From Austria to New Hampshire

The classic Austrian ski village of St. Anton am Arlberg, lying deep in the majestic Tyrolean Alps, shares a most unlikely bond with a much smaller New England ski town: North Conway, New Hampshire. 

Alps & Meters' hometown paper, The Boston Globe, published an article this week profiling the connection between these ski towns and the man who made it all happen...

Statues in both St. Anton am Arlberg and North Conway, NH immortalize Johann "Hannes" Schneider, a legendary ski instructor and member of the US Ski Hall of Fame. The two ski towns share an unlikely bond thanks to Hannes.

Hannes was one of the original founders of the Ski Club Arlberg, the first ski club in the world, and also started the Skischule Arlberg, the ski school that started teaching the famous Arlberg technique  - which he brought to the US when he ended up at Cranmore Mountain. If you've learned to ski in the US, you almost certainly were taught the Arlberg technique, which gradually works skiers up from snowplow to carving turns.

Hannes appeared in a number of early ski movies in the 1920s and 30s, and was crowned "Europe's fastest skier". He had previously been an instructor for the Austrian army during World War I.

Hannes touring in his native Austria. Following the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938, Hannes was jailed for repeatedly violating Nazi policies and was forced to flee, settling in North Conway, NH.

At Cranmore Mountain in 1939. Hannes immediately set up a new ski school to continue teaching upon arrival in New Hampshire. In the 1940s during World War II, he helped train solders in the 10th Mountain Division, including his son Herbert, who was a member of the 10th.