WAYNE POULSEN

A University of Nevada star skier in the 1930s (on a U.S. team that defeated Hitler's best collegians and placed third in the U.S. Olympic trials), Wayne Poulsen purchased 2,000 acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad in a beautiful valley northwest of Lake Tahoe with plans to develop a ski area. 

 Poulsen and his wife, Sandy, would climb its peaks in winter using climbing skins.

Famously, one peak was so steep that Sandy had to make 22 kick turns to ski down it. Wayne named the mountain KT-22 in homage to K-2 a famous peak in the Himalayas.

 Following service in World War II, Poulsen became an airline pilot, though always with the dream of building a ski area in Squaw Valley. In 1946, he met Harvard-trained lawyer, Alexander Cushing, who was vacationing at nearby Sugar Bowl. Poulsen showed Cushing his valley and the NY lawyer immediately became infatuated with Poulsen’s idea of creating a mountain resort there. The two began working together. Poulsen had the land and Cushing had the capital, political connections, and the ability to make the project happen. However, the two men soon had a falling out over the resort's future. Poulsen lost control when Cushing became chair of the Squaw Valley Ski Corporation.

 While Cushing controlled the mountain, Poulsen remained living in the Valley, opening a ski area for beginners (Papoose) and consulting on Sugar Bowl, Bogus Basin, Mt. Rose, Incline and Boreal Ridge. When the State of California sold its interest in Squaw Valley to Mainline Properties, an Australian firm with interests in real estate development, Mainline welcomed Poulsen's involvement, but that too fell apart.

 The Poulsen story is star crossed. A ski champion had a dream that became reality, but without him to lead or benefit from his idea. And yet, the Poulsen family left a legacy on California ski sport both from Wayne's vision and from the Poulsen family's successes on the US Ski Team. 

 Poulsen's dream brought the Winter Olympic Games and fame to California, greatly expanding winter sport in The Golden State.

 Wayne Poulsen was inducted to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1980.

EDIT PAGE

Next

ALEXANDER CUSHING

Wayne Poulsen had a dream, but he just did not have the money. Alexander Cushing took Wayne Poulsen's dream and turned it into reality, eventually developing what is called today, Palisades Tahoe.

 Upon seeing Squaw Valley during a 1946 ski vacation, Cushing realized its potential to become a great mountain resort and went into partnership with Poulsen to develop it, investing $145,000 of his own money and bringing $275,000 from Laurence Rockefeller and other investors to found the Squaw Valley Ski Corporation in 1949. Soon afterward, his relationship with Poulsen soured. He then led the company without Poulsen's involvement.

 The resort began with one chair lift (proclaimed the longest double chair lift on Earth), two rope tows and a 50-room lodge. It remained as such until, after reading a newspaper account on the race to host the VIIIth Olympic Winter Games, Cushing submitted a proposal in 1954, to hold a new type of winter games with an athlete's village and temporary facilities - to keep costs low.                         

 It was a publicity stunt on Cushing's part. He never imagined he'd actually win the games, but the novel idea struck a chord with the International Olympic Committee, and they awarded the games to California over Innsbruck, Austria and St. Moritz, Switzerland. It was the first Olympics to be televised live, bringing national attention to U.S. skiing and making Cushing the first and only ski area operator to appear on the cover of TIME. 

 The 1960 Olympic Winter Games transformed California skiing instantly. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was building interstate superhighways, and it became imperative that I-80 be completed in time for the '60 games.

 California's Winter Olympics introduced the idea that skiing in the High Sierra was an easy drive away for generations of Californians who head to the Sierra Nevada on winter weekends. Skiing became part of the California lifestyle because of what Cushing did.

 Following the Olympics, Cushing set about building Squaw bigger and better than any other ski area had ever attempted, always striving to have the most and largest lifts: the longest chair, the first gondola, the largest tram, the only funitel.

 Today, Palisades Tahoe (which combined Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows) has 42 lifts, covers 6,000 skiable acres and attracts some 600,000 skiers. It is the largest mountain resort, by any measure, in California. Cushing was inducted to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1999.

J D RICHEY

J D Richey is one of California’s preeminent outdoor guides, authors, photojournalists, writers, an innovative angler, and an ardent conservationist.

 Known to readers of the Western Outdoor News, Field & Stream, Western Angler, Western Outdoors, California Game & Fish, and Auburn Journal, Richey started a guiding business that focused on Central Valley salmon. He continues to guide in California, Alaska and Nevada.

 He became a popular seminar speaker, TV show guest, radio program contributor and created the online class, Catch More Steelhead.

 State agencies have sought his expertise for river restoration work and to catch fish for tagging studies.

 He has written several fishing-themed books, including Side-drifting for Steelhead and contributed columns and feature articles to Salmon Trout Steelheader, GuideFitter Journal, and Salmon Steelhead Journal. His website, fishwithjd.com, receives 20,000 to 50,000 visits a month.

J D Richey was a charter officer of the 3,800-member Nor-Cal Guides & Sportsmen’s Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving hunting and fishing opportunities throughout The Golden State.