Franconia (11:46)

Explains and shows how and why Austrians played an instrumental role in developing the Franconia area into a destination ski resort. First at Peckett’s on Sugar Hill, a high society resort hotel of the 1920s and 30s, they led the hotel’s ski school – the first resort ski school in the Americas; and, later they ran and staffed the ski schools of nearby Mittersill and Cannon Mountain ski areas. Mittersill was developed in the 1940s by the Austrian Baron Hubert von Pantz, who was the first in the Americas to pioneer real estate development, in the form of an Austrian alpine style hotel and chalets, as part of ski area development. Meanwhile, Cannon Mt. became a New Hampshire state entity, site of the Americas first tramway and the Franconia Ski Club, as well as home to the Austrian-Swiss duo of Paula and Paul Valar, who for years ran and developed the Mittersill and Cannon Mtn ski schools. Otto Lang, one of the Austrian instructors at Peckett’s, and Paul Valar, former Cannon Mtn. ski school director, as well as a founder and the first technical director of the Professional Ski Instructors of America, help tell this Franconia story.