STORY AND PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOHN W. LUNDIN

After Christmas 1938, a Chinook wind melted the little snow Sun Valley had that year, and Friedl Pfeifer suggested moving skiing north from Sun Valley Resort to Baker Creek.

Harriman brought buses from Union Pacific’s operations at the Grand Canyon to Sun Valley. They were loaded with sandwiches, steaks for cooking over the fire and drinks “and everything else,” and took the guests to Baker Creek where there was good skiing.

A circus tent was set up to serve hot food on the lodge’s fine china, and an accordion player added entertainment. It was a big party with everything on the house.

This shows the ascent of Silver Peak above Owl Creek Cabin.

Snow finally came on Jan. 16, 1939. Harriman told Union Pacific’s president that the Forest Service wanted Baker Creek to be developed for early and late season skiing, but he disagreed. Baker Creek had more snow than Sun Valley but its slopes faced southeast and its snow was subject to crusting.

“We may find, however, that it is desirable to have Baker Creek as an additional string to our bow in the event we have still different conditions that we found this year,” he said.

Kathleen Harriman said in Sun Valley’s early days, on Fridays, skiers were taken north to Galena Summit, where they skied down in deep power snow. Pearl Barber and her husband acquired the Galena Store (now the Galena Lodge) in 1924, operated it together until he died in 1944, and she operated it by herself until 1960.

Barber described how, when the resort did not have enough snow in the early season, Sun Valley took skiers to the Galena store, since it was 2,000 feet higher and got more snow. Sun Valley also held ski contests at Galena, including a spring cross-country race from Spring Creek to Gladiator Creek.

Andy Hennig took skiers from Galena Summit to Owl Creek Cabin with Galena Peak and the Boulder Range as a backdrop.

The resort rented one of the Barber’s large cabins as a changing room for the contestants and set up a Big Top circus tent to serve food and provide shelter. A large cabin adjoining the store was used for a buffet, with chairs and tables outside.

Another time, Galena was used for Sun Valley’s Christmas celebration, and it was called “a Winter Wonderland.” The resort went to a lot of trouble and expense to make the affair one to remember. The Big Top tent was pitched at Horse Creek to serve meals, and charcoal burners provided heat.

Musicians played guitars and accordions. Skiers were taken to Galena Summit in station wagons or snowcats, with Jeeps bringing up the skis. They skied downhill or cross-country skied, building up big appetites for the holiday meal. Afterwards, the Barbers installed a rope tow on the slope south of the store, where it ran for two winters, charging 25 cents per hour.

In  August 1938, Harriman told the resort’s manager there had been a demand for overnight huts for ski tourers and that Dick Durrance and Konrad Schauffler would select possible locations where they could be built for the following winter. In September a Special Use Permit was issued by the Forest Service to Union Pacific for a backcountry ski cabin.

Dick Durrance wins one of the first Harriman Cup races back when it was held on Durrance Peak near SNRA Headquarters. Today that area is a popular backcountry destination.

It covered a quarter acre on the head of Corral Creek between the left fork of Hyndman Creek and the right fork of Corral Creek “for use of ski parties as overnight shelter and stopping place.”

That fall Sun Valley built Pioneer Cabin, eight miles northeast of Sun Valley at 9,500 feet elevation facing Mount Hyndman. The “cozy and comfortable cabin” had a room with bunk beds that could sleep six, and another room for Sun Valley personnel.

There were Pullman mattresses and Pullman curtains for privacy. Sleeping bags were provided and guides brought fresh liners each trip. The main part of the cabin had a cook stove and a table on both sides.

Ski instructors guided parties into the cabin, arranging transportation and supplies. Sun Valley chefs often went on trips to cook gourmet meals with wine with ski patrolmen transporting food and equipment.

Florian Haemmerle, who led ski guests to Pioneer Cabin, lays it down.

Guests were pampered, skiing in the morning and napping in the afternoon. To get there they rode six miles in a Sno-cat up the winter-bound road from Sun Valley to the Sawmill Cabin. Then they had a challenging five-mile trek into Pioneer Cabin, taking 2.5 to 4 hours, gaining 2,400 vertical feet up a zigzag horse trail that led across a roaring mountain stream through a forest into brilliant sunshine above tree line.

