Ski Style: Sport and Culture in the Rockies

Book By Annie Gilbert Coleman

This was one of the books that I had to read for my graduate class on Colorado history (HIST 501 State History). This book covered the large expanse of ski history in Colorado, about also brought in information on the European ski history as well. It was clearly written and packed with information. I cannot say that it was a page turner since I have no personal interest in the subject, but at the same time it was easy to get through. Since I was using this for a college course I was aware of the source material that was used to write it. The author did do their research on the subject, but they left out a lot about the minority influence on skiing which would have helped this book be more encompassing on the subject. 

Even though I wasn’t very interested in skiing (like as a native to Colorado I have never tried the sport) the subject matter I had to pick from basically broke down into either tourism or mining. I have even less of an interest in mining then I do for skiing. This book was able to make the subject matter somewhat interesting to me. An example of this was when it talked about how our ski culture helped in WWII. 4 stars out of 5. Below is a detailed book analysis I had to do for my graduate class.

When most people think about Colorado, the mountains and winter sports activities are normally what come to mind. As a part of this mindset, skiing reigns supreme in its images of luxury, sexuality, and its winter wonderland setting. Annie Gilbert Colman covers the history of skiing in Colorado and how this link arose in her book Ski Style. She tries to break its history down into parts to help build an understanding of why these images are so strong and what went into developing them. By doing this she was able to build a holistic view of skiing’s impact on Colorado.

      For the history of the sport she follows a linear timeline to show how skiing evolved as a way for miners and towns’ people to get around in the winter, to the leisure and competitive sport it is today in Colorado’s high country. She also went into how there was a romance or sexualization of both genders in the sport while it provided a freedom to women that they did not experience in other sports or aspects of their lives. One of the key themes that runs through the book is how boosters and advertisements helped to build a specific view of Colorado and the mountains in the mind set of Americans in the hopes to draw them to the high country. The main way she shows this is by breaking down ads from different time periods and explains why certain images were used. She also looks at how skiing evolved into snowboarding and its impacts on the resorts. As part of Colorado’s skiing impact on the rest of the world Coleman talks about how the 10^th Mountain Division impacted WWII. She then finishes up the book by looking at how the images of Colorado are used outside of the state to build a winter wonderland for Disney in Florida. By looking at skiing from this prospective, she was able to build an understanding of how and why skiing is interlocked with people’s perspectives of Colorado.

      It is not clear if Coleman’s findings were anything new, or if it is just the detail at which she looked at this topic that brought a whole lot of information with it. One example could be how the Scandinavian immigrants brought their long traditions to the mountains and it was this at allowed skiing to gain a foot hold not only as means for people to get around in the mountains but also as a form of entertainment. Coleman pointed out that it was these connections to the European social scene and the Alps that helped develop people’s expectations of the ski areas and resorts. By talking about how Scandinavian ski experts were even imported into the state, it builds up support for her view that they were key to the image of what a skier should look like. This image of the ski instructor is then used as a sex symbol to attract men for what they should be like and women as the object of their desire. To support this she broke down ads and other pictures of the time in ways that also picked out small details that may not have been noticed without the breakdown. Another point that the book made was how skiing reinforced the image of women as a sex object while allowing them to participate in a sport and directly compete with men. For the sexualization of women she provided two key pictures to support this. The first one was of the classic ‘ski bunny’ which was a change from the long skirts that women wore during the early ski days to form fitting clothes that showed off women’s bodies (this photo could be compared to other historical pictures and ads she also included). The second photo was an ad of a male dressed like a cowboy trying to rope two women with a lasso from horseback and the women are dressed in ski clothes. These images were used to sale an idea of what skiing could be if you traveled to Colorado’s high country. Many of the topics Coleman covered flowed like the previous example and kept adding layers as a way to understand Colorado’s ski culture.

      Coleman was able to present the above information because of the diversity of the research materials she used. For base information she used everything from peer reviewed journals, to magazines, to business reports, and books. These allowed her to get the base information she needed to build the liner history and the hard numbers (data, statistics, and prices) to support her ideas. One of the most successful parts of the research she presented was the photos from archives and collections. These were a type of primary source material that helped her to support her claims, such as the sexualization of the ski industry and how rustic/western images were used as points of interest for tourists. A lot of both the photos and files she used came from organizations based out of Colorado that had held on to them which can also support them being valid sources. She also referenced three documentaries, 2 from the 80s and one from the 90s. The most interesting part of her research was the section on oral histories and interviews. Some she only had a transcript for, but many she actually did herself in 94 and 95. This removed her from just being an arm chair researcher, to one that was actively interacting with the material she was wanting to present. The diversity of her resources helps her build a strong foundation for her book.

       This book has so much to contribute to the understanding of history. First there is the massive amount of different types of sources that Coleman used. Then she was able to organize all of that material into a book in an organized way that not only represented a liner history of skiing, but also supported the concepts of the visual impact of the images that were used to bring people to Colorado. Instead of just looking at subjects found in most text books, Coleman used the history of a sport, skiing, to show that other things can impact a state’s history besides normal business, politics, and events. Also the way she broke down the visual images of the state during different time periods, she was able to also go deeper into the culture and social issues that helped to create those images. With her wrapping up the book by then showing those built cultural images spreading to other states, she was able to expand the book past just a historical document to show how culture evolves and can have global impacts. Just as much as skiing impacted Disney’s water resort, European culture impacted the birth of skiing in Colorado. Overall, Ski Style was a successful historical book that helps readers to see how boosters and advertisers used skiing and the beauty of the mountains to draw people to not only visit Colorado, but to make it their permanent home.