Wednesday, November 14, 2018

BLAST FROM THE PAST: jackrabbit johannsen

Herman-Smith Johannsen lived for 112 years and passed away on January 5, 1987. He had, perhaps, the largest impact on bringing skiing and a nordic ski culture to Lake Placid.

At the age of 56 in 1932 when Lake Placid hosted the Olympics he led some of the best skiers in the world on a "little" one-dat tour from the Adirondack Loj, through Indian Pass, to Tahawus, back to Lake Colden, up and over Marcy, and back to the Adirondack Loj. At 72 in one of the very first Stowe Derby races he finished third.

In the late 1970s, during the post race ceremony of the Canadian Ski Marathon, at the age of 100, he gave out some of the awards for the gold medal "coureur de bois,"
waving his cane and saying "skiing is a life-long sport." Then again, at the age of 105, I remember that he brought a huge crowd to their feet when he was introduced at the Birkebeiner in Wisconsin.

What a seminal figure in the history of hiking and skiing in the East!