There were several runs for intermediate skiers and seasoned ski mountaineers around Pioneer Cabin, including Duncan Peak, Hyndman Basin, Salzburger Spitzl, Handwerk Peak and Goat Mountain.

It reminded ski instructor Florian Haemmerle of the little ski huts in the Alps: “The cabin is surrounded by wonderful, high alpine skiing country and by many unnamed peaks. The cabin’s threshold opens out upon a great glaciated amphitheater, deeply gouged barren, dusted over with snow, and dominated by Goat Mountain and the spectacular battlements of Mount Hyndman.”

When it got too dark to ski, the guests returned to the cabin where Florian greeted them with mugs of hot tea and cooked a dinner of steak and onions. At night, they skied under a full moon.

Dorice and Phez Taylor made their first trip to Pioneer Cabin in1939 with Averell’s wife Mary and two Princeton students. Averell Harriman told Dorice, “Don’t let anyone hurry you. Set your own pace and you’ll get there easily.”

They had bear trap bindings on their skis with cables that released and used sealskins for climbing. A bottle of rum made the trip accommodating. They ate bacon and eggs that Haemmerle carried and cooked, and dehydrated soup stored at the cabin.

Pioneer Cabin was expanded in summer 1939 to accommodate parties of 10 in response to the number of skiers who went there its first season. Pack trains carried up enough equipment to double the size of the original cabin, bringing more sleeping bags, a new stove, a large stock of non-perishable foods and new batteries for the radio.

When the Taylors returned to the cabin in 1940, it had been enlarged to two rooms and was “very comfortably outfitted” with a cook provided by Sun Valley.

In 1940, Sun Valley built its second backcountry facility--Owl Creek Cabin. The ski school arranged excursions taking skiers by car 18 miles north to Owl Creek, which was three miles south of Galena Store. They traveled on skis four miles west to the head of Owl Creek Canyon below the spiraling dominance of Silver Peak, the highest in the Smokey Mountains.

The cozy 40-by-60-foot cabin built of stones and logs slept 16 and was similar to Pioneer Cabin but more accessible. There was a large kitchen and dining room at one end with a large window looking at Silver Peak. A pipeline ran from a spring 100 feet above the cabin.

It was located in the heart of the primitive Galena Summit region on the fork of picturesque Owl Creek in the heart of some of the wildest, most scenic mountain country in America and at 8,000 feet had good skiing from October to June.

A skier who had been to many ski huts in Europe wrote in the Feb. 6, 1942, Valley Sun: “If there is any more lovely setting than Owl Creek, I haven’t heard of it...You find yourself in a lovely peaceful glade besides a running brook with giant fir trees--old, old trees hovering protectively over you, giving the whole place a kind of warmth and spring-in-winter bloom. There are wonderful runs in every direction with long open slopes that stretch west and southwest and northwest up to high summits. And food I cooked by a guide whose stories are as good as his steaks.”

Sun Valley guests Mr. and Mrs. William G. Brumder described a trip to Owl Creek Cabin by a  more challenging route. They left Sun Valley in the dark with Andy Hennig, and drove to Galena Summit. From there, on skis, they traveled the ridges that led west from the summit, a route that had not been tried before, ignoring Forest Service warnings that “it’s too steep even for sheep to travel up there.” The sun rose an hour into their climb, and the trip was surprisingly uneventful, although avalanche threats led them to travel well apart, holding to the high ridges.

They toured up and down ridges, across saddles, and along the rugged, rocky-topped Boulder Range to the west, with Silver Peak dominating the view. Before noon, they arrived at an overhanging drift on top the narrow north ridge above Owl Creek Cabin, which could not be seen. They dropped off the cornice and descended to the cabin.

The trip was about 10 miles, the climbing was gradual, and the descents not too steep. The Brumders made three trips into Pioneer Cabin before and after World War II. They even encouraged Sun Valley to build a chain of five or six cabins joining the Pioneer Range to Galena through the Boulder Range for winter skiing and summer horseback trips.

During the war, Sun Valley was used by the Navy as a rehabilitation hospital. When the resort reopened in December 1946, the American Ski Annual said backcountry skiing would be an important part of the resort’s activities. But by now lift skiing was available on Bald Mountain.

