Mount Washington Valley News Brought To You By Horsefeathers

Tom Eastman - Conway Daily Sun

BRETTON WOODS, NH – Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, NH debuted a new full-service 25,000-square-foot spa on Thursday, January 22, adding to the amenities that define the historic Grande Dame’s reputation as a four-season resort destination.  Designed to complement the natural beauty of the surrounding White Mountains, The Spa at Mount Washington Resort features sumptuous lounges, breathtaking views and customized products using local alpine botanicals for signature treatments.
Pat Corso, Mount Washington Resort’s President and CEO, is pleased with the result that was two years in the making. “We have a new and wonderful facility that provides us with another ‘world class’ amenity,” he stated.  “The Spa adds another reason to come to the Resort regardless of the season,  and it will continue to round out our midweek, off-season and shoulder season business,” according to Corso.
The Spa boasts 13 treatment rooms including five dedicated massage rooms, one couples room, three facial rooms, three multi-purpose rooms and one deluxe wet room with a Vichy shower and treatment tub with air jets and color therapy.  The Spa also features a Spa Suite – a cluster of four treatment rooms for massage, facial, body and bath treatments and its own private lounge – ideal for groups such as spa parties, girls’ getaways and celebrations.  The majority of the treatment rooms offer windows with breathtaking views of the Presidential Mountain Range.
Women and men each have a private relaxation lounge for quiet resting in soft, comfortable lounge chairs and a separate steam and sauna area.  The co-ed lounge, with its floor to ceiling windows, is a great place for couples to spend time together before and after spa services.  The outdoor garden lounge includes a whirlpool and offers guests scenic views of the mountains.
The Spa includes a full-service image center offering hair care, manicures and pedicures.  A fitness studio with Cybex strength training equipment, cardio machines with entertainment systems and free weights is also available to Spa guests.  Adjacent to the fitness studio are private locker rooms, a heated indoor pool and whirlpool.  A new heated outdoor pool complex with relaxation deck is also accessible to guests of The Spa.
The Resort has also created two unique signature spa treatments – the Alpine Body Glo and Mount Washington Signature Body Ritual.  Both signature treatments include the property’s new customized spa products created with local botanicals, aptly named “Mountain Mist” for the “misting” that often surrounds Mount Washington and the Presidential Range.  Additional treatments include Coffee Bean Body Polish, Adventurer’s Pedicure, Stone Massage, Gentleman’s Facial, Intensive Hair Treatment and more.
The customized Mountain Mist products and amenities include Iberis, a local plant which has been used since ancient times to relieve muscle soreness; one of the several varieties of local Nettles rich in the powerful antioxidant Vitamin E which helps to smooth and protect the skin; and Rosemary, a soothing, calming, anti-inflammatory herb.  The botanicals were chosen from an initial list of over 2,000 local plants that were then cross checked with hundreds of herbal and medicinal plants to select the most beneficial ones.
Mount Washington Resort has created special overnight packages featuring the new Spa, including the Simply Spa-tacular Package.  This package includes Superior accommodations at The Mount Washington Hotel, breakfast daily, nightly turn-down service and one 50-minute spa treatment per person, per day, along with a glass of wine or champagne after each treatment.  This package includes a special Spa welcome gift, and starts at $215 per person, per night, based on double occupancy, with a two-night minimum required.  A limited-time, midweek Grand Opening Spa Special is also currently offered, including accommodations and choice of one 50-minute spa treatment each day starting at $115 per person, per night, based on double occupancy.
The Spa opening is just one of many significant enhancements as part of a $50 million renovation taking place at Mount Washington Resort.  Along with the new Spa, a total of 30,000 square feet of meeting space debuted this January.  Extensive room renovations have also been completed, along with a $2 million restoration of the 900-foot wrap-around Veranda, Great Hall and Dining Room, finished in May 2007. The 18-hole Mount Washington Course also has been restored to its original Donald Ross design and reopened for play in August 2008.  Plans for the proposed development of approximately 1,000 new homes and home sites over the next decade are underway.
For more information about Mount Washington Resort, including details about overnight packages, please call 877.873.0626 toll-free, 603.278.8820 local or visit www.MountWashingtonResort.com.

