Jack Benedick, Chris Waddell and Sarah Will are the first adaptive skiers to enter the Hall of Fame since the late Diana Golden was honored in 1997.

Stu Campbell lived in Stowe, VT and was a writer, instructor and resort executive who impacted millions of American skiers over a career that spanned five decades.  He was the author of six books on ski instruction, served as an equipment consultant to several manufacturers, raced and coached racers and provided television commentary.

Doug Coombs may be the most recognizable skier in this year’s class for his appearances in many ski films in the 1990’s. A former ski racer from Montana State University, he is regarded by many as the most important skier of his generation in popularizing adventure skiing. He and his wife, Emily, started the first heliskiing operation in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains, and he won the first two World Extreme Skiing Championships.

Paul Robbins spent three decades as a ski journalist and as the US Ski Team press officer.  He possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of skiing and ski racers of every discipline that he willingly shared with anyone who asked.  Ski jumper Jeff Hastings wrote: “His breath filled the sails of the athletes he covered.”

Sepp Kober is known as the “Father of Southern Skiing.” After immigrating to the United States and instructing at Stowe, he was the first ski instructor at the first southern ski area to open a rope tow, Weiss Knob, in 1958.  From then he worked to prove that skiing could exist south of the Mason Dixon Line. Today the Southeastern Ski Areas Association, which he founded, consists of 20 ski areas serving four to five million skiers annually and is considered the largest feeder of skiers to the mountain resorts in the west.

Ansten Samuelstuen of Louisville, CO first arrived in the United States in 1951 and set a hill record for distance of 316 feet at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs that stood for 12 years. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1954 he successfully won three national titles in ski jumping, (1957, 1961 and 1962) and held four North American titles (1954, 1955,1957 and 1964). He competed for the United States on two Olympic teams and was the top U.S. jumper with a seventh place finish at the 1960 Olympic Games in Squaw Valley.

Chris Waddell recently made international headlines for his successful climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in September of this year, a first for a paraplegic.

Sarah Will was also paralyzed in a skiing accident in 1988 and also won 12 medals competing on U.S. teams at four Paralympic Games.  Like Chris Waddell she too swept the gold medals at the Paralympics, this time in Salt Lake City in 2002.

The induction of the Class of 2009 will take place in Colorado on April 9, 2010.  They will also be honored in September by ceremonies in Ishpeming Michigan, the home of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame

 

Photo credit: National Ski Hall of Fame & K2