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UAF Ski Hill Late 1940's to Early 1980's |
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~ Photos ~ |
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[Right] Start of the 1975 Fairbanks Skiathlon at the base of the UAF Ski Hill [Photo Credit: UAF] [Far right] Start of Skiathlon in 1972. [Photo Credit: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner] |
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This 1966 aerial photo of UAF shows the ski hill in the distance at the middle right of this shot. On the right is a zoomed in segment of the aerial photo - where you can clearly see the outrun of the ski jump. |
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~ Maps ~ |
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The 1975 topo map to the right shows the location of the UAF Ski Hill in Fairbanks (click on this map if you want to enlarge it) |
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The 1998 aerial photo to the right provides a good view of the old UAF Ski Hill (click on this map if you want to enlarge it) |
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Research Correspondence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
[Roger Evans - October 2004 email excerpt]
The university ski hill was open in the 50's through the late 70's, until a drunken sledder died after hitting a tree, then they took it all out. it had a single rope tow and maybe 300 vertical feet. there was also a 30m nordic jump in the 50's (and maybe sooner), the profile is still there in the brush, but it is fenced off as well. [Tim Kelley note - October 2004] Roger mentioned that closure of the UAF Ski Hill occurred in the 70's due to a drunken sledder having a fatal accident on this hill. Possibly the ski area closed in the 1970's and this sledding accident actually occurred in 1988. There is mention of this incident in the Supreme Court of Alaska brief on the University of Alaska vs. Shanti (6/30/92). Here it states that the estate of the deceased sued UAF because the accident happened on a site that was ONCE an improved site. Even though it was no longer in use. [Roger Evans - 02 January 2005 email excerpt] by the way. you can see the old jump at the uaf in one of your photos. the one with a bunch of skiers in a field. the mound in the trees by the new athletic center is the old landing hill you can see the shape there. if you tried it now, you'd crash into the building. it went straight down from that mckinley viewpoint pullout on the road above. you can see a narrow trail there on your aerial view. i drew a line on the old landing hill mound at uaf. [see below]. [Larry Freeman - 23 November 2005 email excerpt] As far as the UAF ski hill's demise, my first winter was 1982-83, and I believe that the rope was still in place on the hill, and may have operated that winter. [John Estle - 19 December 2005 email excerpt] When I came to UAF in the fall of 1982 as the Ski Coach, the rope tow
was still there and still running. One of my job responsibilities was to
hire an operator to run the tow. I can't recall how many more years the
tow ran after the 82-83 winter, but I would guess it was between zero
and two more years, and I'm leaning toward zero. |
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[Dermot Cole - excerpt from a 26 March 2006 article in the Fairbanks
Daily News Miner entitled: "In 1950s,
local skiers took flight from Fairbanks ski jumps"] For full article click here. Their site [ALSAP] contains some great accounts of the ski jumps at
the University of Alaska and on Chena Ridge in the late 1940s and early
1950s. The UAF jump was on the hill just beyond the Patty Center, while
the Chena Ridge jump was up on the hill above the Pump House restaurant. |
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[Chuck Johnson - 17 January 2011 email]
During the 60s I trained with the UAF Ski
Team. I wasn't a student at UAF and couldn't ski for him but Coach Jim
Mahaffey invited me to train with them. He did this for a lot of us.
His office and the training facilities were in the newly built Patty
Building that is right at the bottom of the old Ski Hill. The old
wooden jump was gone by then but we ran gates on the Ski Hill and skied
up it to access the cross country trails on the University Land north of
the campus. I think it was about this time that the trails were named
the Skarland Trails in honor of Ivar Skarland who was one of the
pioneers of cross country skiing and racing at UAF in the early 30s. In
the mid 60s Jim (Whizzy) Whisenhant Lathrop High School Ski
Coach started the 20K Skiathon that started and finished at the bottom
of the Ski Hill. It went up the Ski Hill, through the Skarland trails
and off UAF Property into the hills to the north through what is now
called the Musk Ox Subdivision and down past the University Musk Ox Farm
and back to the bottom of the Ski Hill.
I've attached pictures from the Skiathon
and aerial photos of UAF from the years 1949 and 2007 (see above).
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[Daniel Osborne - 12 January 2014 email] I was a lift operator and down hill skier at UA (NOT UAF) in the late 1960's. I worked in the tower and was the human safety, that is I was supposed to turn off the rope tow before someone who did not let go or could not let go of the rope went thrugh the pulling sheaves. There was also a rope "fence" that one would go through before the pulling sheaves and when someone got tangled in the fence it would pull a normal two prong AC plug that opened a relay that also stopped the motor. The plug just had a simple shorting wire that would let the starting motor relay click in and start the pulling motor. {Heaven help some idiot who would plug the shorting plug into a normal outlet.} Most times I just watched and hoped the next day (my off day) would also be good skiing. However most beginners would hang onto the rope and pull it way off to the side when exiting the two and snap the rope. Then the rope would slap the fence and the tow would stop. In addition, those who wanted a clear ski run with out anybody on the slope, would also snap the rope. The hill saw short and quickly cleared of all but the slowest skiers., Then they would wait for the hill to clear of skiers and go down. So my job was mostly to go down and reset the fence, then hit a reset button. then climb back up to the tower where I could start the rope again. I do not believe The rope two was never at UAF, UAF came later, the rope was always at UA. UAF came after the rope was long gone. [Tim Kelley note] Daniel is correct, the ski tow was part of the UA (University of Alaska, Fairbanks campus) originally. The UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks) renaming occurred in 1975, according to the UAF wikipedia page. |
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Do you have further information, stories or pictures that you would like to contribute about this ski area? |
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