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Sel Hannah

Selden J. Hannah
Sel Hannah.jpg
Selden Hannah
Born (1913-11-09)November 9, 1913
Berlin, New Hampshire U.S.
Died August 31, 1991(1991-08-31) (aged 77)
Franconia, New Hampshire, U.S.
Alma mater Dartmouth College
Occupation Ski area designer
Spouse(s) Paulie Hannah

Selden J. Hannah (November 9, 1913 - August 31, 1991) was an intercollegiate, US F.I.S. and seniors ski champion who became one of the nation's most prolific ski-area architects. He was enshrined in the National Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan, in 1968. His legacy remains throughout New England and North America in more than 250 ski areas with which he was associated during his lifetime.

Selden Hannah, better known as Sel, was born in 1913 in Berlin, New Hampshire, a lumber and paper mill town populated by a colony of Norwegians, who brought their own skis and jumping tradition from their homeland. The Nansen Ski Club built a 45-meter ski jump near Berlin in Paine's Pasture that Sel mastered by age eight. He wasn't much older when he traveled south to Gorham, New Hampshire, and onto Pinkham Notch where he skied on the lower slopes of Mount Washington via the Carriage Road, in Tuckerman Ravine, and occasionally from the summit.

Sel's skiing career coincided with the era when alpine skiing took hold in the United States. In 1933 he finished fifth as a competitor in the first US National Downhill championship on the Carriage Road on Mount Moosilauke. He participated in all four skiing events during his Dartmouth College years and was captain of the Ski Team in 1935.

During World War II, Sel joined Dick Durrance, another Dartmouth graduate, to assist with Colonel Tappen's mission to train a large group of parachutists from Fort Benning, Georgia. Training for the 503rd Infantry Regiment took place in Alta, Utah. Many recruits had never been on skis, while some, in fact, had never seen snow. Durrance needed a cadre of instructors to do the job. To solve that problem, he contacted friends from collegiate ski racing, including Walter Prager, Sel Hannah, his brother Jimmy, and others to train the troops.


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