In 1947, Averell Harriman asked Andy Hennig, a former rock climber and mountaineer in the Alps, to write a book about skiing at Sun Valley. Hennig wrote “Sun Valley Ski Guide,” published by Union Pacific in 1948, describing skiing on lift-served mountains (Ruud, Proctor, Dollar, and Baldy), with a 32-page section on Spring and Summer Skiing and Ski Touring.

“While skiing is over in April for the average skier, there is excellent skiing through April, May, June and sometimes into the middle of July,” Hennig wrote.

Trips were available using Sun Valley Ski instructors and the Sun Valley Touring Ski School led by Haemmerle and Hennig, both 10th Mountain Division veterans, and Victor Gottschalk, who made many first ascents of local mountains.

Hennig gave detailed descriptions of numerous ski trips around Galena, which he described as “gateway to an immense and most beautiful skiing country with wild, undeveloped skiing terrain.” The Galena run went from the summit down to the Galena Store; a variation went from a no-name peak just south of the summit.

Galena Peak, the “most outstanding alpine ski trip in the Galena area,” was the only hill offering a continuous drop of nearly 4,000 feet. Or, an advanced six-mile route from Galena Summit took four hours, offering a breathtaking view into Stanley Basin with a vertical drop down Bromaghin Peak to the cabin.

In late spring, jeeps could reach the cabin with a cook is available to provide skiers with good meals. A tour from the cabin to Silver Peak was available for advanced skiers, using a Ski School guide. The 2.5-mile climb from the cabin took three hours, providing far-reaching and mostly unexplored mountain regions to the north and west with several routes back to the cabin. Good skiing was also available on Bromighan Peak.

Galena Peak had three ridges, the middle one offering the natural line of descent. Durrance Mountain near SNRA headquarters was another option for advanced skiers.

In spring 1947, Andy Hennig explored an old mining settlement in Boulder Basin north of Ketchum that had good snow into spring and summer. Harriman directed the resort to promote skiing there, and Boulder Basin became Sun Valley’s newly discovered spring skiing area with some of the “grandest scenic beauty in all the West.”

It was 18 miles by Jeep from Sun Valley via a wagon trail used by the abandoned Golden Glow Mine. Guests could leave Sun Valley after breakfast, ski and lunch at Boulder and be back in time for tennis or golf.

The snow was too deep there in winter, but ski spring started at the end of March. Boulder Basin was a natural snow basin surrounded by high peaks and ridges where snow lasted longer than anywhere else around Sun Valley.

During April beginner ski classes were held on the gentle slopes of Baker’s Creek and advanced classes were on the vast snow-fields of Galena. When snow in the lower areas receded, ski classes moved up to Boulder Basin where skiing was good until July with runs for novices and intermediate skiers and five huge bowls for experts. Expert ski mountaineers with Ski School guides could even climb the 10,966-foot Boulder Peak.

Over July Fourth in 1947, the Firecracker Slalom Derby was held in Boulder Basin. A lake there was used for summer sports, and the area became popular for picnics, hiking and rock climbing.

The Shah of Iran was one of the many high-profile visitors to visit Sun Valley, inspired by “Sun Valley Serenade” to come ski with Otto Lang, who directed the movie’s ski scenes.  The resort did not have enough snow when the Shah came in December 1947, but there was good snow in Boulder Basin

A resort crew fixed up an abandoned mining cabin and hauled in supplies on a Sno-Cat, including a wine-colored carpet and a wood burning stove. Workers built two new outhouses, and created a comfortable site.

The Shah was taken up the hills in a Sno-Cat, where he skied with Lang. Food was brought from Sun Valley in Thermos food containers. The Shah had such a good time that on his next trip he brought an entourage of 50.

Unfortunately, in the winter of 1952, there was a huge amount of snowfall in the Wood River Valley, leading to avalanches in nearby mountains. An avalanche on Bromaghin Peak destroyed Owl Creek Cabin, which was not rebuilt, ending formal backcountry skiing at the resort.

Its timbers were taken to Baldy to build a new warming hut. The backcountry part of the Sun Valley Ski School ended, and Hennig and Haemmerle joined the Alpine ski school.

But many of the same backcountry ski routes that were laid out by Charles Proctor and John E.P. Morgan in the 1930s are still used today as this form of skiing have become more and more popular.

Editor’s Note: John W. Lundin has authored several history books on skiing, including “Skiing Sun Valley: From the Union Pacific to the Holdings.”