Ski jumping great, ex-Snow Valley owner Elvrum dies at 97

Ski jumping great, ex-Snow Valley owner Elvrum dies at 97{mosimage}U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame member John Elvrum, who was born in Norway but held the U.S. ski jumping distance record for three years, died July 4.

Elvrum, who also owned Snow Valley Ski Area in California’s San Bernardino Mountains for three decades, was 97.

Born in Trondheim, Norway, Elvrum came to this country in 1929 and became a ski instructor. In 1934, he set the U.S. ski jumping mark of 240 feet, a record he held until broken in 1937 (at 242 feet) by the legendary Alf Engen. Coincidentally, also in ’37, Engen’s brother Sverre took over as manager of a small ski area called Fish Camp and built a small lodge, opening the area to food concessions and ski rentals.

However, a year later, in 1938, Arrowhead Springs Hotel bought the area, but subsquently went bankrupt. The area had opened outside Los Angeles in 1924; he bought it at auction for $5,000, changed the name to Snow Valley and started its rebirth.

World War II intervened and Elvrum fought in Italy with the 10th Mountain Division — the so-called Ski Troops. After the war, he returned to his ski area and began expanding, adding more than a dozen lifts and rope tows and a snowmaking system that helped make it one of the most popular areas in southern California.

In 1968, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan, a glittering class that included Julius Blegen, longtime official for the then-U.S. Ski Association and for whom the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s highest honor is named; Roland Palmedo, the Williams College alumnus who owned Vermont’s Stowe ski area and then Mad River Glen; Dartmouth College grad and former racer Sel Hannah, who co-founded Sno-Engineering Inc., and helped design hundreds of American ski areas; and alpine racing innovator Sir Arnold Lunn. In 1971, Elvrum sold Snow Valley to a group of investors.

A nephew said Elvrum, whose wife died in 1999, died in an assisted-living facility of complications from old age; he is survived by a sister and his nephew. Services were pending.

— USSA