Tom Eastman - Conway Daily Sun

JACKSON, NH — Black Mountain will be celebrating its 75th Birthday in the 2009-2010 season, as the oldest ski area in New Hampshire and one of the oldest in our Country. In anticipation of this landmark event, Black Mountain will host the 2nd Annual Retro Day on Saturday, January 31st 2009.  ( Bring a photograph of Black Mountain pre-1980 andreceive $10 off your lift ticket, per decade.)

Black Mountain Ski area recognizes it would not have its place in history, without it’s loyal patrons. Because of that, skiers are invited to be a part of planning our Birthday Celebration, beginning next Saturday, January 31st. Bring a pre-1980 photograph of Black Mountainand receive $10 off your lift ticket, per decade. Pre 1950 photos ski FREE*. Photos that appear on Black Mountain’s website do not qualify.

Enjoy a ‘vintage’ menu in the Lostbo Pub, featuring cocktails and dishes popular in the 1930’s. After a fabulous day on the slopes, there will be live music, vintage style of course, with ‘Tin Can Tele’, out of Portsmouth, NH. Prizes awarded to best vintage outfit, best vintage gear, best Black Mountain photo, funniest Black Mountain Story/memory, Black Mountain trivia games and all participants of the retro event will be entered into our grand prize drawing.

In honor of it’s national historic standing, the J bar lift will be open all day for skiers to enjoy and local artist Marty Sage Gilman will debut her ‘Black Mountain Celebration’ poster.

For more information, visit Black Mountain online at www.blackmt.com

By Tom Eastman (photos by Drew Phillips)
The Conway Daily Sun

NORTH CONWAY - Not everyone gets to walk under an arch of ski poles in their lifetimes.
That was how Gibson Center for Senior Services executive director George Cleveland felt after being asked to play the role of late North Conway philanthropist, Mount Cranmore pioneer developer and world financier Harvey Dow Gibson (1882-1950) at the historic re-enactment of the arrival of famed Austrian skimeister Hannes Schneider (1890-1955) and family at North Conway’s train station 70 years ago on Feb. 11, 1939.
Approximately 150 to 200 children and townspeople gathered at the station Jan. 10 to welcome the Schneider family and entourage, holding aloft their ski poles just as was done on that early February morning 70 years ago when the Schneiders and Mr. and Mrs. Gibson passed under the arch that was formed by those gathered in Schouler Park.
Although held a month earlier than the official anniversary of Feb. 11, the January snow train special runs and 70th anniversary of the Schneiders’ arrival were a joint production of Cranmore Mountain Resort and the Conway Scenic Railroad to celebrate the romantic era of snow trains (1931-1950) and the Schneiders’ contributions to the sport of skiing.
The press was on hand to record the re-enactment, with WMUR-TV 9 on hand to get footage for an upcoming “Chronicles” program.
Representing the Schneider family at the re-enactment was Hannes’ and Ludwina’s’ son, Cranmore skimeister and U.S. Ski Hall of Fame member Herbert, now 88, who was there with his parents and late sister Herta in 1939. Also present for the re-enactment were Herbert and the late Doris Schneider’s sons, Hannes and Christoph; Hannes’ former wife, Betsy Schneider, and their two young sons, Hannes and Marcus.
Also on hand were many people who were there 70 years ago, including Marion Morrell Owen, 87, sister of original local ski instructors Bob and Nate Morrell, and Evelyn Woodbury, 99, widow of Harvey Gibson’s late nephew, Wendell. (Evelyn Woodbury is seen on the cover with Herbert Schneider.)

Cleveland, as noted earlier, played Gibson, the man who developed Cranmore in 1937, bought the former Hotel Randall and renamed it the Eastern Slope Inn, also in 1937, announcing he would open it year-round, even in winter; hired local mechanic George Morton in 1938 to come up with a ski lift design that became known as the Skimobile; and then — after Hannes Schneider was arrested by the Nazis when Hitler’s Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 — worked to win his release.
He bought Carroll Reed’s ski schools at Whitneys’ in Jackson and Cranmore in summer 1938 so he could offer them to Schneider. Reed, meanwhile, said he was reluctant to sell his schools, but his ski shop business was growing at the time, and as he said in an interview in 1988, “It just seemed that whatever Mr. Gibson put his hand to turned to gold, and he always had the community’s interests at heart, so I sold the schools. And, as it turned out, it was the thing to do, because he was able to bring Hannes here.”

