins (and then their daughter Peg and husband Scott Rieley) built the Alpine Shop into more than just a retail outlet. They sold it in 2011 to Andy and Becky Kingston. The shop quickly became a hub of ski culture, sponsoring Warren Miller films, promoting events like the Sugarbush Triathlon and serving as a gathering point for skiers. Along the way, the Perkins became avid fans of ski history and collectors of ski memorabilia. Because of the couple’s devotion to ski history, another collector, Roy Newton, drafted them for help with the Vermont Ski Museum. They raised enough money to purchase Newton’s collection and convinced the town of Stowe to lease them a condemned meeting house on Main Street. Jann says. “We have been board members and life members since the very start of the museum, and we promise it will always be an asset to the village of Stowe.”
Peter Miller: Paul Robbins Journalism Award
Most people know Peter Miller as the author and photographer behind the stunning photo books, Vermont People, Vermont Farm Women and most recently, Vanishing Vermonters: Loss of a Rural Culture, all self-published through Silver Print Press. What they may not know is that the first of Miller’s 11 published books were ski books, The 30,000 Mile Ski Race (Dial Press, 1973), about Americans in Europe on the World Cup circuit and then The Skier’s Almanac (Nick Lyons Press and Doubleday, 1980). Miller grew up in Weston, Vt. and has always followed ski racing. From 1965 to 1988 he was a contributing editor to SKI Magazine and has visited 104 ski resorts on four continents. Miller got his start as a photographer when, as a student at the University of Toronto, he had the chance to work with the legendary portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh. Miller assisted him in 1954 as they photographed celebrities living in Europe. Miller went on to work as a reporter and writer for LIFE Magazine before moving back to Vermont in the 1960s. He set up shop next door to the Waterbury Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Colbyville.
Kevin Pearce: The First Tracks Award
The son of glassware giant Simon Pearce and his wife Pia. Kevin Pearce grew up snowboarding at ski areas around Vermont. By 18 he had turned pro, excelling in the halfpipe. In 2008, Pearce became the first athlete to win three medals at the X Games (and bested Shaun White in Slopestyle). That year he was also crowned overall champion of the international Swatch Ticket to Ride series. White and Pearce were the top contenders for the 2010 Olympics. Both had sponsors build them private half-pipes where they could practice. On Dec. 31, 2009 Pearce was training in a half-pipe in Utah, working on a cab double cork, when he crashed hard. He suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and was hospitalized for four months. He was, in his own words, “lucky to be alive.” Pearce’s story made headline news and a movie Crash Reel, about his injury and recovery, played at Sundance in 2014. It took Pearce nearly two years to recover enough so that he could snowboard (no air or halfpipes anymore). He’s since turned his energy to helping others. Pearce started the Love Your Brain Foundation to help others with TBI and serves as a sports ambassador for the National Down Syndrome Society (his brother David has Down Syndrome).
Source: Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum
