Cool old skis (photos)

The Mountaineers recently received a donation of some ski gear owned by Anne Margaret ("Nancy") Goodfellow. The equipment dates from the 1930s and was donated by her son, Bill Walker. This gear is in better condition than anything we had (most Mountaineer artifacts were donated to the Washington State Historical Society in 1998) so I thought I would share a few pictures. It's exciting to preserve such a fine set of old gear.



The skis are wood, edgeless, and about 195cm in length. The dimensions in millimeters are about 90-73-82 (very little sidecut). The skis have the distinctive "nipple" tip that was common before about 1940. They have Anderson & Thompson bindings with intact leather harnesses and side-throw buckles.

One of the most interesting things about these skis is that they have a mortise (slot) cut through the ski for an older style binding, but the mortise has been filled with a wood plug. See the thumbnail at left, above. (Click to enlarge.) The skis also have a pair of canvas climbing socks in excellent condition. You can see the climbing socks in the thumbnail at right, above.

The donation also included a pair of 132cm bamboo ski poles, shown in the photo below. In my experience, such a complete and well preserved set of gear from the 1930s is rare. It's cool to see how they did it in the old days!

Nice score Lowell! I snagged a very similar (almost exactly minus the black material..) pair years ago from a local mt. shop here in Bend that was quiting business. Should have bought the poles too..darn it... :

that is a cool find.

That nipple tip is always interesting. They have a pair of the nipple tip skis right outside the Warthog Barbecue place at the entrance in Fife. Great food, but interesting place for those skis.

I'm a semi regular at Warthog and I marvel at those skis when I go in there. especially the one one with the pull ropes . On a side note we've traveled to Japan freqently over the years and have seen lots of old ski gear there. Our Japanese family run a ski hotel (Ryoken) in Myoko. On one visit 10 yrs ago I presented my Japanese Grandmother with pics of backcountry skiing in Washington. She imediately brought out the proverbial old shoe box of skiing pics. including Geshias on skis and her as a young child on skis being towed back up the mountain by her father on a horse.

Those are some great ski's! Most of my vintage ski setups have the spring bindings, or single leather strap that goes over the boot. The poles seem like the hardest thing to find as I have many more vintage ski's then I do poles. Thanks for the post!