Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest
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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | WINTER 2021/2022
Lowell Skoog Mountaineers Books As I was describing Lowell Skoog’s detail-rich chronicle “Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest” to a fellow bookseller, he gave a knowing nod. “It’s like Game of Thrones, but skiing!” Mining archives and interviewing veteran skiers, Skoog has written a sweeping history of skiing in the Northwest, focusing on Washington. From miners wearing “Norwegian snowshoes” in the 1800s, through the development of ski mountaineering, establishment of lodges and resorts, and the thrill-seeking, high-risk skiers, it is as comprehensive a history of skiing in the region one could hope to find. The book weaves the history of skiing with that of the Pacific Northwest, drawing out how the Scandinavian idea of frilutsliv, or open-air living, is part of our regional culture. The cast of characters is dizzying, a parade of explorers, mountaineers, racers, developers, soldiers and rescuers. Their stories make the book feel more like a saga than a reference book. A group of young Depression-era skiers go to work in their ski clothes the next day after the train leaves them behind in the mountains. Newlyweds man the Three Fingers Lookout where lightning electrifies the cables holding the tiny building to the summit, and use short skis to fly across the snowfield for supplies. Ski patrol volunteers defuse bombs on Navy planes crashed high in the Olympic Mountains. “Human-powered skiing” and ski mountaineering are the focus of the book, but it also chronicles the development of ski resorts and the evolution of equipment, such as the emergence of the snowboard and the role of Mt. Baker as the cradle of the popular sport. In making “Written in the Snows,” Skoog spent 20 years researching and occasionally reviving skiing history. He helped bring back the Patrol Race, a 20-mile race from Stampede Pass to Snoqualmie Pass, founded in the 1930s by The Mountaineers, a nonprofit organization. After tracking down tin markers on trees to establish the original route, he led a group on the race route, getting a send off from Wolf Bauer whose 1936 record for the race still stood. “The trick is to die young,” Bauer advised the group, “as late as possible.” In 2016, Skoog was part of the team that broke Bauer’s record in the revived Patrol Race, a month after Bauer’s death at 103. As passionate as it is meticulous, and filled with wonderful photographs, the book is a celebration of a sport that one young convert in 1938 described in a letter to Scholastic as “like the measles. I was exposed about three years ago to the most glorious winter sport there is,” and it kept spreading. MountBakerExperience.com
