Vibe-Winter-2425 - Flipbook - Page 48
Sue Wemyss @Great Glen Trails
Sue Wemyss’ first love was alpine skiing and racing. But competing during her sophomore year at Middlebury College, she
burned out, and the next season she switched to cross-country.
“I loved it immediately,” Wemyss said, “the physical challenge of it, the feeling of generating my own power, the feeling
of gliding across the snow.”
You might say she did pretty well in her adopted sport.
As a member of the U.S. Ski Team, Wemyss raced internationally for four years, including the 1984 Olympics, the 1985
World Championships, and the World Cup series from 1983
through 1986. She then coached in Oregon and Idaho, and
“The kids didn’t care,” Wemyss said.
“They just kept going up and down,
needing no encouragement. …
They didn’t seem to care if anyone
saw them fall, they just got up
and tried again.”
taught in Colorado, Maine, and New Hampshire. And, fortunately for skiers in this neck of the woods, that most recently
included a 23-year stint at Great Glen.
Her bio at Great Glen describes her tenure this way: “Sue
loved working with skiers of all abilities, from first timers to the
advanced and expert racers. She had a particular soft spot for
working with elementary-aged skiers, with whom she shared
her playfulness and love of the sport.”
Wemyss recalls helping with the K-2 ski program at the Ed
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Fenn Elementary School in Gorham, where the kids skied on
the playground. The youngsters always headed for a small hill
on the side of the playground, eager to try it themselves after
Wemyss demonstrated how to herringbone up and ski down.
The kids struggled up the hill and most fell on the way down.
“They didn’t care,” Wemyss said. “They just kept going up
and down, needing no encouragement. … They didn’t seem to
care if anyone saw them fall, they just got up and tried again.
It was in this scenario that I thought to myself, these are the
perfect students, with the perfect motivation for skiing: nonjudgmental, having fun!”
Wemyss and other women cross-country Olympians have
shared their stories in a book, Trail to Gold, profits from which
benefit the development of women cross-country coaches.
John Macdonald @King Pine
John Macdonald grew up in the Midwest; he remembers watching ski racing on Wide World of Sports. So “teaching skiing and
becoming a decent skier seemed like a great idea after college,”
he said.
Macdonald began skiing at King Pine’s Christmas ski camp
in 1972. In the winter of 1979, he began teaching at the resort’s
ski school. He has served as technical and training director and
is a coach for the King Pine Ski Team.
“I’m not sorry I got sucked into the ski instructor vortex,” he
said. “There were a lot of us who started back then who are still
doing the ski school/race team thing.”
Macdonald is beginning his 46th year as a transplant from
the Midwest, but his family has history in the area. His grandmother and great aunts played parlor music in the 1920s at the
Sunset Inn (on the site of the Eastern Slope Inn), and his father
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