The Schneiders in 1939 arrived in New York Harbor from France aboard the Queen Mary, where they were met by Mr. Gibson. They then boarded the train with the Gibsons, leaving New York at 9 p.m., and arriving at about 8 a.m. the next morning at the North Conway train station. In doing so, the Schneiders became perhaps the most famous snow train passengers ever.
To give his role the right look for the re-enactment, George Cleveland — grandson in real life of former President Grover Cleveland — dressed the part in an overcoat and a fedora, the latter of which he borrowed from the costume department of the Barnstormers Summer Theater in Tamworth. New Hampshire’s oldest summer stock theater company was co-founded by his late Uncle Frances in 1932.
“I have to tell you: it was a gas to get to play Harvey. I loved it!” said the inimitable Cleveland, a former radio personality who saw a direct correlation in getting to play Gibson, since Gibson’s former home in North Conway serves as the home of the Gibson Center.
As an avid ski history buff and writer, in a fun act of participatory journalism, yours truly was given the honor of playing the part of late Austrian ski instructor Benno Rybizka for the re-enactment.
Playing the character in full, I donned a white skimeister cap and even borrowed an unlighted cigarette to give the historic happening greater authenticity, as Rybizka — whose name one Boston sportswriter once quipped was easier to sneeze than pronounce — had a smoke in hand when he greeted his boss, Herr Schneider, at the station seven decades ago. Known as a no-nonsense kind of guy and as a Prussian drillmaster, Rybizka came over from Schneider’s ski school in St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria, in December 1936 to run the American branch of the school founded by the late Carroll Reed in Jackson at what is today the Wildcat Inn and Tavern.
As history has recorded, despite there being little snow that early winter, Rybizka and his early instructors gave more than 6,000 lessons that winter of 1936-37 — enough of a success to open a second school at then newly-cleared Cranmore the following winter, resulting in 12,000 lessons.
The Schneiders upon their arrival in 1939 pressed Gibson to expand Cranmore’s trails to the top. Gibson told Hannes that he had gotten him to North Conway and that, from then on, it would be up to Hannes to plan the development of trails and to put North Conway on the skiers’ map of North America.
With the Schneiders directing the ski school, North Conway’s economy boomed, even during the war years. Thanks to Cranmore’s proximity to the railroad tracks, snow trains were able to bring thousands to the slopes despite the mandatory gas rationing of the era.
After the war, with better roads and more automobiles, ridership on snow trains dwindled. Cranmore, then and now, continues to be a popular and sunny family area with a rich ski history.
Following his father’s death in 1955, Herbert assumed directorship of the ski school, and together with partners, purchased the area from Mrs. Gibson in 1963. He and his partners sold the area in 1984, but Herbert continues to serve as the mountain — and the valleys’ — goodwill ambassador to skiing.
• • •
The New England Ski Museum is featuring two satellite exhibits on local ski history this winter. The first is located at the state of New Hampshire’s Scenic Vista rest area in Intervale, and the second, focusing on the Schneider family, is located on the lower level of the Shops at Norcross Circle next to the Courtyard Cafe in North Conway Village, below Olympia Sports.

MOUNT WASHINGTON, NH – New Hampshire’s 6,288-foot Mount Washington, home to some of the most extreme weather conditions on the planet and the site of the fastest wind gusts ever recorded on the surface of the earth, is the subject of a feature article in the February edition of National Geographic magazine. The 12-page story focuses on the mountain’s world-famous weather extremes and the work of the Mount Washington Observatory. Through impressive photography by Maine-based photojournalist Jose Azel and the first-hand accounts of the author, Neil Shea, National Geographic illustrates that New Englanders need to look no further than their own backyard to find Arctic conditions that rival any other extreme location on the planet.

Author Neil Shea climbed Mount Washington fifteen years ago as a teenager, along with his youngest brother, twelve-year-old Jon. On that January day, Mount Washington’s fierce winter weather dealt them blow after blow. After a series of mistakes, the two brothers were lucky to emerge from the mountain alive. After Neil Shea was assigned the Mount Washington story for National Geographic, he convinced his kid brother, now a professional climbing guide, to try it again. This time, they set off on a winter traverse across the Presidential Range, with a goal of overcoming Mount Washington’s winter extremes.

