SPOKANE — A new book outlining the history of Washington’s backcountry skiing scene came to be, in part, because of a slight.
In the late 1990s, a book about classic ski mountaineering adventures throughout the United States described the Northwest as “Wet and Scrappy,” offering little else.
Lowell Skoog, a Washington native and lifelong skier and climber, felt that description didn’t do the Evergreen State justice. While that slight wasn’t the impetus for Skoog’s new book, “Written in the Snows,” it was always in the back of his mind, nudging him toward a more detailed examination of Washington’s backcountry skiing history.
In the early 2000s, as the internet began to take off, Skoog started the Northwest Mountaineering Journal, an online forum that documented ski ascents and traverses throughout the state. Using the journal as a jumping-off point, he researched the history, conducted interviews and slowly picked away at what would eventually become a 336-page book.
“Written in the Snows” was published by Mountaineers Books in October. The book, which has 150 photos, dives into the history of the past century of Northwest ski culture, from stories of wilderness exploration to the evolution of gear and techniques.
“To me, it celebrates the uniqueness of this place we live,” he said. “The Cascades, the Olympics. We have glaciers here. We have peaks that remind folks of the Alps or New Zealand.”
While skiing is very much a leisure sport now, it wasn’t always that way. Skoog writes about pioneer families living deep in the mountains of Washington and the birth of the Tenth Mountain Division on Mount Rainier during World War II. As Skoog said, skiing was also about “getting by in this place out in the middle of nowhere.”
The book starts with Washington skiing in the late 1800s and runs to the present, covering the beginning of ski resorts and competitions, the importance of wild places in the Cascade and Olympic mountains (with a side trip to Oregon’s Mt. Hood), and the friluftsliv, or open-air living spirit, of backcountry skiing.
Skoog addresses how skiing has been shaped by larger social trends, including immigration, the Great Depression, war, economic growth, conservation and the media, according to a news release.
“Mountaineers Books was thrilled to publish ‘Written in the Snows,’ “ said Kate Jay, a publicist for Mountaineers Books. “Lowell’s work perfectly exemplifies the values of the Mountaineers organization in its quest to educate about the varied histories of the Cascades and advocate for its importance and significance to the region and the country at large.”
The book is focused on Western Washington with scant mentions of Eastern Washington’s rich ski culture and history. Nonetheless, it’s a fascinating look into the history of one of the fastest-growing winter sports.
