Hannes Schroll & Sugar Bowl
The photograph shows Hannes Schroll as he appeared in Vogue in 1941.
Conde Nast Collection/ Getty Images
Hannes Schroll (1909-1985) was an Austrian ski champion and a foundational figure in the California ski industry. Together with a group of investors, including Walt Disney, he built the Sugar Bowl ski resort in the Lake Tahoe area, which opened on December 15, 1939, as one of the oldest resorts in California.
It was the first ski area in California to install a chairlift, (the Disney Lift) and the first on the West Coast to have a gondola and it serves as another prime example of the illustrious connection between Austrian ski culture, Hollywood and entrepreneurship. Schroll was a close personal friend of Walt Disney, whom he met while teaching skiing at Yosemite's Badger Pass, and Disney was an early stockholder in Sugar Bowl, providing $2,500 to help open the resort. To honor this support, Schroll renamed "Hemlock Peak" to Mount Disney. An expert yodeler, Schroll recorded the iconic "Yaaa-Hoo-Hoo-Hoooey!" yell for the 1941 Disney cartoon The Art of Skiing.
When Schroll first arrived in the United States to compete in the 1935 U.S. National Downhill Championships at Mt. Rainier, attended by thousands, he did not speak any English and won both the U.S. National Downhill and Slalom open combined category. He was hired on the spot to be become the new ski school director in Yosemite at Badger Pass. Due to Schroll’s popularity, the number of skiers there doubled within a year.
The Sugar Bowl Lodge shortly after it was built in 1939.
Sugar Bowl Resort/ Wikimedia CC BY 2.0
Hannes Schroll on his way to the United States on board the Saturnia, coming from Trieste, Italy.
Sugar Bowl Resort/ Hannensan