Vintage Photo Emerges Of Legendary Skier Alf Engen Riding One Of World's First Chairlifts
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The commercial ski industry was forever changed when Union Pacific Railroad engineer Jim Curran built the world's first chairlifts at Sun Valley Resort, Idaho in 1936.
The photo below shows iconic ski jumper Alf Engen riding Sun Valley's Proctor Chairlift in the early days of the resort. The Proctor Chairlift, along with the chair built on Dollar Mountain, were the first two chairlifts ever constructed.
Notice how the chair didn't have a back:
Alf Engen Ski Museum: "Throwback Thursday: Here is Alf Engen riding Sun Valley’s Proctor Chairlift. Note the chair had no back and required the skier to hold onto a cable attached to the chair. The Proctor Chairlift, located near the Ruud Mountain ski jumping hill, was among the first constructed in the United States."
For those who need a refresher, Alf Engen was a legendary Norwegian-American skier that left a permanent mark on the sport of skiing.
He was known for being an accomplished ski jumper, and is credited with developing an early technique for skiing powder.
Engen found his home on the slopes of Alta Ski Area, Utah after moving to Salt Lake City in 1931. He created the Alf Engen Ski School at Alta that is still open to this day.
The Proctor Chairlift is no longer standing at Sun Valley, but the world's third chairlift built on nearby Ruud Mountain still stands to this day.
A few of the chairs have been stolen over the years, and while it doesn't actually run anymore, it still looks very similar to how it did when it opened for skiers in the late-1930s.
Sun Valley wasn't technically the first ski resort in the world, but its importance in the development of the modern ski resort is undeniable.
Read the excerpt from the Union Pacific Railroad about how Jim Curran invented the lift, and how it revolutionized the ski industry:
"Today, Union Pacific only ships freight (just about everything with the exception of people, pets and other living things). But back in the day, the company provided premiere passenger rail service. Naturally, Union Pacific passenger trains brought skiers from across the country to Sun Valley. The next logical step? Find a better way to transport them to the top of the slopes.
Nearly 1,200 miles away at Union Pacific’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, members of the company’s engineering department took up the task of designing ways to transport skiers up the slopes. Several mechanical engineers looked to adapt rope tows, J-bars and cable cars. One young engineer, Jim Curran, had a different idea.
The inspiration for his idea, which would later be known as the chairlift, came from a system originally used to load bunches of bananas onto boats. Curran’s design replaced the hooks on which bananas hung with chairs on which people could sit while being transported up the mountain, even while wearing skis. The chairs would be suspended from a single cable running above the chair.
In December of 1936, Union Pacific opened Sun Valley Resort. With the opening, the railroad also put the world’s very first chair lifts into operation. The lifts took a little getting used to, but soon skiers adapted and the lifts changed the sport of snow skiing forever.
Union Pacific sold Sun Valley on November 15, 1964. But the invention the resort spawned lives on."
The modern chairlift still reigns as the most popular medium of uphill transportation being utilized by ski resorts across the world.
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