Through Shea’s experience on Mount Washington with his brother, the article takes a look at how and why the mountain is so dangerous. Shea explores the origins of the mountain’s wind and ice, recounts one of Mount Washington’s most noteworthy climbing accidents and vividly describes the struggles of their winter traverse.

Photographer José Azel captured a number of stunning images that tell the tale of Mount Washington’s infamous weather. A scene of exploding ice is captured when Mount Washington weather observer Michael Finnegan takes a swing at accumulated rime on the Observatory’s instruments. Former Mount Washington Observatory intern Ryan Buckley is seen leaning into winds in excess of 100 mph. Azel also captured a stunning other-worldly view of the Observatory, lit by the light of a full moon. The collection of photographs captures the wonder and awe of Mount Washington’s weather extremes, which the non-profit, member-supported Mount Washington Observatory has been monitoring 24-hours a day since 1932.

The article was over two years in the making. Over the winter of 2007, Azel spent over a dozen nights at the summit to try and capture images of weather phenomena, scenic views and the round-the-clock work at the Mount Washington Observatory. In total, Azel captured literally hundreds of images for the story. Hours and hours were spent above treeline in fierce conditions, including Shea’s harrowing winter traverse with his brother.

Interviews of several Observatory staff members took place over the winter of 2007, and other members of the greater Mount Washington outdoor community were interviewed as well. In the final few months leading up to the publishing of the story, National Geographic fact-checkers contacted several Observatory staff members and others in the Mount Washington community to check, double-check and triple-check the information in the story. The end result is an awe-inspiring feature about one of New England’s most treasured destinations.

“It is such an honor to be featured in one of the most recognizable and respected magazine in the world,” notes Scot Henley, Executive Director of the Mount Washington Observatory. “The article was two years in the making, so we are very excited to finally see the end result. Neil Shea and Jose Azel did a fantastic job illustrating just how incredible Mount Washington’s weather can be, and also how dangerous it is.”

The February edition of National Geographic arrives in subscribers’ mailboxes starting this week, and will be available on newsstands beginning January 27. For the online version of the story, with additional images of the mountain and the Mount Washington Observatory, visit the Observatory’s website at www.MountWashington.org and follow the links to National Geographic magazine.

Mount Washington Observatory is a private, non-profit, member-supported organization with a mission to advance understanding of the natural systems that create the Earth’s weather and climate. Since 1932, the Observatory has been monitoring the elements in one of the most extreme locations on Earth, using this unique site for scientific research and educational outreach. For current conditions, seven webcams, photos, forecasts and information about supporting the Observatory, visit www.MountWashington.org.

National Geographic magazine has a long tradition of combining on-the-ground reporting with award-winning photography to inform people about life on our planet. In 2008 it won three National Magazine Awards, for General Excellence, Photojournalism and Reporting. In 2007 it won two National Magazine Awards, for General Excellence and Photography. Its Web site won a 2008 Webby Award for best magazine Web site.

National Geographic magazine is the official journal of the National Geographic Society, one of the world’s largest nonprofit educational and scientific organizations. Published in English and 31 local-language editions, the magazine has a global circulation of around 8 million. It is sent each month to National Geographic members and is available on newsstands for $4.95 a copy. Single copies can be ordered by calling (800) NGS-LINE, also the number to call to apply for membership in the Society. The magazine’s Web site is at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com.

Tom Eastman - Conway Daily Sun
(photos - Tom Eastman)

CONWAY NH — At North Conway’s self-proclaimed “Center of the Universe” Tuesday, a small crowd gathered at Horsefeathers restaurant to watch the inauguration of the nation’s 44th president as it was broadcast to the nation and world via television.
The television viewers and early afternoon diners who were gathered at Horsefeathers clapped following Barack Obama’s speech, joining the applauding two million gathered on the Mall in front of the Capitol.
“I believe today really for the first in a really long time we are able to tell the world these are our values, this is what America stands for and we have the courage and the will to go forward,” said Laura Weymouth of Wonalancet, who said she had run from the dentist’s office nearby to get to Horsefeathers in time to witness the swearing-in ceremonies.
Daughter of Vice Admiral Ralph Weymouth (U.S. Navy-Ret.) of Tamworth, who has been an outspoken proponent for peace, and sister of Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads, Weymouth said she was part of one big happy family on Inauguration Day.
“He’s asking everyone to take responsibility,” said Weymouth, “and I feel finally we have a leader who can inspire that in us.”
She said her daughter, Fiona Howell, was assigned to do a paper as part of the Tamworth Community School’s educational exercises concerning the inauguration. “She did some research and found the Langston Hughes poem from 1938 entitled ‘Let America Be America Again.’ It was so appropriate to today, it’s extraordinary,” said Weymouth.
The poem carries such stanzas as…

“Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed —
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.”

