“Isotropic high-tech aluminum alloys,” caruba wood, side cuts, reverse cambers, “KeyHole Technology” … modern-day snow skis have come a long way since 1938, when Arizona Snowbowl opened on the west slope of the San Francisco Peaks. But the most important element of skiing — gravity — remains the same. It’s what takes skiers from the top of the hill to the bottom.
A Portfolio Edited by Jeff Kida and Keith Whitney
PHOTOS: NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY CLINE LIBRARY
Jimmie Nunn catches some air at Arizona Snowbowl in the late 1940s. At the time, Nunn was a student at Flagstaff’s Arizona State College, which later became Northern Arizona University.
Aspen groves provide natural obstacles for Snowbowl skiers. This photo was made by Robert Fronske, a Flagstaff native who extensively documented the area from the late 1930s to the early 1980s.
Skiers check their equipment outside Snowbowl Lodge in the early 1940s. The lodge was a hub of activity until February 1952, when it was destroyed in a fire; arson was suspected at the time, but historians now believe a burning log rolling out of a fireplace was more likely.
An Arizona State College student skis with a Saint Bernard named Mike in 1947. These days, pets other than service animals are not allowed on Snowbowl’s ski terrain.
In an undated Fronske photo, skiers congregate along one of Snowbowl’s slopes. Since opening in 1938, Snowbowl has closed for only one season: 1944, because of gasoline rationing during World War II.
It wasn’t just local college students hitting Snowbowl’s slopes in the mid-1940s. Here, members of the University of New Mexico’s ski team pay the San Francisco Peaks a visit.
Arizona State College skiers pose outside the team bus with coaches Aaron McCreary and John Pederson in 1952. The school’s ski class started with six students in 1950 but grew to more than 50 students by 1955.
Skiers examine what appears to be a map of ski runs inside Snowbowl Lodge in 1947. That year, the Arizona Daily Sun described Snowbowl as having “changed thousands of people’s minds about Arizona being only a desert state.”
Two visitors ride Snowbowl’s chairlift up the mountain in an undated image. This apparatus was leaps and bounds ahead of what the ski area featured when it opened: a two-person rope tow powered by a car engine.
In this Fronske photo from around 1960, a view down a Snowbowl slope shows some of the facilities available at that time. These days, the ski area offers 55 runs and 777 acres of ski terrain.
Legendary photographer Josef Muench’s work at Snowbowl included this shot of ski instructor Kit Wing making a turn. Wing spent parts of the 1940s and ’50s at Snowbowl.
Muench photographed three skiers above Snowbowl Lodge sometime before the lodge burned in 1952. The peak in the distance is Sitgreaves Mountain, to the west.
