BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Community Library has revealed the four local winter sports legends who will be inducted into the 2025 Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame Class.

The inductees are Janet Kellam, an early advocate for Nordic skiing in the Wood River Valley; longtime Sun Valley ski instructor Julie Webb; Ed Scott, the inventor of the modern ski pole, and ice hockey afficionado George Gund III.

The inductees will be honored at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at Ketchum’s Community Library. A reception will follow at 7 p.m. that night at the Wood River Museum of History + Culture, kitty-corner from the library.

Janet Kellam helped pioneer avalanche forecasting in the Sun Valley area, even getting trapped in at least one avalanche herself while out on a scouting trip.

Inductees were selected for excellence in their winter sports niche and for their work nurturing new generations to achieve great heights. They were nominated by members of the community with the inductees selected from those nominations by the Library’s Regional History Board Committee.

The inductees:

JANET KELLAM

Janet Kellam grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., where she spent her youth skiing in the Adirondacks and Vermont. She raced in both alpine and Nordic competitions for nationally-ranked Middlebury College and even competed in the Lake Placid Pre-Olympics.

George Gund III championed semi-pro ice hockey in Sun Valley.

She then shifted her focus westwards to Sun Valley where she had worked summer jobs in the White Clouds and Sawtooth Mountains.

Here she pioneered women’s roles in outdoor recreation, serving as a Nordic coach and competitor, backcountry guide and outfitter, heli-ski guide and concessionaire at the Galena Lodge.

A three-pin backcountry skier and mountaineer, she helped develop the Sawtooth Avalanche Center, going on to serve as forecaster and director. In 2023 she received the American Avalanche Association’s prestigious Bernie Kingery Award for her contributions as an avalanche professional.

She also was a key leader founding the Stanley-based Sawtooth Ski Club.

Edward “Scotty” Scott revolutionized skiing with his aluminum poles, plastic boots and other inventions.

JULI WEBB

Julie Webb celebrated her 60th year as a ski instructor fof the Sun Valley Ski School last winter. Growing up in the Seattle area, she joined her family on ski trips to Sun Valley where they helped boot pack the snow with the ski patrol before grooming by pisten bully became commonplace.

Her brothers eventually became Sun Valley ski patrollers and Webb followed her sister to the Sun Valley Ski School where she found work as an instructor under the legendary Director Sigi Engl.

One of just five female ski instructors at the time, she has now served under six ski school directors.

Juli Webb, left, can always be counted on to add color to an event—in this case, a vintage fashion show during a Skiing Heritage Week several years ago.

She broke the gender barrier while working under Engl by being the first woman to ski in the Christmas Eve torchlight run down Dollar Mountain. Women were not permitted to ski in the torchlight parade. But Webb snuck in, stuffing her hair up under a cap. And, once she was atop Dollar Mountain, Engl couldn’t say no.

She began giving private lessons at a time when to do so was taboo for women. And she fought for equal pay for female instructors. Engl also appointed her to start an Ambassador’s program, which is now known as Guest Services and the Yellow Jackets.

Webb has been inducted into the Northwest Ski Museum Hall of Fame.

EDWARD “SCOTTY” SCOTT

Ed Scott kicked off his love affair with Sun Valley as a bus boy in the Sun Valley Employees Cafeteria, spending his first winter in Sun Valley with Warren Miller in Miller’s trailer in the Sun Valley parking lot. He went on to found an international famous sports equipment company.

He started his own repair shop after a dispute with Pete Lane, whom he had worked for as a ski tech. He started Scotty’s Ski Shop in the building that now houses Ketchum’s Smoky Mountain Pizza, repairing ski poles and other equipment for the likes of Olympic medalist Gretchen Frazer and Jack Reddish.

It was there that he developed the revolutionary aluminum Scott ski pole--a tapered, lightweight, virtually indestructible pole with distinctive molded hand grips and strap and a smaller basket for maneuverability.

He established the Scott USA company in Ketchum in 1959, debuting his ski pole at the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley in California. The pole proved wildly popular with racers, spurring Scott to develop other innovative ski products, including articulated gloves and safer, lighter, non-lacing plastic ski boots that were used by many of the world’s best skiers.

He was inducted into the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1999.

GEORGE GUND III

George Gund III plied his love for ice hockey into nudging Sun Valley Resort Owner Bill Janss and Sun Valley’s Ice Show Director Herman Maricich into building an indoor skating rink next to Sun Valley’s outdoor rink in 1974.

He began playing ice hockey there with Alex Orb, Charlie Holt, Nick Orr, David Knott, Hermie Haavik, Doc Burgett, Kim Salmela, John Heinrich and John Weekes. And, soon after in 1975, he helped found the Sun Valley Suns ice hockey team.

Gund was one of the team’s original players and a benefactor for the team for 20 years. He also supported the Sunsets, the women’s team, which started in 1981.

In addition to bringing in good players and coaches, Gund also volunteered as a coach in the youth ice hockey program, training many players who went on to play with the Suns, Sunsets and on college teams. He also co-owned the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Jose Sharks before passing away in 2013 at the age of 75.

The Winter Snowsports Hall of Fame was founded by the Ketchum Sun Valley Historical Society in 2010. There are 54 inductees, not including the Class of 2025.

Sun Valley is a very impressive winter sports community that has supported an extraordinary group of high achievers, noted Mary Tyson, director of the Center for Regional History.

“I’ve heard so many examples of how people take an interest in and contribute to different winter sports--doing small and big things like consistently being there for their teammates, for teaching, for spreading the love of sport, for driving or flying even!” she said. “The examples go on. I can’t wait for the Induction Ceremony to selfishly get an inspirational fix from this year’s class!”