Scottish Ski Site Wins International Skiing History Association Award

Scotland-based ski site DrySlopeNews.com has won a major award in this year’s selection of winners from the American-based International Skiing History Association (ISHA).

The independent organisation’s annual awards recognise "outstanding creative work in ski history" and the 17 winners come from around the globe with winners in different categories coming from Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia and Sweden as well as Scotland and the US.

DrySlopeNews.com was set up in 2019 by long-time ski journalist Patrick Thorne and his son Robert Thorne to try to collect information on the history of dry ski slopes, the roots of which go back around 100 years, and publish news of new developments, with ever bigger, longer slopes still being built. The new longest in the world at more than 1100 metres opened in Russia in December.

Since 2003 has published a monthly news digest of stories from dry slopes and indoor snow centres (the latter covered by sister site http://www.indoorsnownews.com), producing more than 1,000 dry slope and indoor snow news stories over the intervening years.

He has also compiled The World Dry Ski Slope Guide, a directory of leading dry slopes at countries around the world and the companies which supply their surfaces, which is available for purchase.

Along with details of hundreds of slopes open in dozens of countries around the world, news of new slopes, and details of all the different types of slopes there are, DrySlopeNews.com contains a directory of former slopes and a timeline of the history of dry slopes.

“I’m very honoured that my work collecting information on dry ski slopes around the world over the past 35 years, the results now collected within DrySlopeNews.com has been recognised by the International Skiing History Association,” said Patrick Thorne, adding,“A lot of skiers and snowboarders have a love/hate relationship with dry ski slopes, but for those who are not fans I would urge them to consider the tens of millions of people who got in to winter sports over the past 50 or 60 years because of them, helping with the development of regular snow ski areas around the world too. Among their many benefits, dry slopes allow people who wouldn’t think of spending a lot of money to make a trip to ski at a resort the opportunity to do so closer to home and at a very small cost, to find out whether they love skiing or not. I am one of those people.”

First established in 1993, the ISHA awards are presented each year for work that preserves and advances the understanding of skiing's colourful history worldwide. The ISHA awards acknowledge published or formally completed books, papers, films, websites and other media.

This year’s awards will be presented March 26, 2020 at the historic Sun Valley Inn, Sun Valley, Idaho,at ISHA's annual awards banquet. The event is held during Skiing History Week, March 25-29, in conjunction with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony and a host of special events.