Pioneers of Freestyle, Snowboarding & Heli-Skiing (28 min)

Explains and shows how in the 1960s and 1970s, due in large part to the leadership of the Austrian ski school director Emo Henrich, Stratton, Vermont, became home to numerous top-flight skiers and a birthplace of freestyle skiing and snowboarding, as pioneers of freestyle skiing, like Austrians Hermann Goellner and Stefan Schernthaner, and later Jake Burton of snowboarding fame, resided and worked at Stratton. The Stratton story is told in large part by Ann and Emo Henrich, and Stefan Schernthaner. The Stratton story is followed by an explanation of how and why the Austrians Hans Gmoser, founder of Canadian Mountain Holidays, and Mike Wiegle, founder and leader of Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing, pioneered heli-skiing in the Canadian Rockies. This part chronicles their stories in large part in their own words. And lastly, this story ends with a explanation and summation of Austria’s large, continual influence on the world of skiing, as well as a forecast for the future of skiing from three key Austrian ski pioneers, i.e. Werner Woerndle, former Austrian Ski Team Coach and director of Ski Academy Austria in St. Christoph am Arlberg, as well as Hans Gmoser, and Mike Wiegele.

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