www.hochgebirge.org

75 years of going downhill fast — very fast

SCH Emblem

The logo of the Ski Club Hochgebirge is a round button that was originally designed back in the 1930s.

The emblem features a skier on his way off of what appears to be a cliff.

However to an expert skier with local knowledge, this could, in fact, be an outstanding skiing trail.

In the back ground there is a range of high mountains. The German expression for a high mountains is "hochgebirge." Thus, we derive the name of our club and the design of our emblem and logo.

In the Alps and throughout most of Europe, hochgebirges include peaks, ridges, and mountain ranges with base elevations of at least 1,600 meters. Summits above this base elevation are normally covered with snow and glaciers. The pitches are the steepest, and the snows are the deepest.

Since the founding of the Ski Club Hochgebirge in 1930, members have been drawn to the mountains, trails and skiable pitches on hundreds of high mountains in the United States, Canada, the Alps, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand — in fact, pretty much anywhere there is even a remote chance of their being good skiing and a good time to be had by all.

Seminal Eastern Clubs

SCH is one of three ski clubs that were formed in the Boston area during the 1930s., primarily by Harvard men. The other seminal Eastern ski clubs are the Schusverein and the Drifters. While ultimately civil and sportsman like, the rivalry among the male and female breeding stock of these most venerable organizations has been as fierce as any in sport.

Brief History

Founded in 1930, the Ski Club Hochgebirge is one of the oldest ski clubs in North America and the world. In the years before World War II, founders and early members of SCH played a fundamentally important role in introducing and establishing the sport of alpine skiing and downhill ski racing in the United States. For example, one project during the 1930s involved construction of the first aerial tramway in the United States at Cannon Mt., NH. This is one reason why Cannon Mt. has always been the spiritual home and Mother Church of the Ski Club Hochgebirge.

In 1931, Members of SCH participated in the first downhill ski race ever held in the United States. This race was held on Mt. Mooselaukie in New Hampshire. It was a single, top-to-bottom run. The race began with a mass start at the top of the mountain. In this classic, skiers used long wooden skis with primitive bindings and crude lace-up boots. There were few, if any, rules. Racers were able to ski pretty much any line they chose, including through trees, over streambeds and stone walls. In other words, going wherever, through, under, around, and over whatever it took to get to the finish line ahead of the other guy. The finish line was marked with a banner that consisted of a checkered table cloth. Timing did not matter, for results were based on order of finish. For obvious reasons, a wild and crazy race like this first one was very dangerous. But, hat did not deter the pioneering ski racers of that golden and heroic era.

During World War II, members of SCH helped form and served in the famous 10th Mountain Division, a division that fought some of the most difficult battles of WW II and which played a key role in the libration of Italy.

The list of current and past members of SCH includes a large number of famous names in U.S. alpine ski racing. For example, members of SCH can be found in the U.S. Skiing Hall of Fame; the U.S. Ski Team; U.S. Olympic and World Alpine Championship teams, U.S.A. national champions.; NCAA Division I national championship teams; NCAA Division I, II and III All Americas, FIS World Junior champions; USSA Junior Olympic champions; USSA alpine Masters national champions, and FIS alpine Masters champions.

Sons, daughters, and grandchildren of SCH members have also been members of the U.S. alpine, nordic, and alpine Snowboarding teams. In 2006, SCH has a significant number of men and women members who compete regularly in USSA Masters ski races at both the eastern regional and national levels.

Members of SCH are well known for their diversity of personal and professional interests, and their recreational activities, which include blue water cruising and off shore sailboat racing, hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, road cycling, mountain biking, windsurfing, and virtually any other kind of human endeavor that is interesting and challenging.

During professional careers and later in their lives, current and former members of SCH also have made important financial and pro bono service contributions to institutions including Harvard University, affiliated teaching hospitals of the Harvard Medical School, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Medical Center, and so on. Some also have had the temerity to enter politics. The late Francis Sargent was as a very popular and successful Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Finally, as the history, nature, and traditions of this unique organization would suggest, the Ski Club Hochgebirge has always been composed of very colorful personalities for whom God probably only made only one prototype mold. Members of SCH have always been well known for having quick, sparkling wits; refined, self-deprecating senses of humor, and built in you-know-what detectors with a hair trigger.

75th Anniversary SCH Challenge Cup

The Ski Club Hochgebirge Challenge Cup is the oldest continuously held alpine ski race in North America. The race was first run in 1931. It has been an annual event ever since. While individual awards are given to the fastest man and woman, the SCH Challenge Cup has always been a team-based event that is unique in U.S. alpine ski racing.

On February 25, 2006, the 75th running of the SCH Challenge Cup will take place at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire. For the past 50 years, Cannon Mountain has been the home hill of the SCH.

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