Weymouth added that she planned to go to the “Mock Black Tie” fund-raising social event in Tamworth at the Brass Heart Inn Tuesday night. That event was being held as a local way to celebrate the inauguration with some music and dancing while helping to raise funds for the Tamworth Community Food Pantry. “I feel very proud to be an American right now,” said Weymouth as others in the restaurant joined her in applauding the speech. Also viewing the speech were Jac Cuddy, executive director of the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council, and David Rudewick of the Mount Washington Valley School to Career Partnership. While remaining nonpartisan, both saw in Obama the symbolism of a new beginning for the country and the image it portrays to the world. “I think this represents a new start. He represents our ideals, of the shining city on the hill,” said Cuddy. “He shows the world’s America’s best front, of what America can be,” added Rudewick.
Said Horsefeathers employee Sandy Sanborn, “He represents our values to the world.”
Among the Mount Washington Valley residents who were there at the Capitol to watch history in the making as America swore in its first African-American president were former selectman Theresa Kennett of Conway and George Cleveland, grandson of President Grover Cleveland and executive director of the Gibson Center for Senior Services. Speaking via cell phone in an interview with WMWV 93.5-FM Tuesday afternoon, Cleveland in a humorous aside said, “Being there on the Mall as the Marine helicopter carrying the Bushes flew overhead after the inauguration reminded me of the scene in the ‘Wizard of Oz’ when the wizard flies overhead with Dorothy in the hot air balloon, waving to all the Munchkins,” said Cleveland, adding that revelers also broke into song singing the 1969 hit, “”Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.” He also commented on how some in the crowd yelled out prior to the inauguration razzing the outgoing President George W. Bush, “Four more minutes. Four more minutes.” He also reported that the biggest boo of the day was given to outgoing, wheelchaired Vice President Dick Cheney. Nonetheless, he said he was inspired by the spirit of the day, as was Kennett. “It was very moving, listening to the new president. You could feel it in the crowd,” said Cleveland.
Kennett, director of the Carroll County Transportation Alliance, said she was able to have a seat in Section 12 at the event, because the sister of her husband, Bayard Kennett, is married to former Iowa Sen. Dick Clark. They entered the city at 7 a.m. from Georgetown, and were able to be seated at 9:45 a.m. Other than the day’s 30-degree temperatures and wind, it was a tremendous day, Kennett said. “It was was pretty incredible that it was all happening, and to be in a place where it was happening. You got to be a close observer to something incredibly historic that was taking place. It was wonderful and inspiring. Later, we went to a restaurant, and Republicans and Democrats alike were commenting on how positive it was, so there was a feeling of bipartisanship to it all.”

The Freedom Library is presenting pizza and movie night with “Horton Hears a Who” at 5 p.m. For more information or to volunteer to make cookies, e-mail freedomlibrary@roadrunner.com or call the library at 539-5176.

Ice Carving Competition . Top carvers from around New England will return for the 14th annual Great Ice Carvers of New England invitational ice carving competition at The Wentworth Hotel in Jackson at 10 a.m. For more information call 383-9700 or e-mail kathleen@thewentworth.com

Come join us for the 2009 Ice Fest! We promise a fun-filled weekend of ice bashing, climbing & rescue clinics for all skill levels, gear demo programs, celebrity slideshows, and apres climb parties.

All climbers are welcome to attend, regardless of ability. Sign up for a skills clinic or a guided climb! Already an expert? Check out some new gear at our demo booths! Our sponsors will be on hand with huge inventories for you to demo during the weekend.

The Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival is one of the premier climbing events in the country. Join us as we celebrate the adventure, the fun, and the comradery of ice climbing and winter mountaineering, here in one of the finest waterfall ice climbing destinations in North America.